Eisner Award-winning cartoonist and author Jeff Lemire’s post-apocalyptic series Sweet Tooth is an integral part of DC Vertigo’s legacy that has gone beyond its original medium to become a three-season Netflix live-action series. The book and TV series have touched the hearts of countless people, and to this day, I continue to see people cosplaying Sweet Tooth characters at comic-cons. But oddly enough, considering I am a huge Jeff Lemire fan, I am here to confess that I have not read or watched the series.

So, today I’m going to change that while trying something new here at DC.com. Welcome to “Start, Stop, Finish.”

What is that, exactly? First, I’ll start this article by telling you what I know and what I am expecting from Sweet Tooth Deluxe Edition Book One (collecting issues #1-12). Then, halfway through, I’ll stop reading and tell you how it compares to my expectations and where I think the story is going. Finally, I’ll finish and tell you my thoughts after reading the series for the first time. Ready? Then it’s time to…
 

START

What do I know about Sweet Tooth? I've seen the cover art and the poster art for the show, so I know this series follows a little boy with antlers named Gus. I know it’s set in a post-apocalyptic America that has fallen due to a pandemic. Now, for reasons I don't yet know, children are being born with animal-like features. I believe they are called hybrids—but don't quote me on that! I know that Gus has to travel across the States to get to his destination, wherever that may be. The why of it all, I also don't know. I’m curious if this will lean sci-fi or supernatural-fantasy.

What do I expect? I expect the human condition reflected back at me in true Jeff Lemire-fashion. I doubt humans have gotten it together in a post-apocalyptic setting, so I wager I’ll see some corruption and some prejudice against these hybrid children. I also expect some disturbing reactions to the apocalypse—groups of lawless people doing heinous things in the wasteland. I believe Gus is an orphan, and for some reason I’m imagining the trope of a grumpy apathetic man protecting a kid and then developing a paternal relationship with said kid. Think Logan or The Last of Us.
 

STOP

NOTE: From this point on, spoilers are fair game. Consider yourself warned.

I have reached the halfway point—wow! I stopped at page 125, right before “In Captivity, Part 1” begins. So far, I am absolutely loving this series, which is no surprise considering I am a big fan of Jeff Lemire's other original comics such as Little Monsters and Minor Arcana.

Each issue, or chapter, presents a new question regarding how and why this world operates as it does. The illness started seven or eight years ago and since then, children have been born as animal-hybrids. They are immune to the disease. Why? How do they relate to it? Learning that Gus is nine years old, making him older than this virus, has piqued my interest most of all. Is he the first hybrid? Did he somehow cause this?

Gus’s story is different than I imagined. When we first meet him, he lives in an isolated cabin in the middle of the woods with his religious father, who taught him to fear the world beyond the edge of the forest. That’s understandable when we learn people hunt hybrid kids. (I imagined the hybrids would be more integrated into society as opposed to being hunted and living on the outskirts.)

After his father tragically passes, Gus is saved from hunters by a mysterious man, Jepperd, who promises to escort him to a safe haven for kids like him, “The Preserve.” So, I was correct about this being the trope where an unwilling apathetic man is protecting a kid…or so I thought…

I stopped reading shortly after they made it to the Preserve, just for Jepperd to betray Gus. I'm not sure why I was surprised. Nothing about Jepperd was trustworthy, but under his tough exterior, I really thought he cared for Gus, even though I knew something was off. When he left Gus at the facility with his mysterious duffle bag as payment, he looked conflicted and remorseful. Because of that, I’m guessing this will not be the last time we see Jepperd.

I think, in the end, Jepperd will have a change of heart and help Gus escape. When it comes to this facility, the Preserve, I think it will be quickly revealed that these people are conducting cruel experiments on these kids. I imagine a similar theme to the book The Girl With All the Gifts, where children are being tortured and sacrificed in the pursuit of a cure.
 

FINISH

What. A. Wild. Ride. So many twists and turns. The biggest shock to me was seeing the other hybrid children at the Preserve. I thought they'd be mostly human like Gus, but a lot of these children are more animal than human, and many can't even speak.

Since all children are now born as hybrids immune to this disease, they will inherit the Earth if a cure isn't found. Is this evolution? If they are the future of humanity, why experiment on them and kill them? It would be better to educate these children and set them up for a future where they are the majority, the surviving species. But hey, the corruption of man continues to reign supreme in Sweet Tooth.

I am still holding out hope that Jepperd will have a change of heart and help Gus escape the Preserve. Learning his backstory was tragic—narrowly surviving the collapse of society with the love of his life just for her to become pregnant and be taken by the Preserve to be experimented on. At first, I thought Jepperd was motivated by greed or survival. What was in that duffle bag? Money? Weapons? Medicine? Food? To learn it was his wife’s body, which he promised to return to their home, shattered me. From that moment on, Jepperd is holding on to his will to live by a thread. The Preserve took his entire world from him…so yes, I think Jepperd will find it in himself to do the right thing!

As for the Preserve, it’s essentially a corrupt science militia that is motivated by power. They are undoubtedly a danger to humanity. But they also might be the only people who could find a cure. If given the opportunity to take them down, I wonder what Jepperd and Gus would decide to do.

Another huge twist is Gus’s “birth.” Just like in the show Kyle XY, Gus has no belly button and is presumed to have been created, not born, before the pandemic happened. Who made him, how did they make him, and why did they make him? Did he cause this sickness, or was he created to stop it? I have so many questions I cannot wait to be answered. This is an incredibly bingeable series and I'm also excited to check out the live-action show and see how it's different!
 

Sweet Tooth Book One is available in bookstores, comic shops, libraries and digital retailers. It can also be read in full (along with the rest of the series) on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Sami DeMonster writes about superheroes, horror and sci-fi for DC.com and reviews comics every week on social media. Follow her at @samidemonster on Instagram and Substack.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Sami DeMonster and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.