Endangered Species keeps rolling as death tolls rise
In the Sweet Tooth universe, nothing good comes easily. When the group's prayers for safety finally seem to be answered, they'll have to stop and ponder: what did we do to deserve this?
The Good
When I reviewed Sweet Tooth's last issue, I said that it was a little too unbelievable that the gang has found somewhere safe to ride out the rest of the crazyness that's consumed the Earth. It seemed a little too convenient that they'd find somewhere with food, shelter, electricity and running water that happened to be secure, as well.
This issue goes into that feeling, which is shared by some of the characters. After Gus and Jeppard's bear fight in the last issue, they catch up with the rest of the gang and immediately question the fortunate situation they've found themselves in - with good reason.
A theme of the book is trust, which has been betrayed, broken, regained and abused time and time again. Why would characters who've gone through so much all of a sudden start trusting someone they've just met? Lemire answers this question simply: they wouldn't.
Really solid writing keeps this storyline interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this is heading. I'm guessing the book is going to take a look at what happens when crazy environmentalists get uppity and prepare for the end of days, but I think we'll just have to wait and see to find out.
The Bad
Jeff Lemire's last panel kind of annoyed me. We've seen this "tree" symbol multiple times in multiple places this arc, and to have to circle it on the (dead) guy's jacket seems to insult our intelligence a bit. I mean, did they think it would be too difficult to understand that the symbol on the jacket and the symbol at the dam were the same? I mean, the symbol's on the cover, even.
I think comic readers can figure out that "Hey, there's something fishy about that."
The Verdict
This storyline is really, intriguing, even if it's taken until issue three to get to "the point". Hopefully next issue will answer a lot of questions I have, like the motives of the environmentalists, if the guy living in the dam is a threat, and whether the Gus brigade will ever find some kind of peace. I recommend this issue and series as a whole, but this issue falls a little bit short, especially compared to the amazing writing of the issue before it.
This issue a transition; there has to be a little bit of narrative before things kick into high gear towards the end, and part three accomplishes it well.
