Writer: Suzanne Cafiero
Art: Jeff Zornow and Antonio Fabella
Letters: Josh Howard and DC Hopkins
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 5th, 2022
Sweetie Candy Vigilante #1 is the debut of Sweetie, a blood relative of the mythical “Candy Man”. She dispenses candy and brutal vengeance equally. It’s a superb debut for a visually stunning character that we’ll hopefully be seeing for a long time to come.
If you’re interested in this comic, series, related trades, or any of the others mentioned, then simply click on the title/link to snag a copy through Amazon as you read the Sweetie Candy Vigilante #1 Review.
The Story
There are so many things I loved about Sweetie Candy Vigilante #1. It has the feel of a Quentin Tarantino, Troma, or Takashi Miike film, combining funny and, at some points, downright cute moments combined with grisly hardcore violence. The entire issue takes place inside of a bar that’s full of scumbags who look like they walked out of 80’s punk films like “Class of Nuke’em High” or “Dudes”.
Sweetie’s character design is on point. Physically, she looks like a cross between Harley Quinn and Vampirella, with fangs and purplish-blonde hair that’s impossibly long but bound into unkempt pigtails. She wears shades, a purple cut-off top, and white pants with a candy cane-colored belt buckle. White boots with purple laces complete her look. She’s in-your-face beautiful and malevolent, the perfect look for an antiheroine.
As far as the story goes in this first issue, it’s as simple as it gets, and that’s a good thing. It serves as the perfect introduction to the character, showcasing what she can do and providing some tantalizing glimpses into her background. Seeing her in action is so much fun, as she wields candy-themed weapons such as acid-laced Pixie Stix powder, ropes of licorice that are as sharp as razor blades, etc. to dispatch the lowlifes polluting the bar.
The reason why she enters the bar in the first place is hilarious and I’ll leave that to the readers to discover it themselves.
This book is proof that if you have a character with a great design, an interesting backstory, and a unique way of dealing with the world around them, even the simplest story can be epic (take note of this, Brian Michael “takes 12 issues to tell a simple story” Bendis).
The Art
Jeff Zornow’s art and Antonio Fabella’s colors make a dynamite (no pun intended) combo on Sweetie Candy Vigilante #1. Everything in the book is bright and neon, and as detailed above, Sweetie’s character design is perfect. Even though the bulk of the story takes place inside a bar, the details in the art really give it atmosphere. You can practically smell the cheap booze and BO of the patrons emanating from every panel. When the violence erupts, the art captures the brutality in Lucio Fulci-level style, with flying eye sockets, melting skin, etc. really delivering Sweetie’s moves. The art style and colors perfectly match the mood of the story and amp it up to the next level.
Final Thoughts
Sweetie Candy Vigilante #1 is like a technicolor grindhouse film. It’s a fantastic debut for the character Sweetie, a gory pop-color epic reminiscent of the glory days of “Heavy Metal” magazine and late-night cult films.