Comic Review: Babyteeth Volume 1

I’ve been intrigued a bit by the AfterShocks comics line, but they seem to only put out digital copies of their single issues, but I prefer paper trades, so I’m mostly limited to what I can find of theirs when I can.

But that means when I found Babyteeth by rising star writer Donny Cates, I was in luck.  The first volume, subtitled Born, starts off a series about a teenage mother with bigger problems than most.

Sadie Ritter is a 16 year old comic book geek who found herself pregnant.  Her only family is an overprotective drug dealer older sister and a very understanding airline pilot father.  But then weird stuff starts to happen as she starts to give birth.  Like, earthquakes matching every contraction she has.  And excessive bleeding when her water breaks.  And, shortly after her son Clark is born, seeing the baby has razor sharp teeth and he drinks her blood instead of milk.

Yeah, Clark might be the antichrist.

But there’s obviously a lot more going on.  It seems Clark’s birth isn’t a secret to the unknown power brokers of the world, and they have a lot of assassins on hand.  And then there are warlocks and other things, but one thing is clear:  Sadie loves her baby boy and wants to protect him.  It’s just the world doesn’t see it that way.

Donny Cates has something nice going on here with the usual creative flourishes he’s displayed in his other work.  He’s gradually bringing the series’ mythology out in a way that makes sense, often in Sadie’s own voice as she tries to figure things out for herself.  Something happened in the year that followed Clark’s birth, so the groundwork is laid there.  Is Clark really the antichrist?  Will Sadie do something about it if he is there to cause the end of the world?  There’s doubt for the first part and what looks like a hard “no” for the second.  About the only complaint I have is the back quarter to third of the book is made up entirely of alternate covers for each of the five issues reprinted here.  They aren’t bad, but the book isn’t as long as it looks as a result.  9 out of 10 demon raccoons.