Teen pregnancy can be a scary time for regular folk, but when your child is the literal Antichrist things can get a lot more complicated. Read on for our review of “Babyteeth” #1, which contains minor spoilers.
Written by Donny Cates
Illustrated by Garry Brown
Colored by Mark Englert
Lettered by Taylor EspositoSadie Ritter is sixteen years old, nine months pregnant, and scared out of her sweet nerdy mind. Having a baby that young is tough, but with the support of her loving family behind her, everything should be okay. OH YEAH, and also her baby is the antichrist and it’s going to break open the barriers between the earthly and demonic planes and unleash eternal suffering to all of humankind. Other than that, though…should be fine.
From Donny Cates, the writer of Buzzkill, Paybacks, Redneck and the break-out hit God Country comes a pulse-pounding new series with art from THE REVISIONIST’s Garry Brown!
The role of the unreliable narrator is well-used in fiction, yet in “Babyteeth” #1, writer Donny Cates uses the trope to put a spin on a classic horror concept of the birth of the Antichrist. By introducing us to the world through the narration of Sixteen-year-old Sadie Ritter, we’re drawn into her life and consequently the birth of her son – slated to be the son of Satan – in an altogether sympathetic way. Her unreliability as a narrator will come later.
This debut issue is framed by Sadie recording from the future – just how far in the future and where she’s recording from form the base of the final page reveal – and leaving her son a message that recounts the circumstances of his birth and early days. This gives Cates the chance to tell us, the reader, at the same time, and as such we see a swift, extended sequence mostly in real-time, that recounts from Sadie’s point of view exactly how the birth of the antichrist affects the world around them. As you’d expect, however, childbirth can be a traumatic experience, and as such her narration drops out here and there as she blacks out, or her memory fails her. Artist Garry Brown fills those gaps in her knowledge with black panels that neatly transition to an unsettling dream sequence that feels like it will be narratively significant later in the book. Here, Englert’s colors saturate the page in reds and whites, while the panels slowly warp to become the familiar blips of an EKG that get slowly faster until she’s brought back from the brink.
The coloring throughout “Babyteeth” #1 is notable, especially in those moments where Sadie’s contractions are felt throughout the city (maybe the world?) in the form of earthquakes. When these strike, not only is Sadie cast in almost inverted, negative colors to illustrate the pain she’s feeling but the following page practically vibrates, the palate steeped in blacks and reds, with Esposito’s lettering slicing through the page showing the cacophony of a freeway breaking up around the characters. Through subtle hints dropped in the narration (and the nature of a story such as this,) this won’t be the last time the world will be in danger in this series, so it will be interesting to see how else color is used for these moments.
The birth of the Antichrist is a concept that’s been tackled in fiction before, from The Omen to American Horror Story, however, it’s rarely tackled with such a narrative intimacy as it is here in “Babyteeth.” Cates portrays Sadie as a regular kid going through something thousands of girls her age have done, even down to keeping it a secret from her dad. She’s a complex, human character, and hanging the story off her narration is a bold and ultimately rewarding choice, as the decisions she will have to make along the journey – especially once she finds out that her child will likely bring about the end of the world – hinge on us understanding and even relating to her impossible situation. It’s clear from the things she says, even this early on, that her loyalties rest with her son, and that choice will no doubt form the backbone of the series as it progresses.
There is a moment in Sadie’s narration that, perhaps more than any other, elevates “Babyteeth” #1 and gives a glimpse at the true conflict to come. As her son is born, Sadie reflects that the earthquakes simultaneously stop. Rather than see that as a portent (or…Omen? Sorry) of what’s to come, she notes that “it means you saved the world with your very first breath.” This is a pivotal moment because it shows, in such a simple sentence, that no matter what happens, or just how demonic her son becomes, she will see the good in him. Sadie seems like an innately good person, and perhaps she’s reflecting on just what she was thinking at the time, but more than that, it feels like a sign that the bond between mother and son will more than likely overcome anything that her child will inflict upon the world. While the narration, therefore, may become increasingly more unreliable as “Babyteeth” progresses, Cates is out to show that even the birth of the antichrist is more complicated than you think.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – An intimate, character-driven approach to the birth of the antichrist which is, understandably, as surprising as it is enjoyable.
