She seems like a fun girl when she walks into the bar. She seems convinced that the Ice Cream Bunny is there. No one really knows what she’s talking about, but she seems like a nice enough person, so everyone’s going to let her hang out. Of course...things will get ugly when the wrong element takes notice of her in Sweetie Candy Vigilante #1. Writer Suzanne Cafiero introduces a strangely vicious anti-hero to the page. Aiding and abetting Cafiero are artist Jeff Zornow and colorist Antionio Fabella. It’s fun, lightly grizzly action-horror in a sweet package. There isn’t much to it, but what there is IS fun. 

It’s snowing when Sweetie sees the name of the bar. It’s the type of place that probably gets strange looks all the time. A corner dive bar called The Ice Cream Bunny. It’s cold outside, but Sweetie’s pleasant presence warms the air a bit...even amidst a couple of cold customers at the bar who are perfectly at home with assaulting the bartender. Everyone seems to be afraid of them. Sweetie’s not. Maybe she doesn’t know they’re dangerous. Or maybe they don’t know the danger that lurks inside even the sweetest of packages. 

Cafiero has fun with a simple premise. Sweetie’s so deadly that she doesn’t notice the danger she gets herself into. Or maybe she’s just playing innocent. Given the nature of the candy that she carries around, it’s possible that it’s all an act that she wears like makeup to keep the more sinister elements of a situation from suspecting what she’s capable of. Sweetie Candy is a fun character who might seem to be pickpocketing a bit of the energy of a character like Harley Quinn. Harley’s been through so much over the years that the essential dangerous innocence that played a part in the character’s image has been watered-down. Sweetie has a kind of purity of form that could be a lot of fun as her series progresses. 

Zornow captures the weirdness of the theme almost perfectly. It’s a city. It’s the holidays. Snow flurries about outside. Into a bar walks a clownish girl with a sense of danger around the edges. There could be a seriously twisted darkness about Sweetie, but Zornow plays her image for the rubbery comedy that makes light of gore and dismemberment. It could be terrifying, but it’s all so gosh-darn cute that it doesn’t have to be. Fabella amplifies the garish sweetness of the visuals, providing substantial atmospheric amplification to the offbeat horror of the proceedings.

The issue goes from weird to weirder. It’s almost transcendently surreal by the end. Energy like that could go really interesting places if it’s allowed to grow, but it’s far too easy to underestimate the potential of a character like Sweetie Candy, so it seems more or less certain that she’ll never live up to what she could be. Still...it’s nice to have a first issue and the possibility of more.

Grade: B