Chew: Just Desserts (Comics) | Review

What happens when a comic about a psychometric detective who solves crimes by eating evidence decides to double down on its weirdest impulses? John Layman and Rob Guillory's third Chew storyline answers that question by taking everything readers knew about Tony Chu's bizarre world and cranking the strangeness up to eleven.

This volume proves the best superhero stories completely abandon traditional conventions for something utterly unique. For newcomers, Just Desserts represents both the perfect entry point and clear warning about this acclaimed series.

This isn't your typical crime procedural or superhero adventure– it's a darkly comedic exploration of a world where food-based superpowers exist alongside FDA investigations, cannibalistic conspiracies and relationships that somehow manage to feel genuine despite the absurdist circumstances surrounding them.

Chew: Just Desserts finds Tony Chu at what should be the absolute best point in his entire life– he's got a reliable working partner, a romantic relationship with talented food writer Amelia Mintz and is finally on good terms with his boss.

However, this being a Chew storyline, Tony's moment of stability becomes the perfect setup for his most challenging cases yet. The volume collects issues #11-15, originally published between June and November 2010, showcasing Layman's growing confidence in balancing procedural elements with increasingly complex mythology.

The storyline introduces new food-powered individuals while deepening the bird flu mystery. Tony encounters cases testing his cibopathic abilities and relationships with both professional and personal partners in unexpected ways.

The volume's title becomes increasingly relevant as the strange cases pile up relentlessly, each more bizarre than the last, forcing Tony to confront deeply uncomfortable truths about his complicated world and his uncertain place in it.

The supporting cast of food-powered individuals continues expanding, introducing readers to abilities ranging from practical to downright disturbing. Beyond Tony's cibopathy, the volume explores characters who sculpt with chocolate, predict futures through soup preparation and influence emotions through crafted meals.

What makes these supernatural abilities truly compelling isn't just their inherent novelty, but how they effectively reflect the characters' distinct personalities and create completely unique investigative possibilities that traditional detective stories simply cannot achieve.

Beneath its bizarre and absurdist surface, Just Desserts thoughtfully grapples with deeper themes of trust, identity and the heavy price of knowledge that resonates far beyond its supernatural premise and into genuine human experience.

Tony's ability to learn truth through consumption becomes a metaphor for how we process difficult information about the people we care about, while the FDA conspiracy storyline explores institutional corruption and the lengths organizations will go to maintain control.

The volume thoughtfully asks whether ignorance might be preferable to uncomfortable truths sometimes, a profound question that becomes increasingly relevant as Tony's challenging cases force him to confront disturbing realities about his world and relationships.

Character development takes center stage as the volume explores Tony's complex relationship with Amelia, a talented food critic whose writing abilities have their own supernatural edge. Their dynamic provides both comedy and genuine emotional stakes, grounding the series' wilder elements in recognizable human experiences.

Meanwhile, the dramatic return of Mason Savoy, Tony's enigmatic former mentor and complicated father figure, adds significant layers of complexity and intrigue to the ongoing federal investigation into the FDA's deeper conspiracies.

This volume serves as a crucial bridge between the series' initial world-building and larger conspiracy elements defining later storylines. Just Desserts establishes important character dynamics and mythological elements essential to understanding the series' eventual revelations while maintaining enough accessibility for new readers.

The volume's careful balance of standalone cases with ongoing narrative threads clearly demonstrates Layman's growing confidence in skillfully managing the series' complex continuity without sacrificing individual story satisfaction.

The procedural cases maintain the series' signature blend of dark humor and genuine detective work. Each investigation showcases different aspects of the world Layman has created, where food-based superpowers are just another tool in law enforcement's arsenal.

The volume excels at maintaining the series' distinctive episodic structure while skillfully advancing longer-term story arcs, making each individual issue feel both completely self-contained and absolutely essential to the larger overarching narrative.

Layman demonstrates his complete mastery of the series' distinctive tone by seamlessly shifting between comedic moments and genuinely disturbing revelations. The cases range from absurd to unsettling, often within the same scene, creating a truly unique reading experience that keeps readers off-balance in the best possible way.

The volume's expertly crafted pacing allows for both intimate character moments and thrilling action sequences without ever sacrificing the complex investigative elements that make the series so uniquely distinctive and compelling.

Rob Guillory's distinctive artwork continues to be the absolutely perfect complement to Layman's twisted storytelling, with detailed character expressions that effectively convey both the series' comedic elements and its more serious emotional beats.

His distinctive visual style perfectly captures the absurdist nature of the world while maintaining enough realism to ground the story's emotional stakes. Guillory's remarkable ability to make bizarre food-related superpowers feel both ridiculous and threatening, demonstrates his deep understanding of the series' tonal complexity.

Layman's writing shows significant evolution in character voice and dialogue, with conversations that feel natural even when discussing unnatural situations while balancing exposition with character development effectively.

The collaboration between writer and artist reaches new heights in action sequences, where Guillory's artwork brings Layman's increasingly creative investigations to vivid life. Food-related violence has never looked so simultaneously appetizing and horrifying, a balance that few creative teams could achieve with such consistency.

Chew: Just Desserts follows up the New York Times bestselling previous volumes by delivering the series' strongest collection yet, expanding the world while deepening character relationships and proving weird concepts work best when grounded in genuine emotion.

The expertly crafted balance between engaging procedural storytelling and complex ongoing mythology creates a truly satisfying reading experience that effectively satisfies both curious newcomers and dedicated longtime fans of the acclaimed series.

For readers actively seeking comics that refuse to follow conventional storytelling rules and tired formulas, Just Desserts offers exactly the kind of bold creative risk-taking that makes the medium so genuinely exciting and rewarding.

The volume demonstrates why Chew became such a critical success, combining innovative world-building with genuine character development and a unique visual style that sets it apart from every other comic on the shelves.

Chew: Just Desserts is collected in Chew Vol. 3: Just Desserts trade paperback and Chew: The Omnivore Edition Vol. 1 hardcover through Amazon and other outlets. For digital readers, it's available on ComiXology, Kindle and various e-Book platforms.