Jimmy “Fat Man” Jacobs

The second character appearing in the Sweet Tooth episode Stranger Danger on a Train is someone Gus, Bear and Jep meet on the title’s train: Jimmy “Fat Man” Jacobs, portrayed by Suli Moa. A former football player, with too many concussions behind his back to be thinking clearly, it turns out Jimmy is an old friend of Jepperd, and he is the only one seen so far who can punch as hard as him… something that will prove useful when he decides to protect his pal from the Last Men. In the comics, Jimmy has a similar backstory, but he has all his brains well-oiled, and he pops up much later in the story, helping our heroes during the last days of their mission. Let’s take a look.

Before the Crumble, before the Sick killed most of the human race reshaping the world, Jimmy Jacobs was a small superstar, a professional hockey player in the Eastern League. Nicknamed Fat Man, he was the defenseman for the Plymouth Hounds, and he was feared as the worst S.O.B. who had ever skated in that league… until in 2003 his team met the Minnesota Wildcats in the semi-final, and Jimmy met his match in the adversary left wing, Tommy Jepperd, someone as strong and naughty as he was. These, however, were tales belonging to another time: when the Sick came, everything from the past looked like it was from another planet, and Jimmy was left alone, everyone he knew dead or disappeared somewhere. He spent all his time in a small cottage on the side of the road, counting the days before the virus got him as well, and fighting off the guys from the Militia who tried either to recruit him or to steal something from him: in both cases, they found out that even growing old his strength and meanness hadn’t faltered a bit. Jimmy’s solitude was over the moment he found a Hybrid, little more than a newborn, wandering alone in the forest: with no fantasy for names, he simply called him Crow Boy, he fed him, he kept him with him, and in some way he adopted him. The two became quite a pair, with Crow Boy stretching his wings a couple of time a day, acting as a sentinel for Jimmy and warning him if Militia people were coming, allowing him to prepare a bloody and most effective defense. One day, however, some ten years after the beginning of the Plague, a truck had an accident near Jimmy’s cottage. He came to see, and after finding many guns and explosives, he was almost sure that the passed out driver was with the Militia… and yet he looked oddly familiar.

Curious, Jimmy took the man, still senseless, and brought him to the cabin, where he tied him to a chair: as soon as he woke up, he started questioning him on his identity, but he got nothing out of him. Willing to kill only if necessary, and most definitely unwillingly to let him go free until he was sure he wasn’t dangerous, Jimmy kept talking to him, sure he had seen the stranger somewhere before… and when the man called him “fat man”, it finally got to him: he was Tommy Jepperd, that same hockey player he had met so many years before. Finally sure of who he was, and not feeling alone for the first time in years, Jimmy freed Tommy, who was just as surprised as he was to meet him there, and as soon as he heard his story, he offered him his help to free his friends from a dangerous maniac named Haggerty, who had occupied the Evergreen Research Dam House. Like the old times, the two men skated on the river and reached the dam, ready to be the knights in shining armor… but Jepperd’s friend Gus had already taken care of the situation, and had freed everyone. Unfortunately, one of Tommy’s friends, Lucy, died for the Sick as soon as they got there, and Jimmy helped his old friend bury her in the cold, hard soil outside the dam. When the group decided to head to Alaska for a mission Jimmy didn’t understand completely, he and Crow Boy went with them, happy to have finally found someone to spend what appeared to be humanity’s last days with: some of them were humans, some were Hybrids, but they all seemed to be good people, and Jimmy didn’t care for anything else. They traveled all together in Tommy’s truck, singing and joking, happy like never before: if this was the end of the world, Jimmy could be quite satisfied with how things were going… at least until they found their destination: Anchor Bay, Alaska, a ghost town that held a lot of secrets.

Jimmy Jacobs is a rough and violent man, but he’s basically a gentle giant with a heart as big as all his other muscles, always ready to lend a helping hand to a friend and capable of cheering up even the gloomiest atmosphere. Previously famous as the unstoppable Fat Man, he’s still extremely strong, a formidable athlete who most definitely knows how to throw a punch, well-versed in combat not only with his bare hands, but also with his trusted axe and with firearms. An intimidating man with a heart of gold, Jimmy Jacobs uses his strength to protect the weak ones, and he just can’t stand bullies who see power as an entitlement to do whatever they want to others.