Minor Threats #1: Spoiler Free Review

Frankie used to be a supervillain. Now, just out of jail and looking for a fresh start, she tends bar at a local dive for minor villains and tries desperately to stay out of trouble.

Writers: Patton Oswalt & Jordan Blum

Art: Scott Hepburn

Colors: Ian Herring

Letters: Nate Piekos & Blambot

Cover A and C: Scott Herring with Ian Herring

Cover B: Mike Mignola with Dave Stewart

FOC Cover: Christian Ward

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Price: 3.99

Release Date: August 24th, 2022

The Worst Kind of Heroing

Supervillains hanging out socially at bars or other venues isn’t a new idea. Usually it’s based on the notion that the villains have an underlying bond or code that unites them despite their motives and activities being wildly dissimilar. It’s quickly apparent that this is not the case in Minor Threats #1, and that difference in premise makes for a superior story and a very effective ending.

Minor Threats #1 features Frankie, an ex-supervillain whose power is the ability for her subconscious to assemble complex machines out of almost any raw materials. Her mother recruited her into the life of being a thief, and she had the misfortune to be captured by the police. Now back on the outside she’s trying to put her life back together and give up her villainous ways. To that end she got a job bartending at the Lower Lair, the local C-list villain hangout.

Frankie doesn’t think much of the bar’s clientele. They aren’t particularly impressed by her, either (in the world established by Minor Threats #1, getting captured by police and not a superhero is a major blow to credibility). Beyond drinking in the same establishment there isn’t much underlying camaraderie between the characters. This story choice is a good one and it helps Minor Threats #1 isolate Frankie from the very beginning–she has no friends who will help her put her life back together, especially since she’s trying to go straight.

Minor Threats #1’s plot revolves around a villain named The Stickman doing something shocking and drawing the collective ire of all the superheroes in Twilight City. Suddenly the heroes are interrogating random villains, briefly kidnapping them if necessary, threatening them, and beating them within an inch of their lives. It’s at this point that the comic expands from a relatively small story about one woman trying to rebuild her life to a larger examination of law enforcement in the real world.

Redport is the worst part of Twilight City, a “malignant tumor growing out of its asshole” as Frankie describes it. The neighborhood is generally avoided by the heroes. Even when they have to fight major threats in Redport, they don’t bother cleaning up their mess. And they don’t even try to solve problems that they can’t punch. The implication that they don’t care about the impoverished is clear.

Given this attitude it’s not surprising that the heroes’ response to The Stickman’s actions resembles the worst possible excesses of police behavior. They shakedown people throughout Redport. At one point Frankie is hauled away by a hero right in front of her family and questioned while she is being held in midair.

Oswalt and Blum’s delivery of this commentary is woven nicely into the story in such a way that the final pages deliver an unexpected ending satisfying both this idea and the earlier story points.

Making an Impression

Minor Threats #1 introduces a plethora of heroes and villains, all of them distinct. Many are mere cameos that don’t show up again. But several, like those in the Lower Lair, are memorable and their appearance conveys considerable personality. Hepburn and Herring’s success here makes the characters easily recognizable when they appear for the unexpected twist in the final pages.

Hepburn makes an interesting choice with page layouts. Most of the issue’s pages have significant amounts of white space and borders (or very light yellow in the flashback sequences). Some moments take place outside of panels wirth characters simply in front of white or yellow with no background. The beneficial effect of this choice is that about a quarter of the way into Minor Threats #1 when Hepburn and Herring give us the issue’s first splash page, it is striking. There are several more splash pages throughout the issue and most are separated by the more conservatively laid out pages which makes each one stand out.

Final Thoughts

Minor Threats #1 starts out simply which makes the commentary all the more successful. The point of the issue is neither the heroes’ prior behavior (whether malicious or negligent), nor their excesses in the wake of The Stickman’s actions. This is Frankie’s story, and she just happens to be dealing with these issues. As a result, Oswalt and Blum avoid the trap of making the comic all about a message, instead keeping it a compelling story all on its own.

Originally published at The Comic Book Dispatch.