The life of a supervillain isn’t a happy one, and if any series has made this painfully clear, it’s Minor Threats. Its sequel series, The Fastest Way Down, is glad to hammer the point home, as Frankie Follis aka Playtime is at a low point. Her mother’s barely clinging to life, her criminal empire is about to crumble, and her daughter is in the hands of the teenage super team The Action. Frankie confronts the Action, and the fallout will shape her life and the superhuman community’s structure.
As always, the best part of Minor Threats is how Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum use the superhero genre to tackle some heavy subjects. In this case, it’s Frankie’s mental issues. It isn’t just the murder of Insomniac that’s haunting her; it’s the fact that her family could die, and no matter what she does she feels that there’s a void in her soul that’s incapable of being filled, Oswalt and Blum’s script extends that to other characters, from Scalpel whose razor-sharp focus is shattered when Frankie coldly rejects her to Ms. Moment who’s willing to engage in some unheroic behavior so that she can cement herself as a hero.
The duo also has an amazing artistic partner in Scott Hepburn. With each issue of Minor Threats, Hepburn keeps upping his art game. Giant mechs made entirely out of action figures, a full page spread with a dragon barrelling into the night sky, organs curling in and out of themselves to form words: nothing’s too big for this man to draw. I especially love how he draws a page featuring Ms. Moment dashing across the streets, as the tops of the buildings are structured to be like panels featuring a sequence where Frankie frantically works out a plan to stop her. Super-speed is often one of the hardest powers to display but you wouldn’t guess it from looking at Hepburn’s art.
Topping it all off is Ian Herring and Nate Piekos, whose colors and letters give birth to this weird, wild world. Herring brings a vibrant mix of colors depending on the situation; Frankie’s memories are displayed in a haunting hazy blue, while the night sky is a mix of red and black that’s reminiscent of Batman: The Animated Series. I also love the font that Piekos comes up for with a series of ghostly figures, as it feels truly otherworldly.
Minor Threats: The Fastest Way Down #1 closes the latest book in the Minor Threats saga on a bitter note, showcasing how supervillainy can cost you everything. Though the comic’s slated to become a Netflix show, I’m hoping to hear more about the next Minor Threats series at SDCC this week – while also catching up on Barfly.
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