Frankie’s won.  She’s toppled her city’s greatest champions, both good and evil.  Now the real struggle begins.  Your Major Spoilers review of Minor Threats: Fastest Way Down #1, awaits!

MINOR THREATS: FASTEST WAY DOWN #1

Writers: Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum
Artist: Scott Hepburn
Colorist: Ian Herring
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: April 3rd, 2024

Previously in Minor Threats: Frankie Follis AKA Playtime, was a c-level villain until she launched an ambitious scheme to take out the biggest heroes and villains in her city, and it worked.  Now she’s the queenpin of crime and is in the early stages of building her empire.

THE REAL FRANKIE

Minor Threats: The Fastest Way Down #1 starts with a montage of scenes showing the early moments of Frankie’s ascendance.  Things then slow down to show Frankie and her partner Scalpel setting up her office, with the former struggling with comprehending the scale of her operation.   Playtime then goes to visit Brain Tease in prison who is maintaining the claim that he killed both The Stickman and The Insomniac, a story that Frankie wants him to keep telling.  She’s then informed that a holiday themed team of villains has hijacked one of her team’s operations.  Before she can deal with that, she has to be present for the opening of a new playground with her daughter.  This is followed up by a pair of meetings, one with a real estate developer the next with the villains that attacked her.  Neither go great.  Which leads to Frankie taking action.

TWO THIRDS GOOD

The defining theme of Minor Threats: The Fastest Way Down #1 is duality.  Frankie has two sides, a sophisticated crime boss and an emotional thug.  She’s a loving mother and violent murderer.  On one side this comic is an interesting crime story that takes some of the best parts of the glory days of prestige television, on the other it feels like a toothless homage to The Boys.  Seeing Frankie struggle to put away her old habits and impulses is compelling here, especially with Playtime getting a Robin Hood-esque reputation and the character Scalpel adding a convincing voice of reason to the mix.  You can already see the fractures forming and not due to the typical reasons like greed or vengeance, but because it really feels like Frankie has bitten off more than she can chew, and she’s already perpetuated a cycle she originally wanted to break.  It’s the sort of complexity that comes from a good premise and well realized characters as opposed to having a bunch of spinning plates and loose strings.  Unfortunately, there’s a back third to this issue.  One that takes a big change in tone.  The last few pages first show Frankie going on an ultra-violent killing spree, followed up by the arrival of a sadistic team of teenage heroes.  Maybe it’s a bit of fatigue at this point but seeing morally bankrupt superheroes and unique ways to remove a person’s body from their body isn’t all that exciting anymore.  And, while The Action showing up does set up some ongoing conflict it doesn’t help make the last third of this issue feel like a cheap attention grab.

THAT DANG LAST THIRD

The art in this issue for the most part is pretty good.  I particularly liked whatever sorcery that Scott Hepburn and Ian Herring conjured up to make The Backdrop’s powers, which is to blend into the background without becoming invisible, work both on the characters in the story and on me, the reader.  The visuals don’t hold up though during the action sequence.  Things get muddy and it’s not very easy to see exactly what’s going on, which means that once again, it’s the last third of this issue that drops the ball.

BOTTOM LINE:  CHECK IT OUT IF YOU LIKED THE FIRST SERIES

Minor Threats: The Fastest Way Down #1 kicks off the second series of this title in a mostly strong way.  Getting to see Playtime facing the reality created by her actions in the previous series is a good evolution of her character and the world she lives in.  There’s a strong character driven story happening here.  But I can’t say that this has what it takes to make anyone want to jump on board who weren’t already familiar with this universe especially with it failing to stick the landing like it did.  3 out of 5 stars.

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