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Minor Threats #1
Minor Threats, Vol. 1: A Quick End to a Long Beginning
It’s hard out there for a supervillain. Not the world conquerors, chaos engines, or arch-nemeses, but the little guys, the career criminals. The ones who put on uniforms, knock over jewelry stores, and get tied to telephone poles before the hero swings off to face the actual big bad. Times are tough for costumed crooks…and they’re about to get much worse.
The psychotic Stickman has done the unthinkable and murdered Kid Dusk, sidekick to Twilight City’s premier crime-fighter, The Insomniac. The Insomniac’s teammates, The Continuum, are tearing Twilight apart, turning it into a terrifying police state—desperate to capture the Stickman and stop the Insomniac from “crossing that final line” in which he may never come back from.
Caught in the middle are the small-time C-list villains, finding it impossible to pull jobs or even walk down the street without being harassed by these heroes. With a bounty on the Stickman’s head, former villain Playtime decides to put together a ragtag team of equally disgruntled supervillains to take down the Stickman and kill him themselves, leading her on a dark journey into the criminal underbelly she’s tried so hard to escape.
This graphic crime drama is about superheroes and villains and the last gasp of the colorful, innocent days of the silver and bronze age...before they’re dragged into the grit-soaked modern era.
The psychotic Stickman has done the unthinkable and murdered Kid Dusk, sidekick to Twilight City’s premier crime-fighter, The Insomniac. The Insomniac’s teammates, The Continuum, are tearing Twilight apart, turning it into a terrifying police state—desperate to capture the Stickman and stop the Insomniac from “crossing that final line” in which he may never come back from.
Caught in the middle are the small-time C-list villains, finding it impossible to pull jobs or even walk down the street without being harassed by these heroes. With a bounty on the Stickman’s head, former villain Playtime decides to put together a ragtag team of equally disgruntled supervillains to take down the Stickman and kill him themselves, leading her on a dark journey into the criminal underbelly she’s tried so hard to escape.
This graphic crime drama is about superheroes and villains and the last gasp of the colorful, innocent days of the silver and bronze age...before they’re dragged into the grit-soaked modern era.
136 pages, Paperback
First published July 11, 2023
19 people are currently reading
258 people want to read
About the author
Patton Oswalt
128 books550 followersPatton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor.
His first wife was the late Michelle McNamara.
His first wife was the late Michelle McNamara.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
September 21, 2025
Wow.
I wasn't expecting to actually like it. It was a bonus borrow on Hoopla, and those things can be kind of a grab bag. This looked like another cheesy story about some ragtag band of cartoon weirdos doing the same stupid shit - but it was free.
So. Yes. That was the tipping point for me.
I pull out coupons, sign up for all the rewards cards from every store, and cream my pants when I'm able to give exact change to a cashier. And these are my virtues.
I think this is the first thing I've read by Patton Oswalt or Jordan Blum, so I didn't really know what to expect there, either.
But by the time I flipped the first page, I was hooked. I was having fun and I wanted to see what happened next.
Now, I don't want to overhype this, either. This is zippy and well-written, not some groundbreaking new thing. But it is solid.
The skinny gist is that this is basically an alternate take on the aftermath of Batman: A Death in the Family.
Except, of course, that this isn't DC's Batman for all the various copyright reasons.
This guy is aptly named The Insomniac, and he lives in Twilight City. But it's not his story. This one is told from the perspective of the villains.
The Jokeresque character, Stickman, kills off the Robinish sidekick, Kid Dusk. Instead of hunting him down and putting him in jail, The Insomniac does what anyone who clip-clops around on rooftops in a costume would probably actually do, and starts killing the shit out of anyone he deems a bad guy, all in the name of revenge.
I mean...yeah, I can see the logic.
And now we come to our ragtag group of weirdos. They band together (badly) to find this psycho Stickman and turn him over to the good guys, in the hopes of stopping the carnage on their side of the fence.
There is a lot more to the story than that. And while you're following along with Playtime as your main character, each of the other characters gets their own issue that explores who they are and how they got there.
I was impressed.
And I want to read more.
Recommended.
I wasn't expecting to actually like it. It was a bonus borrow on Hoopla, and those things can be kind of a grab bag. This looked like another cheesy story about some ragtag band of cartoon weirdos doing the same stupid shit - but it was free.
So. Yes. That was the tipping point for me.
I pull out coupons, sign up for all the rewards cards from every store, and cream my pants when I'm able to give exact change to a cashier. And these are my virtues.
I think this is the first thing I've read by Patton Oswalt or Jordan Blum, so I didn't really know what to expect there, either.
But by the time I flipped the first page, I was hooked. I was having fun and I wanted to see what happened next.
Now, I don't want to overhype this, either. This is zippy and well-written, not some groundbreaking new thing. But it is solid.
The skinny gist is that this is basically an alternate take on the aftermath of Batman: A Death in the Family.
Except, of course, that this isn't DC's Batman for all the various copyright reasons.
This guy is aptly named The Insomniac, and he lives in Twilight City. But it's not his story. This one is told from the perspective of the villains.
The Jokeresque character, Stickman, kills off the Robinish sidekick, Kid Dusk. Instead of hunting him down and putting him in jail, The Insomniac does what anyone who clip-clops around on rooftops in a costume would probably actually do, and starts killing the shit out of anyone he deems a bad guy, all in the name of revenge.
I mean...yeah, I can see the logic.
And now we come to our ragtag group of weirdos. They band together (badly) to find this psycho Stickman and turn him over to the good guys, in the hopes of stopping the carnage on their side of the fence.
There is a lot more to the story than that. And while you're following along with Playtime as your main character, each of the other characters gets their own issue that explores who they are and how they got there.
I was impressed.
And I want to read more.
Recommended.
April 14, 2024
Yes, this feels quite derivative, mostly of Black Hammer and The Umbrella Academy, but it's wellwritten, the characters are nicely defined, Stickman as a baddy could've been filled in more but still works. I think there's a much more interesting story that could be told within this setup, but let's see where it all goes from here.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
June 21, 2024
A throwback to the grim 'n' gritty 1990s has a Joker pastiche named The Stickman doing a rerun of "A Death in the Family" with the murder of a Robin-style sidekick to a Batman archetype. The Insomniac, with an increasingly tenuous hold on the traditional superhero no-kill policy, is now tearing up the criminal element in Twilight City in his quest for vengeance. A group of B-list villains bands together to find the Stickman so they can collect the bounty on his head and put a stop to the Insomniac's rampage.
Of course everything is complicated with tragic backstories, conflicting master plans, betrayals, and loads of violence. I only wish there were more originality or humor.
One consolation is playing the "Which part did Patton Oswalt write for himself in the hoped-for film adaptation?" game. It's not particularly difficult to suss out, but it's still fun to put Oswalt's voice to the character's lines.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Chapter One. "A Quick End to a Long Beginning" -- Chapter Two. "Start with the Edges . . . " -- Chapter Three. "Clinical Empathy" -- Chapter Four. "The Straight Line" -- Variant Cover Gallery / Mike Mignola, Christrian Ward, Francesco Francavilla, Kevin Maguire, and Tess Fowler, illustrators -- Sketchbook / Scott Hepburn
Of course everything is complicated with tragic backstories, conflicting master plans, betrayals, and loads of violence. I only wish there were more originality or humor.
One consolation is playing the "Which part did Patton Oswalt write for himself in the hoped-for film adaptation?" game. It's not particularly difficult to suss out, but it's still fun to put Oswalt's voice to the character's lines.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Chapter One. "A Quick End to a Long Beginning" -- Chapter Two. "Start with the Edges . . . " -- Chapter Three. "Clinical Empathy" -- Chapter Four. "The Straight Line" -- Variant Cover Gallery / Mike Mignola, Christrian Ward, Francesco Francavilla, Kevin Maguire, and Tess Fowler, illustrators -- Sketchbook / Scott Hepburn
September 9, 2023
This was a ton of fun! Great story and backstory told through different perspectives of the villains in this book. I wasn’t really ever sure what exactly was going to happen here since the aspect of humor was really prevalent in most of the story and art. I believe this is the first book of what might have spin-offs and other books within this universe by Patton Oswalt and if that’s the case, consider me sold!
September 30, 2025
When Totally-Not-Joker murders Totally-Not-Robin, the Totally-Not-Justice-League goes apeshit on all the rinkydink D-list supervillains in Totally-Not-Gotham. Five rinkydink minor threats try to hunt the hero-killer down before Totally-Not-Batman destroys their lives forever.
Oswalt turns out to be quite the competent writer. Despite the silly DC setting (goofy costumes, monthly alien invasions, weekly city-toppling hero fights...), he grounds the story in real world problems. His semi-villainous protagonists came up from awful abuse, or were raised from toddlerhood to rob banks. The obstacles to going straight are nigh insurmountable; criminal life is a trap.
And Oswalt really tries to capture the lethal violence that would be intrinsic to a community replete with super strength, eye lasers, and gadget bombs. He implicitly acknowledges problems with mainstream superhero settings. This is the best DC title I've read.
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SECOND READ
...to prep for v2. The stitches are more visible the second time through--clanky dialogue, contrived melodrama, supe names that make you think all the good names must have been taken.
But this is still a great concept, a great ride, and an artful consideration of what might drive a person to crime. Props to Patton Oswalt.
Oswalt turns out to be quite the competent writer. Despite the silly DC setting (goofy costumes, monthly alien invasions, weekly city-toppling hero fights...), he grounds the story in real world problems. His semi-villainous protagonists came up from awful abuse, or were raised from toddlerhood to rob banks. The obstacles to going straight are nigh insurmountable; criminal life is a trap.
And Oswalt really tries to capture the lethal violence that would be intrinsic to a community replete with super strength, eye lasers, and gadget bombs. He implicitly acknowledges problems with mainstream superhero settings. This is the best DC title I've read.
------------------------
SECOND READ
...to prep for v2. The stitches are more visible the second time through--clanky dialogue, contrived melodrama, supe names that make you think all the good names must have been taken.
But this is still a great concept, a great ride, and an artful consideration of what might drive a person to crime. Props to Patton Oswalt.
August 5, 2023
The cartooning by Scott Hepburn is solid and there's a lot of dark humor here. It's a violent sideways look at super-heroes, which is certainly something that's been done before. This does it pretty well.
September 10, 2025
Low expectations, as ever, for a celebrity author, but I shouldn't have second guessed Patton Oswalt, who has only ever sold himself as a True Nerd. Minor Threats is essentially another Watchmen rip-off, but extremely well-done for what it is.
In a world of carefully delineated heroes and villains, one of the villains has seemingly gone off the rails by killing a hero's sidekick. Now that hero (and all of his teammates) are justifiably mad - to the point where they're cracking down hard (i.e., murdering the low-life villains in the bad part of town).
We follow one of those villains (retired) who gets caught up in the mystery of Who Killed the Sidekick by virtue of her running a bar and knowing some villains who might know some villains. Each issue is narrated by a different villain in her crew (with amusing results). The plot is fairly standard neo-noir as the crew move around town, hunting down clues while steering clear of the murderous heroes.
All told: Minor Threats is nothing strictly "new," but it's a familiar tale well told. And the art is superb. I'll be eagerly picking up the next thing with Patton Oswalt's name on the cover.
In a world of carefully delineated heroes and villains, one of the villains has seemingly gone off the rails by killing a hero's sidekick. Now that hero (and all of his teammates) are justifiably mad - to the point where they're cracking down hard (i.e., murdering the low-life villains in the bad part of town).
We follow one of those villains (retired) who gets caught up in the mystery of Who Killed the Sidekick by virtue of her running a bar and knowing some villains who might know some villains. Each issue is narrated by a different villain in her crew (with amusing results). The plot is fairly standard neo-noir as the crew move around town, hunting down clues while steering clear of the murderous heroes.
All told: Minor Threats is nothing strictly "new," but it's a familiar tale well told. And the art is superb. I'll be eagerly picking up the next thing with Patton Oswalt's name on the cover.
Read
February 2, 2024On the cover, big names Gaiman, Taika, Apatow, Edgar Wright and, er, Kyle Higgins acclaim this as the freshest superhero book in years, the best thing since sliced Boys. I can only assume they're all swayed by how funny Patton Oswalt can be on screen, what a sweet guy he seems, because taken on its own merits, it ain't. It's a perfectly serviceable story in which not-Riddler, off-brand Killer Croc and various other C-list villains who can't compete in a dangerous new era team up to avert the symbolic onset of the superhero Dark Age when the local Batman analogue's sidekick is murdered by an even more annoying version of the Joker. There are some amusing twists on the material and ingenious representations of the characters' impressive yet limited gifts, but fundamentally Superior Foes Of Spider-Man covered similar ground in more impressive fashion, and that while using the official iterations.
December 10, 2023
A small group of minor super villains decide to take out the prime supervillain in town in order to get the superheroes to back off.
A wonderful, if dark look at some street level bad guys punching way above their weight class. Co-writer Patton Oswald, has fun but doesn’t allow the pokes at comic stereotypes to take away from the all too human reactions of the main characters.
This volume reprints the four issues along with some of the alternative covers and early sketches.
A wonderful, if dark look at some street level bad guys punching way above their weight class. Co-writer Patton Oswald, has fun but doesn’t allow the pokes at comic stereotypes to take away from the all too human reactions of the main characters.
This volume reprints the four issues along with some of the alternative covers and early sketches.
April 28, 2025
Sometimes the zeroes are the heroes.
In "Minor Threats, Vol. 1: A Quick End to a Long Beginning" a bunch of D List not so super villains take matters into their own hands when an enraged group of superheroes targets their community due to a heinous act committed by an unassociated rogue villain.
Expect a whole slew of thinly veiled DC analogs, intelligent and artful storytelling by uber-nerd Patton Oswald, a bunch of less than heroic heroes accompanied by a gaggle of less than villainous villains and a few satisfying and hard to spot twists.
Recommended for anyone who gets the same rush from the "Bad News Bears" and "The Boyz".
In "Minor Threats, Vol. 1: A Quick End to a Long Beginning" a bunch of D List not so super villains take matters into their own hands when an enraged group of superheroes targets their community due to a heinous act committed by an unassociated rogue villain.
Expect a whole slew of thinly veiled DC analogs, intelligent and artful storytelling by uber-nerd Patton Oswald, a bunch of less than heroic heroes accompanied by a gaggle of less than villainous villains and a few satisfying and hard to spot twists.
Recommended for anyone who gets the same rush from the "Bad News Bears" and "The Boyz".
September 15, 2024
A redux of a bygone period of superhero comics, Minor Threats follows the return of the villainous Stickman who previously executed a superhero sidekick in cold blood and a new reign of terror he inflicts upon Twilight City. Joining Stickman are a group of minor villains plotting to take out the Insomniac, the hero of the city who has begun to take a more darker turn with respect to his crimefighting. It's not particularly innovative nor does it really deconstruct the overdone superhero tropes in any meaningful way, but there is a light sense of fun to the series. I might give a future volume a shot, but for now I can't say I'd be all that interested in seeing where this setup leads.
March 25, 2025
4.5/5
This had some great art, colors were popping and it was definitely Batman universe inspired with the tropes. But! They’re tropes I personally enjoyed so I had a lot of fun with this. I just really, really wanted more of Playtime’s backstory and more depth to her. I think we all agreed on that at Graphic Novel Club. Overall just so many glimpses to what I wanted but never getting more than those glimpses with the characters and their depth. The city’s state of disarray and the map were big hits, and I think I would read the next volume.
This had some great art, colors were popping and it was definitely Batman universe inspired with the tropes. But! They’re tropes I personally enjoyed so I had a lot of fun with this. I just really, really wanted more of Playtime’s backstory and more depth to her. I think we all agreed on that at Graphic Novel Club. Overall just so many glimpses to what I wanted but never getting more than those glimpses with the characters and their depth. The city’s state of disarray and the map were big hits, and I think I would read the next volume.
December 17, 2023
Way better than I expected. Great story, good art, well told.
August 26, 2024
Patton Oswalt being one of the writers got this on my radar--good stuff! This story of a scrappy bunch of supervillains (not the big bads, more like the little bads) out to find and kill a really big bad was gritty and well done. I liked the changing POVs, but I wish there would have been more of a visual cue for the flashbacks. I also would have loved to see more of Playtime's toys in action. I loved the creepy Teddy bear!
October 23, 2023
Lots of fun!
July 15, 2023
Book 55/100 for 2023. It's not easy to write an original superhero comic that is funny and includes direct homages to the mainstream history of the medium WITHOUT slipping into constant "this whole premise is so implausible and dumb" territory. But unsurprisingly, Patton Oswalt is able to understand the assignment perfectly.
January 12, 2026
3,5 ⭐️
So, to put it briefly, it's the (in)famous DC story "Batman: Death in the Family", told from the POV of Gotham's third-rate gangsters, who have to deal with the unfortunate consequences of Batman going totally unhinged. However, since the writers aren't allowed to dabble in the real DC universe, the story takes place in a world recognizable to anyone who's read a single Batman comic, but seemingly its own.
Instead of Gotham, we have Twilight City and it's Dark Knight - Insomniac. He gallops across rooftops and wreaks havoc on gangsters, periodically teaming up with the local Justice League (Continuum) to stop planetary threats.
But everything changes when the local Joker (aka Stickman), as in the original story, kills the Insomniac's young sidekick (the local Robin was even as much of a jerk as Jason Todd). And then the unexpected happens: Insomniac, driven mad by grief, begins running the streets and behaving like Batman in the Arkham games series—beating villains half to death and into comas to obtain information on the killer's location. Greatest detective and all that.
The local Justice League is horrified—they fear Insomniac will overdo it and break the heroic rule "thou shalt not kill," which would significantly tarnish the team's reputation. So the Continuum members unleash their own superhero terror on the streets of Twilight City's criminal districts, trying to put as many criminals behind bars as possible before Insomniac can finish them off.
Against this backdrop, a small group of third-rate villains, uneasy about their prospects in this situation, decide to capture or kill Stickman themselves to stop all this chaos and collect the hefty bounty on his head.
This bright idea occurs to Playtime, the daughter of the local Harley Quinn. Playtime is a kind of anti-Robin: like him, a girl without a normal childhood, but instead, she played the role of a sidekick, quite useful thanks to her meta-abilities. Having never been a normal child, Playtime couldn't be a normal parent to her own daughter either – her entire life has been spent in a vicious cycle of "stealing, caught by Insomniac, going to jail," which is so difficult to escape without outside help. Just when she finally tried to get back on track, the whole Insomniac disaster happened.
Over the course of four issues, her team of equally recognizable loser villains hunts down Stickman, all the while trying to avoid the superheroes running amok on the streets. Along the way, we learn what drives the rest of the team and how they became who they are (the answer is the usual: trauma and abuse, abuse and trauma). And here we come to the reason I took off half a star.
Four episodes are woefully short for this story (a couple more would definitely improve the pace). The last issue was very meta, and the ending was a bit predictable, but I liked the comic. The third volume is now finishing up, and a bunch of spin-offs have been released, so there will be plenty of reason to return to this bootleg Gotham.
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Итак, если описывать коротко, то это (печально) знаменитая дисишная история "Смерть в семье", поданная с точки зрения третьеразрядных готэмских бандитов, которым пришлось столкнуться с неприятными последствиями того, что Бэтмен слетел с катушек. Только, поскольку авторам никто не даст резвиться в реальной вселенной ДиСи, дело происходит в очень узнаваемом любому, кто прочитал хоть один комикс о Бэтмене, но как бы самостоятельном мире.
Вместо Готэма у нас Твайлайт Сити, ужасом которого, летящим на крыльях ночи, является Инсомниак. Как и положено Темному рыцарю, он скачет по крышам и вваливает бандитам, периодически объединяясь с местной Лигой Справедливости (Континиумом), чтобы остановить угрозы планетарного масштаба.
Но все меняется, когда местный Джокер (Стикман), как и в оригинальной истории, убивает юного сайдкика Инсомниака ( местный Робин даже был таким же говнючком, как и Джейсон Тодд). И тут случается неожиданное - потерявший рассудок от горя Инсомниак начинает бегать по улицам и вести себя как Бэтмен в серии игр про Аркхэм - то есть избивать злодеев до полусмерти и комы, чтобы добыть информацию о местоположении убийцы. Величайший детектив и все такое.
Местная Лига справедливости в ужасе - они боятся что Инсомниак перестарается и нарушит героическое правило "не убий", чем значительно обгадит репутацию команды. Так что члены Континиума сами устраивают супергеройский террор на улицах криминальных районов Твайлайт Сити, стараясь отправить за решетку как можно больше преступников, чтобы их не прикончил Инсомниак.
На фоне всего этого небольшая группа третьеразрядных злодеев, которым не нравятся их перспективы в такой ситуации, решает сама изловить или прикончить Стикмана, чтобы остановить всю эту суету, а заодно и получить назначенную за его голову солидную награду.
Эта светлая мысль приходит в голову Плэйтайм, дочки местной Харли Квин. Плэйтайм - это такой анти-Робин, как и у него, у девочки не было нормального детства, вместо этого она исполняла роль сайдкика, весьма полезного благодаря мета-способностям. Не побыв нормальным ребенком, Плэйтайм и родителем нормальным для собственной дочки стать не смогла - вся ее жизнь проходила в замкнутом круге "украл-выпил-в тюрьму" из которого так сложно выбраться без посторонней помощи, а как только она попыталась наконец встать на правильную дорожку, случилась вся эта катастрофа с Инсомниаком.
На протяжении четырех выпусков ее команда из таких же узнаваемых лузеров-злодеев выслеживает Стикмана, стараясь при этом не попасть под горячую руку супергероям, беспредельничающим на улицах. По ходу дела мы узнаем что движет остальными членами команды, как они стали тем, кем они стали (ответ обычный - травма и абьюз, абьюз и травма). И тут мы подходим к тому, за что я снял ползвезды.
Четырех эпизодов для этой истории катастрофически мало (еще парочка точно не помешали бы). Последний выпуск вышел очень уж мета, а концовка была немного предсказуема, но комикс мне ��онравился. Сейчас онгоингом завершается третий том, к тому же вышла куча спин-оффов, так что вернуться в этот контрафактный Готэм повод будет.
So, to put it briefly, it's the (in)famous DC story "Batman: Death in the Family", told from the POV of Gotham's third-rate gangsters, who have to deal with the unfortunate consequences of Batman going totally unhinged. However, since the writers aren't allowed to dabble in the real DC universe, the story takes place in a world recognizable to anyone who's read a single Batman comic, but seemingly its own.
Instead of Gotham, we have Twilight City and it's Dark Knight - Insomniac. He gallops across rooftops and wreaks havoc on gangsters, periodically teaming up with the local Justice League (Continuum) to stop planetary threats.
But everything changes when the local Joker (aka Stickman), as in the original story, kills the Insomniac's young sidekick (the local Robin was even as much of a jerk as Jason Todd). And then the unexpected happens: Insomniac, driven mad by grief, begins running the streets and behaving like Batman in the Arkham games series—beating villains half to death and into comas to obtain information on the killer's location. Greatest detective and all that.
The local Justice League is horrified—they fear Insomniac will overdo it and break the heroic rule "thou shalt not kill," which would significantly tarnish the team's reputation. So the Continuum members unleash their own superhero terror on the streets of Twilight City's criminal districts, trying to put as many criminals behind bars as possible before Insomniac can finish them off.
Against this backdrop, a small group of third-rate villains, uneasy about their prospects in this situation, decide to capture or kill Stickman themselves to stop all this chaos and collect the hefty bounty on his head.
This bright idea occurs to Playtime, the daughter of the local Harley Quinn. Playtime is a kind of anti-Robin: like him, a girl without a normal childhood, but instead, she played the role of a sidekick, quite useful thanks to her meta-abilities. Having never been a normal child, Playtime couldn't be a normal parent to her own daughter either – her entire life has been spent in a vicious cycle of "stealing, caught by Insomniac, going to jail," which is so difficult to escape without outside help. Just when she finally tried to get back on track, the whole Insomniac disaster happened.
Over the course of four issues, her team of equally recognizable loser villains hunts down Stickman, all the while trying to avoid the superheroes running amok on the streets. Along the way, we learn what drives the rest of the team and how they became who they are (the answer is the usual: trauma and abuse, abuse and trauma). And here we come to the reason I took off half a star.
Four episodes are woefully short for this story (a couple more would definitely improve the pace). The last issue was very meta, and the ending was a bit predictable, but I liked the comic. The third volume is now finishing up, and a bunch of spin-offs have been released, so there will be plenty of reason to return to this bootleg Gotham.
____________________________
Итак, если описывать коротко, то это (печально) знаменитая дисишная история "Смерть в семье", поданная с точки зрения третьеразрядных готэмских бандитов, которым пришлось столкнуться с неприятными последствиями того, что Бэтмен слетел с катушек. Только, поскольку авторам никто не даст резвиться в реальной вселенной ДиСи, дело происходит в очень узнаваемом любому, кто прочитал хоть один комикс о Бэтмене, но как бы самостоятельном мире.
Вместо Готэма у нас Твайлайт Сити, ужасом которого, летящим на крыльях ночи, является Инсомниак. Как и положено Темному рыцарю, он скачет по крышам и вваливает бандитам, периодически объединяясь с местной Лигой Справедливости (Континиумом), чтобы остановить угрозы планетарного масштаба.
Но все меняется, когда местный Джокер (Стикман), как и в оригинальной истории, убивает юного сайдкика Инсомниака ( местный Робин даже был таким же говнючком, как и Джейсон Тодд). И тут случается неожиданное - потерявший рассудок от горя Инсомниак начинает бегать по улицам и вести себя как Бэтмен в серии игр про Аркхэм - то есть избивать злодеев до полусмерти и комы, чтобы добыть информацию о местоположении убийцы. Величайший детектив и все такое.
Местная Лига справедливости в ужасе - они боятся что Инсомниак перестарается и нарушит героическое правило "не убий", чем значительно обгадит репутацию команды. Так что члены Континиума сами устраивают супергеройский террор на улицах криминальных районов Твайлайт Сити, стараясь отправить за решетку как можно больше преступников, чтобы их не прикончил Инсомниак.
На фоне всего этого небольшая группа третьеразрядных злодеев, которым не нравятся их перспективы в такой ситуации, решает сама изловить или прикончить Стикмана, чтобы остановить всю эту суету, а заодно и получить назначенную за его голову солидную награду.
Эта светлая мысль приходит в голову Плэйтайм, дочки местной Харли Квин. Плэйтайм - это такой анти-Робин, как и у него, у девочки не было нормального детства, вместо этого она исполняла роль сайдкика, весьма полезного благодаря мета-способностям. Не побыв нормальным ребенком, Плэйтайм и родителем нормальным для собственной дочки стать не смогла - вся ее жизнь проходила в замкнутом круге "украл-выпил-в тюрьму" из которого так сложно выбраться без посторонней помощи, а как только она попыталась наконец встать на правильную дорожку, случилась вся эта катастрофа с Инсомниаком.
На протяжении четырех выпусков ее команда из таких же узнаваемых лузеров-злодеев выслеживает Стикмана, стараясь при этом не попасть под горячую руку супергероям, беспредельничающим на улицах. По ходу дела мы узнаем что движет остальными членами команды, как они стали тем, кем они стали (ответ обычный - травма и абьюз, абьюз и травма). И тут мы подходим к тому, за что я снял ползвезды.
Четырех эпизодов для этой истории катастрофически мало (еще парочка точно не помешали бы). Последний выпуск вышел очень уж мета, а концовка была немного предсказуема, но комикс мне ��онравился. Сейчас онгоингом завершается третий том, к тому же вышла куча спин-оффов, так что вернуться в этот контрафактный Готэм повод будет.
March 22, 2025
Let the villains tell it! A story from the C-list Supervillains' POV is very interesting. The protagonists of this story are the bad guys: crooked, selfish, flawed, violent ... human. What I luv about this graphic novel is we get to see how one bad day can turn anyone into someone they never thought they'd be. The hubris of the superheroes comes crumbling down around them and the city/people they (supposedly) protect. They are not noble. Really, its the difference of the bad day separates heroics from villainy. This was not about morality or change; it was about self preservation. I enjoyed the lack of trust, feigned real leadership, and skewed comradarie with the pivotal characters. Not sure how I feel about the ending; it was sort of character development but not for change, more like leveling up.
April 9, 2024
Villain Rogues' Crime Noir
I'd hoped for at least more of a satire of Death in the Family meets the noir of Identity Crisis like Veitch's subversive Brat Pack, but this was pretty much the standard dismal grit that has me reading things other than superhero comics. The art was decent, the writing was just okay. It might have been better had it been more novel, but it was just a bummer ride for nothing I haven't already seen before. At least there was no romance.
I'd hoped for at least more of a satire of Death in the Family meets the noir of Identity Crisis like Veitch's subversive Brat Pack, but this was pretty much the standard dismal grit that has me reading things other than superhero comics. The art was decent, the writing was just okay. It might have been better had it been more novel, but it was just a bummer ride for nothing I haven't already seen before. At least there was no romance.
March 15, 2025
This was a solid book. I liked the art. I liked the characters. I liked the story, but it was very chaotic and hard to follow at points. At times there were inner monologues that were placed on the page with a lot of action, making me have to read the monologue separately, then double back and read the action text to follow what's going on. It's definitely not a perfect book, but it does have a lot going for it and I may check out the second volume if it comes out.
November 19, 2025
Not one for kids. Well, honestly, I would have read it as a kid. I was that kind of kid. This was a violent and twisty story. The world was established quickly, and graphically. I enjoyed this. It was a little hard to read at times due to its being pretty real for a comic book world. The emotions made sense, and the characters were more complex than I had expected. I saw there was a volume 2. I will be interested to see where this story goes.
September 14, 2023
This was really just okay. I was not convinced by the world building and the characters were not given enough depth to be memorable. There are a few nods to Alan Moore's Top Ten and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, but overall this was a good idea that should have been better.
August 23, 2024
One of the best new dark horse comics.
August 29, 2023
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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NOT SURE WHY I FEEL COMPELLED TO SAY THIS, BUT...
I'm going to make a lot of allusions to other comics/superhero stories. This is intentional and, I think, warranted. Oswalt and Blum are satirizing, paying tribute to, and playing with tried-and-true superhero ideas. When I say they're doing something ____-esque, or in the vein of, etc. I'm not criticizing, I'm describing. Their work is derivative of more things than I'm aware of because they're commenting on those things. Oswalt and Blum know their stuff, they've drunk deeply from more comic wells than I can imagine and used that to produce this series.
FRANKIE
When she was a kid, Frankie was the costumed sidekick of her mother, a supervillain/thief. At some point, they were arrested and Frankie went to prison. When she got out, she tried to go straight and get a decent job, but we all know how hard it is for an ex-con to get a job, when that ex-con is a Meta? Forget it—door after door slammed in her face. Finally, she found a job working as a bartender in a bar that catered to supervillains. Not really the elite-level villains, but the "lower ranked" ones—with just enough power to typically need a superhero instead of the police. Think the sillier ones in the Suicide Squad.
I've seen this kind of bar in Spider-Man comics, a superhero version in The Tick (animated), and a few other places like that. Frankie is friendly with a couple of her regulars but regards most of them with a kind of contempt/pity mixture. Frankie's the stereotypical Alcoholic in Recovery working as a Bartender—just her addiction is using the abilities that got her locked up.
NOT-JASON TODD/THE JOKER/BATMAN
So remember what Batman wanted to do to the Joker after he (assisted by the readers of DC Comics) beat the life out of Jason Todd? What would've happened if Superman hadn't stepped in? Well, we get the answer here—after a Joker-esque character (The Stickman) kills the kid sidekick (Kid Dusk) of a Batman-esque hero (The Insomniac), The Insomniac goes on a vigilante rampage looking for The Stickman—and woe to anyone who gets in his way. The story kicks off with someone stumbling into the bar holding the beaten near-corpse of one supervillain who was "interrogated" by The Insomniac.
This leads to the biggest crackdown on Meta criminals ever—the heroes and the police are trying to lock them all up for their own safety more than because of any crimes. It's wreaking all sorts of havoc. To put a stop to this, Frankie and some acquaintances/customers decide they need to find The Stickman themselves and kill him themselves. Why wait for the good guys to do the job? If Stickman is out of the picture, The Insomniac might be able to be stopped—or maybe stop himself.
Sure, none of these criminals are the best choices for this—and most are past the prime of their abilities—but it's not like they have a better idea.
THE ART
I can't put my finger exactly on how to describe the art—it reminded me of a lot of mid-80s Marvel Comics art, with shades of Gotham Central. That's going to help precisely no one, but it's the best I can do.
I really dug it—the art fits the story and the characters well. It wasn't too flashy or too polished—neither would fit this story. There's a roughness to it (but not in a negative way) that really suited what Oswalt and Blum were doing.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MINOR THREATS: A QUICK END TO A LONG BEGINNING?
This is dark. It's twisted. It's funny—and it's not really funny at all. There's some tragedy to this, too.
I want more. Now.
Is it the greatest comic story I've come across lately? Nah, but the way the creative team is playing with, exploring, exploiting, and so on with tropes, stand-bys, themes, character-types, etc. is just so much fun and so interesting.
There's just a solid story in the midst of all this, too. It's more than meta-commentary on superhero stories, it's a good one itself. But for me to really dig into it the way it deserves would take more time and energy than I'm willing to devote to it. So I'll just leave it at this—you're going to dig this.
---
NOT SURE WHY I FEEL COMPELLED TO SAY THIS, BUT...
I'm going to make a lot of allusions to other comics/superhero stories. This is intentional and, I think, warranted. Oswalt and Blum are satirizing, paying tribute to, and playing with tried-and-true superhero ideas. When I say they're doing something ____-esque, or in the vein of, etc. I'm not criticizing, I'm describing. Their work is derivative of more things than I'm aware of because they're commenting on those things. Oswalt and Blum know their stuff, they've drunk deeply from more comic wells than I can imagine and used that to produce this series.
FRANKIE
When she was a kid, Frankie was the costumed sidekick of her mother, a supervillain/thief. At some point, they were arrested and Frankie went to prison. When she got out, she tried to go straight and get a decent job, but we all know how hard it is for an ex-con to get a job, when that ex-con is a Meta? Forget it—door after door slammed in her face. Finally, she found a job working as a bartender in a bar that catered to supervillains. Not really the elite-level villains, but the "lower ranked" ones—with just enough power to typically need a superhero instead of the police. Think the sillier ones in the Suicide Squad.
I've seen this kind of bar in Spider-Man comics, a superhero version in The Tick (animated), and a few other places like that. Frankie is friendly with a couple of her regulars but regards most of them with a kind of contempt/pity mixture. Frankie's the stereotypical Alcoholic in Recovery working as a Bartender—just her addiction is using the abilities that got her locked up.
NOT-JASON TODD/THE JOKER/BATMAN
So remember what Batman wanted to do to the Joker after he (assisted by the readers of DC Comics) beat the life out of Jason Todd? What would've happened if Superman hadn't stepped in? Well, we get the answer here—after a Joker-esque character (The Stickman) kills the kid sidekick (Kid Dusk) of a Batman-esque hero (The Insomniac), The Insomniac goes on a vigilante rampage looking for The Stickman—and woe to anyone who gets in his way. The story kicks off with someone stumbling into the bar holding the beaten near-corpse of one supervillain who was "interrogated" by The Insomniac.
This leads to the biggest crackdown on Meta criminals ever—the heroes and the police are trying to lock them all up for their own safety more than because of any crimes. It's wreaking all sorts of havoc. To put a stop to this, Frankie and some acquaintances/customers decide they need to find The Stickman themselves and kill him themselves. Why wait for the good guys to do the job? If Stickman is out of the picture, The Insomniac might be able to be stopped—or maybe stop himself.
Sure, none of these criminals are the best choices for this—and most are past the prime of their abilities—but it's not like they have a better idea.
THE ART
I can't put my finger exactly on how to describe the art—it reminded me of a lot of mid-80s Marvel Comics art, with shades of Gotham Central. That's going to help precisely no one, but it's the best I can do.
I really dug it—the art fits the story and the characters well. It wasn't too flashy or too polished—neither would fit this story. There's a roughness to it (but not in a negative way) that really suited what Oswalt and Blum were doing.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MINOR THREATS: A QUICK END TO A LONG BEGINNING?
This is dark. It's twisted. It's funny—and it's not really funny at all. There's some tragedy to this, too.
I want more. Now.
Is it the greatest comic story I've come across lately? Nah, but the way the creative team is playing with, exploring, exploiting, and so on with tropes, stand-bys, themes, character-types, etc. is just so much fun and so interesting.
There's just a solid story in the midst of all this, too. It's more than meta-commentary on superhero stories, it's a good one itself. But for me to really dig into it the way it deserves would take more time and energy than I'm willing to devote to it. So I'll just leave it at this—you're going to dig this.
October 12, 2023
The story wasn't bad overall, just convoluted and with a mediocre ending. It's difficult to find parodies of the superhero genre, so at least it excels there. When you get to the end it becomes obvious why this is the only story arc. It's short, but even so I expected to care about at least one character. I guess it was too dry to manage it.
Frankie is working as a bartender in a place frequented by superpowered individuals. This is after serving time for robbing a bank under the monicker Playtime, sidekick to her mother Toy Queen. She has the ability to create devices that ultimately look like toys, but hasn't used it since getting out of prison. The Continuum are superpowered individuals of considerable power who are now hunting for the Stickman after he killed the Insomniac's sidekick. They pose as heroes, but employ terror tactics to gain information on their prey. Instead of staying on the sidelines like before, Frankie decides to search for and kill the Stickman for the bounty on his head. She gathers a group of d-listers to help.
Frankie is working as a bartender in a place frequented by superpowered individuals. This is after serving time for robbing a bank under the monicker Playtime, sidekick to her mother Toy Queen. She has the ability to create devices that ultimately look like toys, but hasn't used it since getting out of prison. The Continuum are superpowered individuals of considerable power who are now hunting for the Stickman after he killed the Insomniac's sidekick. They pose as heroes, but employ terror tactics to gain information on their prey. Instead of staying on the sidelines like before, Frankie decides to search for and kill the Stickman for the bounty on his head. She gathers a group of d-listers to help.
February 8, 2023
The good news is that the creative team and publisher have already agreed to do a second series.
My memory is far from perfect, but in some ways I think a Flash writer has used the concept of The Rogues (arguably not A list villains) teaming up to get respect before. Here the creative team takes it somewhere else.
Because a street level hero's kid sidekick has been killed by the hero's arch villain. This leads to said "hero" going on a killing spree against all villains. What are the minor villains to do?
In this instance team up to catch the kid sidekick's killer and to try and work with his the city super hero team (well work with them a very little bit) to get the murdering hero off the streets and under control.
For me the character of Playtime and her family situation really helped to put this story over the top.
My memory is far from perfect, but in some ways I think a Flash writer has used the concept of The Rogues (arguably not A list villains) teaming up to get respect before. Here the creative team takes it somewhere else.
Because a street level hero's kid sidekick has been killed by the hero's arch villain. This leads to said "hero" going on a killing spree against all villains. What are the minor villains to do?
In this instance team up to catch the kid sidekick's killer and to try and work with his the city super hero team (well work with them a very little bit) to get the murdering hero off the streets and under control.
For me the character of Playtime and her family situation really helped to put this story over the top.
September 7, 2023
I really liked this. While many aspects are typical super-villain stuff, I thought the idea of D-list villains going out to find (and kill) the villain that killed a sidekick and brought down a holy war of heroes against ALL villains was a master stroke. With this motivation the rest of the chapters spun out as good as I had hoped. The different messages from the heroes in the chaotic times (which they seem to have created) was a nice tidbit; everyone seemed to be rounding up the bad guys for different reasons.
Not all survive and one vital point at the end of the story made me go back to check on the foreshadowing that was done so well. Different takes on some familiar villain archetypes and the artwork throughout was perfect to convey the moods of each scene and highlight the actions of importance around the attempt at cooperation between the protagonists, especially when using their powers.
Not all survive and one vital point at the end of the story made me go back to check on the foreshadowing that was done so well. Different takes on some familiar villain archetypes and the artwork throughout was perfect to convey the moods of each scene and highlight the actions of importance around the attempt at cooperation between the protagonists, especially when using their powers.
December 30, 2024
Oswalt is always brilliantly funny.
I saw him live at the Hard Rock
and I laughed so hard I thought I was going to die.
In Minor Threats we are introduced
to a world of Super Heroes and Villains.
The heavy hero has his sidekick
murdered.
And promptly looses his shit.
Going on a killing rampage.
The rules are gone.
Villains are fair game.
A former 2nd generation villain is trying to
get her life on track to legitimacy.
That path is disrupted by the wanton
murder spree of the murderous "hero"
The only way to save not only her future
but her friends lives, is to find and
kill the villain.
Equal parts
ridiculous, funny and
outright violent insanity.
A perfect mix.
I saw him live at the Hard Rock
and I laughed so hard I thought I was going to die.
In Minor Threats we are introduced
to a world of Super Heroes and Villains.
The heavy hero has his sidekick
murdered.
And promptly looses his shit.
Going on a killing rampage.
The rules are gone.
Villains are fair game.
A former 2nd generation villain is trying to
get her life on track to legitimacy.
That path is disrupted by the wanton
murder spree of the murderous "hero"
The only way to save not only her future
but her friends lives, is to find and
kill the villain.
Equal parts
ridiculous, funny and
outright violent insanity.
A perfect mix.
March 8, 2024
3.5 stars. An original comic series written by Patton Oswalt, with glowing reviews from Neil Gaiman, Taika Waititi, Judd Apatow, and Edgar Wright? Yes, please! Not exactly a satire, but definitely funny, weird, and offbeat (not to mention pretty damn violent). The premise is essentially "what if the Joker murdered Robin, causing Batman to snap and go on a murderous rampage?" Caught in the middle are a group of C-list supervillains, who decide to team-up and save their own skins. Part of me wishes that Patton didn't feel the need to riff on DC characters, but he still manages to inject enough creativity and craziness to make this feel completely his own.
May 1, 2024
I think what really worked here was that you had each villain's perspective during the action to see how they're coping with the changing atmosphere of heroes versus villains. I think what didn't really work here was that it felt like the main storyline bits I've experienced before and with more gravitas elsewhere. We've been questioning the whole heroes perpetually putting villains in jail thing since the 80s, wondering why hasn't there been a slip up and a murder and questioning the whole cycle has become commonplace. So while the murder was turned up here, and the art was beautiful, I'm not sure what it really added to the overall conversation of villainy.
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