Minor Threats: The Alternates

Mary the Multi-Monster.  The Tripper.  Persona.  Crab Louie.  Kid Curious.  The Divider.  They weren’t A-or-B-List heroes, but they were the ones who stepped up when The Ledgerman threatened to pull all of Star City into his own word.  For their trouble, they were able to live the best versions of their lives for a little while before he was stopped, and they had to return to their own mundane existences.  Now meeting weekly in a support group, they’ve been trying to help each other adjust, but nothing seems to be working.  Until a new drug called Prestige hits the streets and threatens to give the entire city a taste of what these heroes experienced.

I wasn’t sure what to think about this miniseries at first.  It took a while for me to read the series it was spun off from, “Minor Threats,” to determine if I should even be excited for this, and the setup of heroes chasing the ghost of their best lives felt more familiar than enticing.  The end result is actually better than what I was expecting thanks to some detailed character writing from writer Tim Seely (original miniseries co-writers Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum are also credited here, but as Tim is the only full-time comics writer among them, it’s not hard to imagine he did all the heavy lifting here).  Main artist Christopher Mitten also does great work communicating the general weirdness of the story and setting while flashback artist Tess Fowler makes the lives the Alternates lived look desirable.

Even if the storyline does go to some very familiar places over the course of the four issues collected here, the art and writing are solid enough to get you to forgive that.  More importantly, it builds on the world established in “Minor Threats” and makes fleshing it and its denizens out come off like a good idea.  Which bodes well not just for proper-sequel miniseries “Fastest Way Down,” but the next spinoff “Barfly” – even if my expectations are already higher for that one because it’s coming from Kyle Starks and Ryan Browne.