Patton Oswalt’s and Jordan Blum’s comics universe expands with the addition of Heath Corson’s The Brood. This extended story in “the World of Minor Threats” focuses on an aging villain given a terminal diagnosis who looks to choose a successor out of his three kids. It’s part Succession, part The Tick, and completely bonkers.
The Lex Luthor-like Napoleon Archimedes has fought Meteor Falls’ savior, the Searcher, a number of times over his life. Yet, when a terminal diagnosis puts his quest for annihilating his arch nemesis and continuing his plans of evil into doubt, Napoleon begins to question who will take over his legacy and company (Titech) when he’s gone. Two of his three kids, Agatha and Simon, have followed in his footsteps in arch-villainy, and that ain’t bad; however, middle child Benjamin has not. In fact, he has actually gone on to work in law enforcement to the disappointment of his family.
While the first issue is told from Napoleon Archimedes’ point of view, the perspective of each issue jumps with each of Napoleon’s children getting an issue. We get an idea of each character’s past and present while they speculate about a future without their father. These constant flashbacks work. Napoleon wasn’t a great father for myriad reasons, and the effects of that have manifested in his children in different ways. It turns out that raising your children in a hollowed-out volcano isn’t the best environment for them.
Blum and Oswalt’s Minor Threats comic universe had my interest from the beginning due to its reference to the punk rock band of the same name, but its ever-growing universe has kept my attention. While new superhero universes have popped up in the last few decades, most of them have been finite, whether they’re sporadically released or have reached the end of their stories.
I like that this universe leans more into the Tick, but uses the formula that made the MCU successful: taking stories we love and repurposing them with superheroes. Given that their target audience is much older, we can get more mature stories and some that take wild swings.
Corson’s writing is fantastic. Juggling the overall story beats between four different perspectives takes a lot of brainwork, but it’s executed well. Ian Culbard’s art does a great job of staying uniform to the brand while also adding his style. I don’t know what I can say about Nate Piekos that hasn’t been said, considering he literally wrote the book on modern lettering. His lettering is always spot on.
Outside of the main series, it seems like any part of the Minor Threats universe is a great jumping-on point. These detours have been fun ways to build the universe out. Hopefully, it will lead to a crossover of Infinite Crisis/Secret Wars-like magnitude. Until that time, I hope there is no end in sight for Oswalt and Blum’s Minor Threats.
Creative Team: Heath Corson (writer), Patton Oswalt (writer), Jordan Blum (writer), Ian Culbard (artist), Nate Piekos (letterer)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
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