Matt Fraction and Mike Allred noir it up in this Minor Threats comics exclusive

For a few years now, Dark Horse Comics has been building out the world of Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, and Scott Hepburn's Minor Threats, a "superhero" universe exploring the grimmer and grittier aspects of living with superpowers. Now, the comics publisher has tapped some serious talent to help flesh out the ugly, violent world of Twilight City, where life is cheap, and superpowers are abundant—even if they're not always very good.

Take, for instance, Ben Bronkman, the protagonist of the first chapter of From The World Of Minor Threats: Welcome To Twilight, a new anthology series that taps big-name comics creators to play in Oswalt and Blum's grisly playground. In this case, that means Hawkeye's Matt Fraction and Madman's Mike Allred, telling the story of a guy born with angel wings—but none of the other mutations that might allow a character to actually, say, soar through the skies. So what does this-not-quite-Angel do with his preternatural gifts, instead? Go to Hollywood, of course, for a Miami Vice-ish cop show called Wing And Prayer. And then to lower tiers of Hollywood. And then to the convention circuit, trying to hold on to one last soaring dream, even as he finds himself embroiled in a classic noir setup.

You don't have to take our words for it, though: We've got six pages, plus two exclusive covers, of Welcome To Twilight for comics fans to peruse, as Fraction and Allred sketch out the life of a guy whose story is nearly as hopeful as it is seriocomic and kind of pathetic. Meanwhile, Welcome To Twilight (which debuts on March 12) will continue on with other big-name collaborations: Issue 2 will team up Brian Michael Bendis and Soo Lee, #3 pairs up Gail Simone with Gene Ha, and #4 puts together Gerry Dugan and Mark Torres.