The Variants (2009)
The Variants is an American web series comedy about four employees who work in comic retail. This scripted comedy has completed 28 episodes comprising three seasons. The Variants aired its first episode August 4, 2009 and wrapped season one in May 2010. Its second season began May 3 of 2011 and completed in February 2012. The Variants completed a successful Kickstarter campaign on May 29, 2012 to fund a season three. A promo teaser was released on August 8, 2012 to Comics Alliance in advance of the new season. Season three launched weekly on September 3, 2012. The show is filmed on location at Zeus Comics in Dallas Texas. While the series is available free on YouTube, Season One of The Variants was compiled on DVD in June 2011.
Seasons & Episode
Terry and Svenus are filming the first commercial for the Zeus Comics Worldwide initiative, and everybody's on board -- everybody except Keli and Barry, that is. But Terry and Svenus have ways of bringing them to heel.
To clear some dead stock, Svenus accompanies Keli and Richard to a convention. A booth babe and some seriously unfortunate cosplay pushes Keli to the edge.
Tension mounts in the store when Terry and Svenus recruit Alan Smithee, noted filmmaker and comic book nerd, to bring his new reality show to Zeus Comics.
The cold war between Keli and Zeus's new owners turns hot when she retaliates for the Alan Smithee debacle by bringing her OWN reality TV crew to Zeus.
Terry makes Keli pay for her insubordination, and then decides to take a shot at running the store himself.
Keli isn't taking her firing from Zeus lying down. She's rounded up sympathetic Zeus loyalists and protests the store's new direction under Terry and Svenus. But is her cause lost before she even begins.
Keli is still devastated about getting fired from Zeus, and to make it up to her, Richard and Barry take her out for a night on the town. What follows is an odyssey of drunkenness, princess dresses, bear bars and sexy cops.
Yet another Zeus employee gets canned, and Keli decides enough is enough: something is rotten in Zeus... and it's not Vlad's jockstrap. Keli, Barry and Richard hatch a bold plan to expose Terry and Svenus for what they are.
It all comes to a head! Keli, Barry and Richard bring their evidence of wrongdoing to Terry and Svenus for one last titanic showdown! Will the rich boys from Europe flee, or will Zeus be taken away from the gang for all time? All will be revealed.
It's all over: Keli, Barry and Richard won Zeus Comics back. Terry and Svenus are gone. Or are they? In the season 3 epilogue, we learn what was really going on all this time...
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