[2] It is eventually revealed that Augustus, Graves and Vasco were the masterminds behind a decades-long plan to assume control of the Trust, a plot which drove most of the series' events and many characters' motives.
Augustus' son and heir apparent, mentored by Mr. Shepherd, Benito is a spoiled and reckless young man with a seeming excess of luck who is more interested in gambling than in his responsibilities towards life or the future of the Trust.
He had formed a trio of dissent along with Helena Kotias and Fulvio Carlito, planning to eliminate Augustus Medici with the apparent agreement of Graves, in return for his reinstitution.
Lono's first overt action as the Trust's new Warlord was to capture and torture Fulvio for information concerning the alliance (in issue #65), and to subsequently to eliminate the House of Carlito upon his death.
Rhone was then forced to witness the cold blooded murder of Kate, as well as his wife and young children by Minutemen Victor Ray and Remi Rome, acting on Agent Graves' behalf.
In the wake of the elimination of eight Trust families, Joan D'Arcy approached retired Minuteman Will Slaughter to perform hits on Abe Rothstein, a covert ops specialist who assisted Agent Graves with intelligence, briefcases and "magic bullets", as well as Javier Vasco.
Additionally some sort of physical/mental trauma seems to play a role in the reactivation of several Minuteman, as some characters are subjected to extreme circumstances as an apparent part of their "waking up".
After his presumed death, Graves retained his access to the attaché cases containing evidence of a crime, a gun with 100 untraceable bullets, and immunity from law enforcement to give to whomever he pleased.
It was eventually revealed that Graves, along with Augustus Medici and Javier Vasco, had masterminded a decades-long grand plan to assume power over the other houses of the Trust.
Their ultimate fates are not shown, but Graves' mood in the series' closing moments was one of despair, as he declared his life has been ruined, and he did not resist as Dizzy took aim at his throat in a panel drawn to ape Michaelangelo's Pietà.
A Minuteman at the time of the events of Atlantic City, Lono is an ultra-violent, sadistic man prone to enjoying committing such cruelties as torture and rape in the process of pursuing his own ends.
After Atlantic City he was deactivated, and assumed the life of a hard-boiled and heavy drinking private detective in Los Angeles, reminiscent of the antihero character types popular in "pulp" stories and the classic film noir genre.
Neither Lono nor Megan recognized Milo, due some combination of the bandages that obscured his face, the long time since seeing one another and/or his frequent usage of assumed names and casual misdirection (a habit he presumably acquired in his new profession as an investigator).
In the process of pursuing the case, Milo uncovers several clues associated with the series' greater conspiracy before eventually being awakened to his true nature as Minuteman and regaining his memories.
A standoff ensues, and after assessing their predicament, as well as their roles in the motives of their respective bosses, Cole and the remaining Minutemen (Jack, Loop and Victor) set out to the Medici estate to confront Graves and the Trust.
A seemingly unimportant gas station attendant and part-time smuggler in El Paso, Texas, Wylie was revealed to have once been thought of as the most intelligent and focused of the Minutemen, as well as by far the best marksman and the deadliest of all the group with a gun.
Some time after that, Graves offered to Wylie an attaché whose contents implicated Shepherd in the murder of Rose Madrid, his deceased lover and a member of a family of the Trust.
Tragically, Remi mistook Wylie's reaching for matches in his pocket as him drawing a gun and shot his former leader through the chest (although Victor later suspected other possible motivations for the shooting).
Recruited by Lono and Loop shortly after they were released from prison, he carried out the apparent assassination attempt on Megan Dietrich in San Diego and escaped unnoticed.
A short while later, Victor was also seen in Omaha, targeting a gun at the household where Tibo Vermeer, Megan Dietrich and Joan D'Arcy were meeting, but the attack was called off by Graves at the last minute due to Vasco's death.
After working for Lono for a while and traveling with Loop and Victor Ray, Jack bolted on his own after receiving the La Morte dil Cesar painting from Cole.
The two fought and ultimately tumbled into the alligator pit during their struggle, where it is strongly suggested that both were eaten, but given the nature of the story and Jack's massive strength, his survival is not out of the question, leaving his future unknown.
In his capacities as a Minuteman, Remi is shown to be remarkably sadistic, displaying cruel tendencies at times on the level of Lono, as when he volunteered to kill Mia Simone, and when executed the family (including young children) of Sigmar Rhone with Victor Ray.
Betting he'd never miss a target and assuming his mother (who had suffered a false heart attack days before his hospitalization) is dead, he says he'll see her soon and jumps as Ronnie opened his eyes just in time to see Remi descend.
The first person to be visibly approached by Graves, Dizzy was an ex-gangbanger who accepted his offer to avenge the deaths of her husband and child at the hands of crooked cops after her release from prison.
Grief-stricken, she sought solace in the desert surrounding Juárez with thoughts of revenge against Graves until she was soon confronted by the attentions of three men: Wylie, Branch and Benito Medici.
During the series' climactic events, he was shown driving away from the burning house of Medici with Victor Ray and Will Slaughter, having decided not to go down the violent path of a Minuteman.
Vying with Graves for control of Dizzy Cordova, Shepherd was mortally wounded when Wylie activated her, but he managed to appoint Lono as his successor and entrust him with Loop's training before succumbing to death in the desert somewhere near Juarez.
He was briefly scared off the case by Cole Burns during Dizzy Cordova's visit to Paris, but developed an infatuation for her, which led him to accept a dangerous request by Megan Dietrich to return to the States.
Eventually, Echo then met up with Jack, who was in possession of the La Morte dil Cesar painting, before she was killed by Cole Burns in retaliation for the murder of his friend Branch.