The universe of Minor Threats is expanding into a glorious age of punk rock beauty with the upcoming miniseries, Barfly. The new series will center around a character fans of the Dark Horse Comics series will surely recognize, yet know almost nothing about: $#!%eater. The humanoid fly is quite literally a barfly that hangs out in the Lower Lair bar, but his story is far bigger than that – and now, it’s finally being told.

In a release from Dark Horse Comics announcing the new four-part miniseries From the World of Minor Threats: Barfly by Patton Oswalt, Kyle Starks, Jordan Blum, and Ryan Browne, readers are given a brief overview of what to expect from the upcoming series. Plus, fans got a first look at the main and variant covers for the first issue, done by artists Scott Hepburn, Ryan Browne, Martin Morazzo, and Dan Hipp.

The Lower Lair bar is home to all sorts of supervillains, lowlifes, and scumbags… but only one of them has to puke digestive fluids onto his food to eat. $#!%eater, the humanoid mutant fly is a loser, a lifelong minion who lives to serve his criminal master. But what happens to a henchman when he no longer has anyone left to hench for?

Not only did Minor Threats fans get the official cover art and description for the new chapter in the ever-expanding Minor Threats universe from Dark Horse Comics, but the publisher also posted a punk rock teaser for Barfly on Instagram featuring the song “Bastards of Young” by The Replacements – which perfectly captures the energy of this upcoming series.

Co-creator Patton Oswalt expresses his excitement for the project, touching on how the punk music genre is playing an integral role in how $#!%eater’s story will be told.

Patton Oswalt: Barfly is about how music saved the bottom-est of the underworld bottom feeders and made him the unswattable Lower Lair barfly that we know and love today.

The comedian/actor/writer also shared a Spotify playlist that fans can enjoy leading up to the release of Barfly, which is filled to the brim with punk rock classics from the likes of The Clash, Ramones, and – of course – The Flys.

Who Is the Titular Barfly? Minor Threats’ Previously Unexplored Side Character, Explained

$#!%eater Made His First Appearance in Minor Threats #1

Costumed heroes and villains litter Twilight City, and between them, there is an unspoken contract that dictates one will not be overly cruel toward the other. This means that supervillains (while criminals) aren’t murdering the heroes charged with keeping them in line, and vice versa. This allows the villains of Minor Threats to make an entire area of Twilight City, known as Redport, their own, complete with a bar where villains are safe to hang out in peace: the Lower Lair.

$#!%eater is a mutant humanoid fly who was previously a professional henchman. However, once his wings were ripped off by a superhuman called The Searcher, $#!%eater could no longer find work, and was reduced to hanging out at Lower Lair, drinking and revoltingly puking acid on his food to eat it. While he had a punk rock aesthetic in Minor Threats, he seemed more like a sad burnout than a pissed off punker. But now, all that is about to change.

$#!%eater Will Become the Voice of the Downtrodden in the Minor Threats Universe

The artwork associated with Barfly along with how interwoven the punk music genre has been for the marketing seemingly reveals that $#!%eater will be doing more than just drinking his sorrows away, though quite less than the murderous violence of his fellow villains in the original Minor Threats series.

It seems $#!%eater will translate his frustrations through music, perhaps starting off playing gigs at the Lower Lair before venue-hopping all over Redport and expanding to the wider Twilight City and beyond. And in the process, he’ll be expressing how the corrupt system of this world has kept rejects like himself down, and rather than proving them right by resorting to violence, $#!%eater is going to throw it in their face with punk rock.

$#!%eater will literally be bringing punk rock to a new generation of in-world downtrodden, all while Patton Oswalt and the other creators of Minor Threats are sharing their favorite punk bands/songs that inspired this new story, assuredly exposing some fans to proper punk for the first time (though comics and music). $#!%eater is going to use music to ‘save the underworld bottom feeders’, and comic book/punk rock fans everywhere – whether they’ve enjoyed Dark Horse Comics’ Minor Threats or not – should be very excited to see it in Barfly.

From the World of Minor Threats: Barfly #1 by Dark Horse Comics is available July 10, 2024.

Source: Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse Comics/Instagram