Summary
The universe ofMinor Threatsis expanding into a glorious age of punk rock beauty with the upcoming miniseries,Barfly. The new series will center around a character fans of theDark Horse Comicsseries 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 fromDark Horse Comicsannouncing the new four-part miniseriesFrom the World of Minor Threats: Barflyby 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 didMinor Threatsfans get the official cover art and description for the new chapter in the ever-expandingMinor Threatsuniverse from Dark Horse Comics, but the publisher also posted a punk rock teaser for Barfly onInstagramfeaturing 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.
Warning: some songs are explicit.
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Who Is the Titular Barfly? Minor Threats’ Previously Unexplored Side Character, Explained
$#!%eater Made His First Appearance inMinor Threats#1
The world of Minor Threats is one similar to the DC Universe, though with a much grittier lens akin to The Boys.
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.
While the original Minor Threats storyline explores what happens after one especially insidious villain crosses that line, leading to the ‘heroes’ of Minor Threats showing their true (corrupt) colors, none of that impacts the majority of the low-level villains who essentially call Lower Lair their home - including and especially $#!%eater.
$#!%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 originalMinor Threatsseries.
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 ofMinor Threatsare 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 enjoyedDark Horse Comics’Minor Threatsor not - should be very excited to see it inBarfly.
From the World of Minor Threats: Barfly #1by Dark Horse Comics is available July 27, 2025.
