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Badger Saves the World #2

posted by Matt Knicl at 10:00 am.

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Badger Badger Badger Mushroom Mushroom

Writer Mike Baron is a comic savant. While many people like to list Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen as the two titles that revolutionized comics into a more serious or “literary” medium, many forget Baron’s comic series The Badger. Sure it may not have had the same impact as those other titles, but Badger contained a lot of the deep psychological and political elements of the darker comic. Badger’s seeming unpopularity is most likely due to its being published by various companies in its 25 year history. Luckily, IDW is the current company with the title.

To prepare for the newest miniseries featuring Badger, IDW has begun collecting the entire run of the series, from all the publishers it has gone through, into trade paperback volumes. So far only one has been released.

Badger is the story of Norbert Sykes, a schizophrenic who has many personalities, one of which is the zero tolerance super hero Badger, who will beat up criminals for murder or littering. All crime is equal in his book. He fights to protect the environment in his home city of Madison, Wisconsin where he is assisted by his social worker, Daisy. Badger, while not fighting crime, is bodyguard for an 800-year-old Druid named Hamaglystwythbrnxaxlotl, or “Ham” for short.

This is not a traditional super hero book. There are elements of the super hero genre parodied while simultaneously treated seriously, plus martial arts, magic, history, politics, and psychology. For such a complex book, I am surprised that outside the comic community it doesn’t receive much fame.

Hopefully the new series, Badger Saves the World, will help change that. This series focuses on terrorism, pop singers, and animal cruelty (think living animal bombs targeting scantily clad Britneys). Maintaining the social commentary, Badger is still insane in the membrane, talking to animals, and working for Ham. In the second issue, Ham visits his master and Daisy meets a man! And of course, Badger beats up some ninjas. All the elements from the earlier series are still present. Right now the narrative seems a little unfocused, but the plot will no doubt come to fruition in later issues.

Images courtesy IDW

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.