Quite Possibly the Greatest Superhero of All Time

Ever since my earliest days as a young fan of superhero comics, one of my favorites amongst the “long underwear” heroes has been Mike Baron’s Badger, a seminally strange character if ever there was one.

The most basic conceit of Badger, in a nutshell, is that he’s crazy. And not darkly tortured and disturbed like some versions of Batman, but just plain nuts. The short version is that, after a traumatic childhood, Norbert Sykes was taken as a P.O.W. in Vietnam. While imprisoned and starved, he began to eat roaches, until eventually the roaches started willingly presenting themselves to him to be eaten. It wasn’t too long after this that God appeared to him–and God was a giant badger named Myrtle. He also became a martial arts expert, by the way.

The Badger series was originally envisioned as something very different, featuring a Druid wizard from the Middle Ages, but when asked to stick in a superhero, writer Mike Baron brought in Badger–who fancies himself a superhero, but more than anything is simply pure id. Ham, the Druid wizard, was relegated to backup character (fine with me, as Badger is far more interesting) and the series itself became a strange hodgepodge of genres.

Part superhero, part superhero sendup, part supernatural adventure (demons are a regular occurrence), part animal rights propaganda (Badger’s only real power, other than craziness, is that he can talk to animals, and he is also fiercely protective of them), and part God knows what else. To this day it is still one of my favorite series of all time, and this is largely due to the fact that Badger’s insanity is multifaceted enough to be played for laughs without it ever feeling like we’re simply laughing at an unfortunate person. The titular character is, for the most part, a happy one, and when his mental problems take turns for the worse the narrative can become quite sobering and disturbing–but never to the point of entirely losing its sense of humor or adventure.

There’s a lot more I could say about the series: about how the city of Madison, Wisconsin becomes its own character, or about how the whole world of Badger is just a little skewed towards the insane even without our protagonist, or the equal-opportunity jabs and compliments aimed at most sides of the political spectrum, the hordes of demons that show up throughout the series, the surprisingly faithful depiction of martial arts, or the rare but fascinating glimpses into Badger’s multiple personalities… but I’ll try to not let this get too long.

I bring Badger up for two (most likely related) reasons. It seems that the two greatest (as far as I know) creations of Mike Baron are each experiencing a revival of sorts. Awhile back I discussed the return of Nexus, Baron’s more respected and, according to many, better series… although, I’ve always preferred Badger. Thankfully, Badger himself has also returned: first in the one-shot Badger: Bull! and secondly in the five issue mini-series Badger Saves the World, the first issue of which just hit recently. Bull is just a little reminder of the character, but Badger Saves the World seems to be a sort of magnum opus that’s been bumping around in Mike Baron’s head for years, so I’m very excited to see where it goes… so far we’ve already got suicide bombing dogs and random-ass demons, so I’m pretty pleased.

Also, Badger has come into my mind because, I expect due to the new comics, someone is finally releasing the entire series in a collected format, as one can see in The Complete Badger Volume 1, which can be bought at most comic shops, online bookstores, and so on and so forth. (You can also get a closer look at IDW publishing and Badger here.) I can’t comment on the quality of the presentation itself–no point buying the books when I have all the issues–but I’m glad that someone is collecting what was a very, very solid series… although, if memory serves me, the first book will be a little bit inferior to the second, but not by much.

I can only hope that, for the sake of those who haven’t experienced this wonderful series before, IDW will also reprint the four-issue series Badger Goes Berserk!, which came out in 1989 as, for my money, that’s probably the best Badger story that was ever written… at least, so far. Bezerk really explores Badger’s multiple personalities, the horrors of his childhood, and gives us some great white supremacist villains to boot. What’s more, different artists draw different sections of the issues, depending on which of Norbert’s personalities are in control, which is rather genius.

(P.S. I hope they reprint the Hexbreaker graphic novel too!)

So, if any of the bizarre things I’ve described here appeal to you, I highly recommend picking up that first Complete Badger book and seeing what you think, preferably before skipping to Badger Saves the World, but the new series probably works well on its own too. (Hard to say for someone as ensconced in the character and his history as I.)

Either way, for God’s sake, support such a bizarre superhero concept, it’ll be well worth your time.