3 out of 5

We could call these the Ron Lim tryout issues.  Lim would soon become Badgey’s regular artist; I can’t say if that was in the works prior to these issues or due to their reception, but either way, his initial foray brings a nice sense of consistency to things, even if Reinhold’s looser pencils sort of informed Badger’s seat-of-his-pants vibe.  Looser by no means denotes lesser-than quality, but we’ll use juxtaposition as a means of clarity: Lim’s ‘consistency’ also, for better or worse, means more traditional.  The mileage on this varies based on his inker, but for three of these issues (34 – 36), he’s paired with Jay Geldhof, and the duo deliver a handsome Norbert, a bevy of muscle-bound men, slickly delineated action, and an oddly suddenly body-builder-esque and dwarf-statured Ham.  Issue 33, the best of this bunch, is inked by Art Nichols, and gives Lim’s art a bit more room to breathe, which makes for a graceful transition from Reinhold.  So the change has pluses and minuses, but the traditional and consistent look, in Badger, ain’t horrible, as Baron has long since settled into a somewhat ironic routine with his plotting aimlessness.

We kick off with Kid Kang, another addition to the title’s list of animal avengerers, though this time it’s an actual animal.  Badge goes to Australia because why not, getting tangled up with some kangaroo abusers, necessitating a team-up with porsche-jacket wearing, bad guy punchin’ ‘roo Kang.  Hilarious; exciting; a great badger one-shot.

The next two issues have a Ham wizarding deal go awry, which turns into Ham and Badge versus some demon bikers.  Baron and Lim get a ton of great mileage out of the biker’s unkillableness – severed heads attacking and halved-bodies holding themselves together – and there’s an amusing, constant story distraction via Norbert’s newly acquired dog, but some reason this tale never feels like it really lets loose.  Perhaps it’s too wed to resolving Ham’s deal with a ‘waffenpoof’ creature; perhaps it’s because it’s difficult to pitch a worthwhile threat that’s not retreading past wizard-battles.

The last issue of what I’m grouping here continues the ‘meh’ trend.  Dire Wolf has a great sequence in which Badger is assisted by – what else? – badgers, but otherwise this is a tone deaf issue, halfway between campy-dialogued silly revenge tale and… something maybe serious?  I can’t tell, and the ambivalence makes the read unsatisfying.  Badge protects a friend’s business from both the ancient curse of the dire wolf and local evil businessman Mr. Feeny.