3 out of 5

While Baron was busy making Badger go berserk in his mini-series, Roger Salick took over scripting on the ongoing.  …And it was okay.  I was looking forward to these issues, as Salick’s backups in prior months were generally pretty solid, but he ends up having a tough time filling an entire issue with antics – Baron’s skill at rounding out his stories with small but fulfilling character asides becomes apparent – and so we sort of get the same style of punchline strips he offered before, but with longer fight scenes.  As illustrated by Tim Vigil, who has a rubbery but detailed style, it works, for sure, to pass the time, it’s just not very consequential, nor do those punchlines build much beyond a chuckle.

The best issue is 51, Ron Lim’s last, as the Badger / demon / Ham banter pads things amusingly; 52-54 (53 and 54 a two-parter) just sort of fly by.  Baron contributed text backups to the latter three issues and those are… words.  Badger is maybe a better visual character, or Baron a better comic writer.  Either way, I shan’t be reading those again, but I won’t knock the review on the main material for that.