2 out of 5

Running out of steam? he questions, 5 issues before the first volume of the forever-iterating Badger would conclude.  There certainly seemed to be something up with Badger towards the end, unable to hold down a consistent penciller and Baron not really committing to either silliness or seriousness.  Badger Goes Berserk kindled some hope in terms of plotting consistency, but it wasn’t really followed up well in the ongoing; the announcement of Steven Butler on art similarly felt like a needed boost over the inconsistent work of Spyder and mismatched Tim Vigil, but by my tastes, Steve lacked both the timing and nuance to make his work on the book worthwhile – his pages just look like standard comic book stuff.  Ron Lim did the muscley superhero bit, but he had a good sense of momentum, at least.  The coloring during this time (Ian Tetrault) was good, at least.

…And Baron just seemed in search of… anything.  Issue 60 has an amusing Three Stooges riff, with a very Badger-y ridiculous quest for, uh, bull jism, but it never really hits its stride, comedicly or insane-ly.  (I might hold the art responsible for this.)  A promised super serious emotional heavyduty two-issue tale about Badger’s mother is a complete flop of confused focus and zero stakes, and, similarly over-promised, issue 64’s All-Mavis-All-The-Time tale of a five-legged horse feels like a shadow of a Badger tale, guest-starring cutouts of Badger characters.

Insult to injury is the long-awaited reappearance of The Yak…!  …who adds nothing to the story.  At all.

Competent stuff, but treading water.