5 out of 5

Hey, remember when Baron promised to dig into Badger’s past with Badger Goes Berserk, and then how that miniseries was sorta just a runaround?  (Okay, okay: by my opinion.)  Well, fear not: promise fulfilled with the first – and ultimately only – prestige followup to Badger volume 1: Badger Bedlam.  In which our hero goes rogue – truly rogue, Baron reminding us of Sykes’ instability – triggered by animal abuse and Larrys, and gets incarcerated in another run-by-scumbags asylum.  Therein we finally get the Vietnam flashbacks we’ve been waiting on since those single-numbered issues from the 80s, and Steven Butler finds an amazing art-partner in inker Ken Branch, the duo managing a brutal tone that’s befitting of Mike’s sobering tour of insanity, and the connections Sykes must make to stay alive and “sane.”  Colorist Rich Powers contributes equally, packing in an insane range of tints and tones to serve action, drama, and story backfill in kind.

This being Baron and Badger, things move at an accelerated pace, but damn, I gotta tell ya: when a character returns late in the issue, it’s a damn fine build-up and made me want to stand up and cheer.  The resultant bloody scuffle is well worth it.

Also features a fantastic (poster-worthy!) cover by Jay Geldhof.