Badger is a superhero in American comic books published by the short-lived Capital Comics company and then First Comics. He was created by writer Mike Baron in 1983 and published through the early 1990s in a titular series that ended when First Comics also ceased all publications. Since the ongoing series ended in 1991, new Badger titles have been released sporadically through Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, IDW Publishing, and Devil's Due Publishing.
Publication history
The first four issues of Badger were published by Capital Comics (under the name Badger), beginning in 1983. Capital ceased publishing in 1984, and in 1985 Baron took his creation to First Comics to then be illustrated by artist Bill Reinhold. First reprinted the first four issues, and then published monthly issues of Badger, including the Hexbreaker graphic novel in 1988. A spin-off four-issue miniseries ran concurrently with the regular series in 1989, called Badger Goes Berserk, which explored Norbert's childhood and his abuse at the hands of his stepfather and stepbrother, now white supremacists who he encountered again in the miniseries. Badger sometimes guest-starred in Mike Baron's other series, the space opera Nexus, which took place in the future. Badger would imagine these episodes to be psychotic hallucinations, which he took in stride as being no more bizarre than the rest of his life. In 1991, First Comics published Badger Bedlam, a one-shot "First Publishing Deluxe-Format Special" by Baron, Butler, and Ken Branch, but then went bankrupt and the series ended with #70. Badger also featured in First's five-issue Crossroads series. Artists who worked on Badger in its 1980s run included Jeff Butler, Steven Butler, Bill Reinhold, Chas Truog, Jackson Guice, Mike Mignola, Gary Chaloner, Tim Vigil and Ron Lim.
In 1994, Dark Horse Comics published two miniseries featuring different versions of Badger's origin: the four-issue Badger: Shattered Mirror, a "serious" take on Badger's origin, and the two-issue Badger: Zen Pop Funny-Animal Version. These were deliberately written to be mutually exclusive.
In 1997, Image Comics began publishing a black and white fourth Badger series, whose narrative connection to the previous versions was not entirely clear. This series ran for eleven issues.
The series returned November 2007, published by IDW Publishing.