amazing heroes 58: nexus and badger find a home

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Amazing Heroes, Badger, capital comics, First Publishing, gil jordan, ham, jeffrey butler, Mike Baron, Nexus, Steve Rude

These pages from Amazing Heroes #58 recount the failure of Capital Comics and the subsequent rescue of Nexus and Badger by First Comics. First would eventually have its own problems, but Nexus would survive to join the illustrious ranks of Dark Horse Comics. The stand-out treat of this article, aside from the poignant footnote in comics history, is Jeffrey Butler’s page of Badger and Ham the Weather Wizard surfing.

That masterpiece of madcap mayhem comes from an early Badger story where Ham summons a tidal wave to attack a corporation that wants to chop down his magical oak tree. He’s a druid, you see and… you know what? Trying to explain Badger to someone who hasn’t read it just makes you sound like you are speaking a foreign language. So let’s get down to it and rock today’s 80s flashback!

Nexus’ Ship Schematic

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Badger, Judah, Les Dorscheid, Mike Baron, Nexus, Nexus meets Badger, ship, Steve Rude, Trialogue Trilogy

In addition to having an awesome superhero lair, or even a heroic house, superheroes usually get a car. It’s the American way. Nexus has one, too. What? That’s not a car pictured above? Sure it is — and we don’t mean the little one shown for scale, either! Like a dream image, it represents our fantasies about our noisy, four-wheeled invention. Nexus has a complete living quarters in his ship, making it more like an RV that can travel through black holes. Pretty handy when you are dispensing justice and cruising for adventure all over the known universe.

These pages come from Nexus #6, published by Capital Comics originally. Dark Horse recently reprinted the issue in the Nexus Omnibus.

Below, long-time Nexus colorist and eventual cover artist Les Dorscheid appears in a rare profile page from the same issue.

Les was an integral part of the visual appeal of Nexus. And if you don’t have an appreciation for his skills yet, just dig this single page of Jil and Sundra’s first journey in their new spaceship.

The issue also featured an order form for these sweet mini-posters. The Nexus poster was totally worth the $4.

Finally, this issue of Nexus is where Nexus and Judah meet, for the first time, Mike Baron’s other creation from the Capital days: Badger. While many comics writers of the day deconstructed superheroes to the point of questioning their sanity, Badger had no questions about it at all. He was simply insane. Stark raving mad.

Enjoy this scene where Nexus and Judah, struggling for survival on a strange planet full of wonders and terrors, have an unexpected dinner guest. This three-part story, The Trialogue Trilogy, remains a favorite Nexus story of ours.