by David Cohen
Those of us who live in the state of Wisconsin have a lot of official things. We have an official state bird, a state animal, a state song, a state flower, even a state poet laureate. Why not have an official state superhero? Especially since there actually are quite a few comic book superheroes from Wisconsin who work hard to keep our fair state free from evil. Here is a rundown of the Badger State’s best while we search for our official state superhero.
Jade and Obsidian
While Marvel comics actually has a plethora of characters from Wisconsin, DC Comics has two. Yep, just two. However, they are the very cool twin team of Jade and Obsidian. These two are the children of the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott.
Scott became married to the reformed Golden Age villain, Thorn (or Rose and Thorn). Thorn was a supervillain with Multiple Personality Disorder, the good side of her being Rose and the evil side being Thorn. Scott married Rose with both of them thinking Thorn had been fully submerged. However, after their wedding night when Jade and Obsidian were conceived, Thorn came to the surface with a vengeance and absconded to Milwaukee of all places. She then gave birth to the twins and promptly put them up for adoption separately, with their father, Green Lantern not knowing of their existence and the children not knowing anything about their real family.
Jade and Obsidian developed powers with Jade having pure green skin and Obsidian being able to turn pure black due to their father’s exposure to the lantern. Both children grew up in abusive homes and were molested. They eventually found each other and discovered their real parentage. Jade and Obsidian have both been involved with the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America and they were both founding members of Infinity, Inc. Jade was a big part of the Green Lantern story as she had dated then-Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and even served as Green Lantern for a time when Rayner was off planet resurrecting the Green Lantern Corps.
Due to their involvement with the Green Lantern saga, JLA and JSA, Jade and Obsidian, particularly Jade, are very arguably the most well-known characters that will appear on this list. As a side note, Obsidian has been established in recent years as one of a handful of gay superheroes in comics. Wisconsin would be very proud to have Jade or Obsidian as their state hero, however, both of them seemed to have a rough time in Wisconsin and left as fast as they could. Further, their story makes the state look like a land of psychotics filled with child abuse…so, I think we’ll move right along.
The Badger
The Badger is an iconic Wisconsin superhero. He is named after our state animal, wears the state color of red, and is based out of our capital city, Madison. The series was originally published by Capital Comics, which was based out of Madison and was written by Madison native Mike Baron.
The Badger was part of the “independent comics” movement of the early 80s and was partly a dark parody of the superhero genre. It was also known for its martial arts themes and extreme violence and has been published by several companies over the years, but the Badger hasn’t seen too much action in recent years.
The main problem with the Badger as our state superhero is that he is crazy. No, literally. He is a Vietnam veteran with Multiple Personality Disorder who escaped from a mental institution, studied martial arts and became a costumed vigilante in a world where there aren’t any. In fact, the series was controversial for its comical portrayal of mental illness. So, I think we’re going to have to reject the Badger’s application for Wisconsin State Superhero.
Hack / Slash
Hack / Slash is a series published by Devil’s Due that is written by central Wisconsin’s very own, Tim Seeley. The series tells the story of Cassie Hack, who comes from Chippewa Falls in western Wisconsin.
Cassie is a scantily clad teenage girl who fights weird and supernatural creatures including a psychotic and cannibalistic lunch lady in a high school cafeteria. She has had encounters with numerous horror fixtures including Chucky from Child’s Play.
The story was adapted into a stage play and a feature film is currently in the works with actress Megan Fox interested in playing the lead role. Cassie Hack even had a nude pictorial for the Suicide Girls web magazine.
Cassie Hack makes Wisconsin proud and while there are lots of weird people and incidents in the state, she is arguably not a superhero and not quite renowned enough yet for the official state title.
That just leaves the Marvel Comics characters from Wisconsin. However, there are so many of them that they need their own column. So next month, we’ll jouney to the Wisconsin of the Marvel Universe as the search for the Wisconsin State Superhero continues.
Merin on 
Captain Z on 
Benton Sartore on 
