BADJ

Real Name: Badj

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Reality-98410) extraterrestrial (see comments)

Occupation: Deserter, scientist;
    former mercenary soldier

Group Membership: Formerly Alien Legion: Nomad Squad (the Bospor, Torqa Dun, Durge, Jugger Grimrod, Hadron, Meico, Skathe Mescad, Torie Montroc III, Sarigar, Ibrm Vesper, Zeerod, others)

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Torie Montroc III, Sarigar, Ibrm Vesper, Zeerod

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile across the three galaxies Thermor, Ophides and Auron.

First Appearance: Alien Legion I#1 (April 1984)

Powers/Abilities: Badj was a scientist and believed himself to have advanced intelligence; since he claimed this while under the influence of a potent drug, this estimation of himself might be inaccurate. He wore standard Legion armor designed to deflect laser blasts so long as they did not hit straight on, and a Legion backpack with a built in radio. He used both Legion dart guns and pirates' lasers.

Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Fur: Brown

History:
(Alien Legion I#1 (fb) - BTS) - The Alien Legion was a mercenary force composed of bio-forms from countless far-flung worlds of the trigalactic TOPHAN Galactic Union. While the Union's own defense forces maintained the pax galactica, the Legion was charged with the low status responsibilites - guarding inhospitable frontier worlds, quashing insurgencies, and generally serving the Union wherever and whenever the odds stacked up deadly and dirty.

(Alien Legion I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Badj joined the Legion for the opportunities...

(Alien Legion I#2 (fb) - BTS) - for free travel and to study biology and botany on alien worlds during the Legion's tours of duty around the galaxies. He viewed himself as a scientist first, rather than a soldier. He discussed this several times with his superior, Lieutenant Torrie Montroc III.

(Alien Legion I#1 (fb) - BTS) -  After reports reached the Union that mineral pirates were operating on Wedifact IV, a moon the Union had deemed off limits in order to allow its developing sentient species, the Rathosaurs, to evolve physically and culturally uncontaminated by outside influences, they dispatched Nomad, Vector and two other unidentified Legion squads to put the pirates out of commission. To minimize the operation's impact on Wedifact IV the Legionnaires were only armed with pistols that fired biodegradable darts. This was to be Badj's first combat mission.

(Alien Legion I#1) - Nearing Wedifact IV, the Legion transport suffered a sneak attack from Harkilon fighters in contravention of their treaty with the Union. With two squads' shuttles destroyed on the first hit, the transport's engines disabled and the Harkilons circling round for another attack run, the remaining Legion squads, Nomad and Vector, were ordered to evacuate to their respective shuttles, prompting Badj to complain that intelligence had informed them this mission was meant to be an easy one. Making it to the moon, Vector followed the agreed plan and flew over the pirates' base for a quick recon, intending to then rendezvous with Nomad afterwards, but the pirates shot them down, then hunted down the survivors; outgunned by the pirates' high energy lasers, they were easily slain.

    After Nomad Squad landed and established a command post a safe distance away, Montroc led Badj, Torqa Dun, Jugger Grimrod, Meico, Durge and an unidentified trooper to scout for Vector's shuttle. Discovering Vector Squad's corpses, Montroc ordered Badj to stand guard while the others collected their fallen comrades' ID tags. Noticing Dun stealing a dead Legionnaire's wristo (wrist watch), Badj called him a ghoul and reminded him that Montroc's orders had not been to loot, but the unrepentant Dun told him that a dead man had no need to tell the time, and told him to get back to playing guard.

    Resuming his sentry duty, Badj ruminated on Dun's comments, wondering to himself if perhaps he had the right idea, reasoning that since the Legion got all the dirtiest jobs in the Union and was composed of such a range of oddballs thrown together , that if he didn't look out for himself, no one else would. His reverie was interrupted by a twig snapping nearby, and when Badj investigated, he spotted a group of Rathosaurs traversing the jungle nearby transporting what appeared to be some advanced technology. Intrigued, Badj decided to follow them, figuring getting "lost" was a preferable alternative to fighting the pirates alongside Nomad Squad and likely dying like Vector Squad had. Busy burying Vectors' dead, the rest of the scouts only noticed Badj's absence once they had finished, and with orders to return to base, they were unable to spare time to look for him. The next day Nomad Squad attacked the pirates and wiped them out. Reporting their success back to the Union, they were informed a new transport would collect them in a couple of days. With Badj still not responding to calls on the radio, Nomad's captain Sarigar ordered a search launched, angrily noting that Badj best not be trying to desert.

(Alien Legion I#2 (fb) - BTS) - As he followed the Rathosaurs, Badj noticed Silote pods growing from nearby trees, extremely rare plants that could yield a powerful hallucinogenic extract worth a fortune, and he became overcome with avarice, reasoning that the money he could make would allow him to travel the galaxies as he pleased without having to risk his life in the Legion.

(Alien Legion I#1) -  Still following the Rathosaurs, Badj came across the natives' village, and noted with amusement that while the Legion had been dispatched to prevent the Rathosaurs from suffering societal contamination, they were far too late as the natives had been pilfering technology from the pirates to play with. As he wondered to himself if the natives had the intelligence to use any of it yet, he witnessed one Rathosaur unwittingly activate a grenade and blow  itself up.

(Alien Legion I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Badj stole some lasers from the Rathosaurs' stash, ditched his Legion backpack, and, after killing a couple of Rathosaurs to make his point, he forced the natives to harvest the Silote pods and extract the drugs they contained, some of which he then sampled, rendering himself inebriated.

    The day after the battle against the pirates, Meico, Hadron and Durge scouted the sector where Badj had last been seen, but found no sign of him, nor evidence of struggle or foul play.

(Alien Legion I#2) - In light of Meico's report, Sarigar wanted to log Badj as a deserter, but Montroc asked him not to, aware that military law treated desertion as an automatic death sentence, arguing that Badj wouldn't be that stupid and that the inexperienced soldier had instead gotten himself into trouble. The more cynical Sarigar pointed out that Badj had vanished before Nomad Squad had encountered any trouble, stating that he believed Badj had fled to avoid risking dying in battle. However, he agreed to leave off logging Badj as a deserter until the transport arrived to pick them up, assigning LegionnairesVesper and Zeerod to help Montroc search.

   The trio of the searchers eventually located Badj's backpack and the Rathosaurs he had murdered, prompting Montroc to conclude that the pirates must have found and slain Badj prior to Nomad Squad hitting the pirate camp the night before, rather than deserting. However Badj had spotted the trio; had he stayed out of their sight, his scheme and actual fate might have remaining undiscovered, but still under the influence and suffering from impaired judgement, he decided he couldn't risk the Legion "stealing" his Silote. Coming at the trio from behind as they were examining the corpses, a slurred Badj thanked Montroc for showing trust in him and took the trio prisoner at laser point. Montroc tried to reason with him, but Zeerod pronounced Badj a traitor and went for his dart gun. Badj shot Zeerod's wrist, forcing him to drop the weapon while Badj laughed drunkenly.

    Tying their hands, Badj walked them back to the Rathosaur village as he explained his exploitation of the Rathosaurs and plans for the Silote. Montroc again tried to get him to see reason, but Badj was confident that with the half the pirates' arsenal in his possession and three hostages, he could force Sarigar to negotiate his free passage off Wedifact IV, and if Sarigar refused, Badj would kill every Legionnaire in the quadrant, starting with his prisoners. As he made this threat, the booming of a distant photon-turret gun distracted him; back near the pirates' mining site some remaining pirates had been trying to sneak in and retrieve their valuable ore but had been startled into thinking they were under attack when the Silote trees had begun explosively ejecting their ripe pods.

    As Badj glanced around, the Silote trees near the village also began to fire their pods with sufficient force to implant them in the ground. Seeing the pods panic the Rathosaurs and needing the natives to handle extracting the drug, Badj shifted his attention away from his prisoners as he drunkenly tried to stop the Rathosaurs from fleeing. Seizing his chance, Montroc charged Badj from behind, knocking the lasers from the deserter's hands, then kicked him in the head, knocking him out. Cutting the ropes tying their wrists on nearby thorns, the trio of Legionnaires fled the pod-storm with Vesper carrying the unconscious Badj into custody to face Legion justice.

    After Nomad Squad departed Wedifact IV, the idealistic Montroc told Sarigar he would like to believe it had been the Silote extract that had made Badj turn on them, extenuating circumstances rather than any intrinsic evil in his soul.

 Comments: Created by Carl Potts, Alan Zelenetz, Frank Cirocco and Terry Austin.

   Alien Legion was an Epic title, and the characters and concepts are owned by Carl Potts. It is set in Reality-98410, which has connected to the rest of the Omniverse through the Legion's Jugger Grimrod encountering another Epic character, the reality-hopping Law Dog, in Law Dog vs. Grimrod, and via a less direct crossover with adventurer Lester Girls (The Trouble With Girls), evolved dinosaurs the Stokers (Feud) and Conita U'Det (Spyke) in Epic's Heavy Hitters Annual#1. However, I am unaware of any crossover between those realities and others that might then provide a confirmed direct route from Alien Legion all the way through to Reality-616, where most Marvel stories are set. The closest we have is an alternate reality version of Nomad Squad, Hodad Force of the Alienated Legion, who turned up in What The..?!#5/4, where they encountered humor counterparts of the Shadowline heroes and Marshal Law. A minor side effect of this lack of links is that without any chain of characters leading to a Marvel character whose height is already revealed, there's no way to accurately estimate Badj's stature. He seems fairly tall, and if the humanoid members of Nomad Squad (Montroc, Grimrod and Dun) are about regular human height, then Badj is close to them, placing him somewhere in the 5' to 6'6" range.

    As far as I am aware (and I admit I've not read all the Alien Legion tales), there's apparently nothing in-story that might prevent Alien Legion existing within Reality-616. Their adventures all take place in three galaxies well away from the ones most Marvel stories take place in (predominately the Milky Way, plus sometimes the Andromeda and Shi'ar galaxies), and I don't believe Earth is ever mentioned, so Nomad Squad could feasibly be active in the modern day, just a long way away from all the other characters running around 616. However, just because nothing in the stories rules it out doesn't mean Carl Potts is likely to permit the Legion to run into Galactus or visit the Baxter Building on Earth.

    Unlike many of Nomad Squad who lasted somewhat longer and so had more time to be developed, we don't get told what species or planet Badj hails from.

    This profile was completed 01/03/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Loki.

 CLARIFICATIONS:
Badj has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Alien Legion I#2, p11, pan6 (main image)
Alien Legion I#1, p38, pan2 (smiling headshot)
Alien Legion I#1, p2, pan1 (side view)
Alien Legion I#2, p9, pan2 (upper torso shot)
Alien Legion I#1, p10, pan3 (angry headshot)

Appearances:
Alien Legion I#1 (April 1984) - Alan Zelenetz (writer), Frank Cirocco (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor), Carl Potts (creator)
Alien Legion I#2 (June 1984) - Alan Zelenetz (writer), Frank Cirocco (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor), Carl Potts ("producer")

First Posted: 09/14/2021
Last updated: 09/11/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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