Major Grom
Major Grom (Russian: Майор Гром) is a comic book published by Bubble Comics. The series ran from 2012 to 2015.[1]
| Major Grom | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Bubble Comics |
| Format | Ended |
| Publication date | 2012 – 2015 |
| No. of issues | 50 |
| Main character(s) | Igor Grom Dima Dubin Julia Pchelkina Sergey Razumovsky Fedor Prokopenko |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Artem Gabrelyanov |
| Written by | Artem Gabrelyanov Evgeny Fedotov (writer) |
| Penciller(s) | Konstantin Tarasov Anastasia Kim Juliana Popova Arseniy Chebkinkin |
| Colorist(s) | Anton Startsev |
Story
Major Grom revolves around the adventures of the titular character, Major Igor Grom, a police detective of the St Petersburg police department, and the various cases he solves.
Major Igor Grom
Major Igor Grom is the lead character of the series. He is a police detective with the St. Petersburg major crimes unit.
Outside of work, he is a skilled martial artist and participates in amateur boxing competitions.
Dima Dubin
Dimitry "Dima" Dubin is a 21 year old rookie and newly assigned partner of Grom. He is inexperienced and very "by the book", often taking issue with Grom's methods. He is a capable detective and plays a supporting role in Grom's cases. In Igor Grom, following Grom's departure from the police force, Dima is promoted to lead detective.
Julia Pchelkina
Julia Pchelkina is an investigative reporter and Grom's girlfriend. They meet during the first issue of Major Grom when Grom catches some hooligans that stole her purse. She later begins to help him investigate the case of the plague doctor and becomes increasingly involved in his cases. In the St. Patrick's Day arc, Julia played an active role in the investigation alongside Grom. She is killed by Sergey Razumovsky in issue 33 following a prolonged hostage situation.
Major story arcs
The Plague Doctor
Major Igor Grom investigates a series of seemingly unrelated high-profile murders of a doctor, a weapons dealer, an architect, and a parole officer. Meanwhile, the city's homeless population has been on the decline, a change welcomed by the city.
Through his offbeat methods and underground connections, Grom discovers that murderer known as the Citizen is an eccentric young billionaire and social media mogul. Sergey Razumovsky is the creator of the social media site "Together," a fictional Facebook-like social media outlet. An orphan with a rags-to-riches story, Sergey is a billionaire philanthropist who builds orphanages by day, and murders homeless people by night, in a misguided attempt to clean up the city. Grom has never been one for the rules, and sneaks into Sergey's mansion to search the premises. He is quickly knocked unconscious by Sergey and captured. Sergey forces Grom to pass a series of tests in his Garden of Sinners. Grom outsmarts Sergey and captures him, hauling him to the station with his confession on tape.
St. Patrick's Day
Grom travels to Ireland to investigate a human trafficking ring working under the guise of a children's hospital.
Fairy Tale
Grom investigates a series of bank robberies by a gang of female robbers that don the distinctive disguises of fairy tale princesses.
The Game
Villain Sergey Razumovsky from the Plague Doctor Arc escapes from prison and takes revenge on Grom by abducting many of his close friends. The ensuing hostage situation leads to the death of many of Grom's friends, including his girlfriend Julia.
Voices
Major Grom issues 34-37
The death of his friends and lover during the Game arc has a lasting effect on Grom. Plagued with depression, he takes on the case of a serial child abductor.
The Last Case
Major Grom issues 38-50
Plagued by depression, insomnia and constant nightmares, Grom tries to move past the events of the Game arc by immersing himself in his job as a police detective. He investigates a series of seemingly ritualistic murders that takes place near Sphinx statues in the city of St. Petersburg, while struggling with his increasing dependency on antidepressant drugs.
The series ends with Grom's resignation from the St. Petersburg Police Force.
His story as a civilian investigator is continued in the spin-off series Igor Grom.
Release
The comic is fully released in Russian and collected into trade paperbacks.
Monthly releases in English are currently ongoing on Comixology.[2]
Reception
Major Grom has received widespread critical acclaim in both Russian domestic media and within the American comics community[3] for the quality of its art and writing.
The series has been likened to early Batman comics[4] for its inventiveness and tone. Bubble has been further praised for the writing and development of its rich cast of supporting characters.
Film
An adaptation to Major Grom was announced in 2014.
A short film was released in February 2017 that set the tone for the release of the full-length feature.
The full-length film Major Grom: Plague Doctor is slated for release in October 2019.[5] The film is an adaptation of the first arc of Major Grom, issues 1-10, and revolves around the case of the plague doctor, an eccentric self-made billionaire who seeks to clean up St. Petersburg by the mass murder of "undesirable" citizens.
Spin-offs and crossovers
Igor Grom
Set one year following the end of Major Grom, Igor Grom is a spin-off which follows Grom's life following his resignation from the police force and his release from the psychiatric hospital. No longer a police officer, he continues to investigate cases as a citizen while struggling with mental health issues.
A much darker series, Igor Grom is dramatically different in tone from the light-hearted feel of Major Grom. It delves into issues of mental health, corruption, and the growing division between appearance and reality, and incorporates themes of psychological horror.
"Point of No Return"
"Point of No Return" is a single-issue comic published in 2014. It is an alternate reality spin-off in which social media mogul and villain Sergey Razumovsky, from the Plague Doctor arc, campaigns and wins the presidency based on his public support. The series' premise is based on a reference in Major Grom Issue 8, in which Sergey considers running for a political position to further his influence to be in a better position to implement public policies to clean up the city.
After winning the presidency, Sergey quickly implements policies for a complete overhaul of the corrupt and broken bureaucratic system. He fires all public officials, from politicians to police officers, and reboots the entire system with new people. Unfortunately, lacking political experience, Sergey quickly loses control and becomes a figurehead of a new political system that backslides into the same corruption he tried to eradicate.
A few years following Sergey's ascension to the presidency, the nation is an oppressive police state. Sergey has disappeared. Grom, no longer a police officer after being fired in the initial bureaucratic overhaul, is working with an underground group of hackers and truthseekers to overthrow the government. When attempting to transfer information to the group, Grom's girlfriend, reporter Julia Pchelkina, is captured. Grom arrives too late to save her.
The issue ends on an open note, with Grom borrowing a rifle from an old friend to institute his "overhaul" of the now corrupt bureaucratic system.
"Time of the Raven"
"Time of the Raven" is a mini-series which ran from October 2015 to March 2016. It is a multiverse crossover involving six other series published by Bubble Comics.
The mini-series revolves around the resurrection of the Siberian raven god, Kutkh, and the ensuing battle between the legions of Kutkh and the characters of other Bubble series. The series ran for eight issues and includes a prequel, a prologue, five core issues and an epilogue.
A cinematic trailer for the mini-series was released at Comic Con Russia 2015, and can be seen on YouTube.
"Ziggy and Sneak Destroy the Bubble Universe"
Released April 1, 2018, "Ziggy and Sneak" is a single-issue April Fool's special released for Khomyakon (Hamstercon) 2018 in Moscow.[6]
The 170-page issue was released with eight collectors' cover variants. It is a fourth wall-breaking comic about Ziggy from Krutisky and Sneak from Demonslayer, who set out to murder every main character of the Bubble Comics universe.
The book received critical acclaim from Spidermedia Russia for the inventiveness of its plot, and hip commentary and jokes.
"Igor Eel"
Released April 1, 2017, "Igor Eel" is a single-issue April Fool's special released for Khomyakon (Hamstercon) 2017 in Moscow. It is 56 pages long and features a parody of Major Grom in which all the characters appear as animals.
The idea for the book began as a pun, that makes fun of the similar spellings of "Igor" and "Eel" in Cyrillic.
References
- "Mayor Grom (Volume) - Comic Vine". Comic Vine. Retrieved 2018-05-22.
- Major Grom Digital Comics - Comics by comiXology.
- "San Diego Comic Con 2017: Major Grom | FangirlNation Magazine". FangirlNation Magazine. 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2018-05-22.
- "Major Grom & Russian Comics". prezi.com. Retrieved 2018-05-22.
- "Movie Release Date Announcement". vk.com. Retrieved 2018-05-22.
- "List of Books Released for Hamstercon 2018". bubble.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2018-05-22.