First appearance: ‘Major Grom’ #1, Bubble, October 2011
Appearance on screen: ‘Major Grom’ (2017, short film), ‘Major Grom: Plague Doctor’ (2021), ‘Grom. Difficult Childhood’ (2023)
Major Igor Grom is considered to be the most popular Russian comic book hero, a regular policeman from St. Petersburg. He has no superpowers, apart from a quick reaction, incredible athleticism, a sharpened sense of justice and crystal-clear sincerity. The comic book’s universe is written in a Russian reality that, however, was significantly altered to suit the superhero theme.
In the feature-length movie ‘Major Grom: Plague Doctor’ (2021), the main hero calculates the outcome of a fight like Sherlock Holmes does in Guy Ritchie movies. A plague doctor, who suffers from split personality, becomes Grom’s antagonist. This character reminds of Pavel Durov, creator of the Telegram messaging app, with the only difference that the supervillain created not just a social network, but also combat armor with flamethrowers, among other things.
The movie about the major became the first Russian movie based on a Russian comic book. It topped the global Netflix viewership rating and stayed in the top 10 for half a year.
Igor Grom appeared in comic books in 2011 in Bubble Comics’ first series titled ‘Major Grom’ that consisted of 50 issues. In 2017, the series was updated, with 50 more issues coming out by 2021, in which Grom has left the police force and started a career as a private investigator.
A prequel to ‘Plague Doctor’ came out at the beginning of 2023 that tells the story of Igor Grom’s childhood and maturation, ‘Grom. Difficult Childhood’.
First appearance: ‘Red Fury’, Bubble Comics, October 2014
Appearance on screen: ‘Red Fury’ TV series, upcoming
The main hero of Bubble Comics’ ‘Red Fury’ is thief and special agent Nika Chaikina. Along with five other “specialists”, she is a member of a secret organization, the International Control Agency. Their main mission is to find the Holy Grail, an artifact that will grant power over the world to its owner. The team also has to prevent global military conflicts, including World War III.
The first issues of the comic book were often blamed for being parodically chaotic and for excessive sexualization. According to the creators, the writers stepped away from the latter a long time ago. Creating the comic series in 2012, the publishers were guided by the culture of the 1990s, particularly by the comic book ‘Danger Girl’ by Scott Campbell.
The ‘Red Fury’ TV series is currently in the audition stage.
Danila is a guy with blue arms. Shmyg is a beast right.
Bubble ComicsFirst appearance: ‘Demonslayer’, Bubble Comics, October 2014
The plot of the comic book takes the reader to a Moscow filled with demons that came from Hell after Satan was overthrown. Former military man Danila lost his family during the South Ossetian conflict. Learning that demons are responsible for it, he engages them in an uneven battle. Mages, who recruit warriors to fight the forces of evil, visit a mutilated Danila in the hospital. In exchange for his life, he signs a contract with them, by which he has to now slay demons.
‘Demonslayer’ is a typical superhero, although living in a universe reminiscent of the Old Testament. Danila’s weapons are his tattoos inked from Satan’s blood; his companion is a little imp named Shmyg, former fallen angel Baphomet, who escaped hell. Demonslayer needs no food, but he eats in the memory of his human past. An hourglass filled with the ashes of slain demons instead of sand gives Demonslayer his vitality, regeneration abilities and eternal youth. In the middle of the series, Demonslayer acquires new superpowers, for example superhuman strength and an ability to grow in size.
According to Bubble Comics’ creator Artyom Gabrelyanov, the company is thinking about bringing Demonslayer to the big screen. In Bubble Comic’s movie ‘Major Grom: Plague Doctor’ there’s an “easter egg” – a mention of a “killer with a rat”, as Danila and Shmyg are sometimes called in the comic book, which the fans took as a hint that the Demonslayer universe will soon be transferred onto the big screen.
First appearance: ‘Mir’, Bubble Comics, August 2020
A Soviet superhero, created in the 1960s under the orders of Nikita Khrushchev, who perished in a fight to the death with American superhuman Phaethon, is revived in our modern day, thanks to the daughter of a famous Russian politician.
A naive young man of about 25 years old, looking like a typical Soviet sportsman, raised by his scientist creator, catches bullets in flight, lifts unbelievably heavy objects and influences consciousness. He was trained in bunkers scattered across the territory of the USSR.
During his creation, Mir acquires too much power, so the authorities limit his development, installing “hypnoblocks”. After the heroine of the comic book assembles him literally bit by bit in modern Russia, Mir re-explores his abilities, returning to the bunkers and restoring the events that led to his death.
‘Mir’ is a relatively new comic book by Bubble Comics. It was born from the rethinking of the strained period of the struggle of two powers of the 20th century: “Only a few know which battle really determined the outcome of the Cold War,” the fandom says. According to the comic series, the Cold War ended with the fight to the death of the American and Russian superheroes, in which Phaethon disappears, disintegrating Mir “for his own good”.
First appearance: ‘Alexander Nevsky’, September 2021, ‘Three-Nine’ publishing house
“What if the hero’s life wasn’t cut short in 1263 and Alexander Nevsky is still protecting Russian lands from the henchmen of evil – much worse than all the armies of the world?” is the ‘Three-Nine’ comic book’s description, that reinterprets Russian fairy tales, says.
According to the publisher, the most popular comic book character, great warrior prince from the 13th century Alexander Nevsky, is still alive and is protecting Russian lands from dark forces.
“There’s a certain reference to the classic warrior in his design, his massive pauldrons and a collar create a unique recognizable silhouette, the color design of his long classic cloak is based on the image of a good warrior superhero… His image in regular life is also far from a regular pensioner, he’s a modern buffed old man with stylish disguise glasses,” Azer Babaev, the author of the concept, shares on the publishing house’s social media.
There’s comic books about Nevsky himself and also about his battles against the legendary Tugarin Zmey, Nightingale the Robber and Hydra.
First appearance: ‘Roman, the Conqueror of Swallows’, Vitaly Terletsky, February 2016
Appearance on screen: cartoon ‘Roman, the Conqueror of Swallows’, February 2019
This is the story of a bearded man who decides to take his revenge on a bunch of swallows, because they stole his father’s car. The swallows get mad and go seeking the help of the Great Swallow, a female bird with shoes on – as tall as Roman himself. As such, the hero enters an uneven battle with a colossal number of swallows.
The first comic book, published by its author Vitaly Terletsky on Russian social network Vkontakte, was released in 2016 and has been published almost every month there since. Later, the comic series began to be sold at book- and comic-shops.
Apart from its funny story, ‘Roman, the Conqueror of Swallows’ is interesting in that it gave birth to an alternative comics movement dubbed ‘terletskism’. “This approach is to not put too much effort into drawing the comics, since the reader will read a page in several seconds anyway,” the fandom website says.
The comic series about Roman, unlike the rest in this list, is black-and-white, graphic, as though drawn on the margins of a school notebook. But, the manner of narration is not for kids at all.
First appearance: ‘A True Hero’, Wizart Comics, 2022
Appearance on screen: a TV series, upcoming
A classic superhero origin story: a regular man, a middle school teacher, a bit of a nerd, puts on a superhero outfit in an attempt to impress his son, who’s really into comics and suddenly actually becomes a superhuman. His son is his sidekick in the world of alternative universes. Not only the design of the main hero, but also the family history and his abilities are classic. The story, meanwhile, takes place in St. Petersburg.
Now the creators are raising money for a six-episode TV series.
First appearance: movie ‘Black Lightning’, December 2009
In this comic world, the hero is Dmitry Maykov, a 20-year-old student who lives in Moscow. However, in this story, the city stands on a huge deposit of diamonds. And, of course, an evil businessman wants to seize this opportunity.
Dima’s father gives him a used 1966 Volga and, it turns out, it can fly. Unlike the slow car of Ron Weasley in the ‘Harry Potter’ saga, this Volga can accelerate up to 300 km/h (190 mph) and weighs 4 tons. At first, Maykov uses it to earn some money, but, after the death of his father, Dima turns into a superhero, who saves Moscow citizens.
The movie was criticized for copying American movies and the similarity between the hero and Spider-Man, but its humor and special effects were appreciated.
First appearance: Evgeny Zubkov’s illustrations, November 2020
The alternative Siberian Spider-Man from a cyberpunk Russian province was invented by illustrator Evgeny Zubkov back in his childhood, his sketches drawn in his school notebooks.
The ‘Spider-Man’ cartoon was shown on TV in Altai Territory during cold winter days and the schoolboy liked to imagine how this superhero would live in a Russian city. Where else can you see a Siberian Spider-Man in tracksuit pants, hanging on the wall of a Soviet apartment block with a bag of groceries from a Russian supermarket?
First appearance: ‘Fedor x9’, 2010
“Once, a schoolboy named Fedor created eight clones of himself, with the help of magic and playing cards, in order to do his bidding. But, they, led by the King of Spades, don’t want to be his marionettes and rebel. However, their Creator manages to seal them off in the world of cards,” is what the description to the volumes of ‘Land of the Kings’ says.
Thirteen years ago, Fedor Nechitaylo created an alternative universe called ‘13 cards’ that won the hearts of the current generation. The main heroes are eight clones of the author himself, characters with their own color, personality and a card suit, but they all look like Nechitaylo himself. They appeared for the first time in the comic ‘Fedor x9’ that is considered a prologue to the graphic novel ‘Land of the Kings’.
All of the above comic books have also been released digitally and are readily available on the Internet.
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