The first thing that any reasonable person does after enjoying a piece of media is, of course, review it. And here I shall do it for the comic Major Grom (note: site has a lot of NSFW ads), published by Bubble.

I'm going to be harsh here: this had quite a number of pitfalls. I shall only touch on characterization in the Plague Doctor arc, because that is a big one. Contains spoilers, so if you want to read it, click the back button now. This is your last warning.

The main character: Igor Grom. The writers put a lot of effort into emphasizing that we are supposed to like him, or at least, root for him. But so far, everyone who has read it has fallen in love with his nemesis, Sergey Razumovsky. Really, just find any fanart of this and most of it will be of Sergey. Who cares if he kills people? Have you seen the way he dresses?

Yes, the villain has more personality than the protagonist.

Igor would be a pretty loveable person in real life, I wouldn't doubt it. But in fiction, it's always the more...eccentric ones that get all the fans. Igor's only personality is cop. That's it. Nothing remarkable, nothing that makes him stick out. It's just a skin anyone can slip on. Think Bella Swan. Like her, he is also stuck in quite a shallow romance arc. If you've seen any interactions between him and his girlfriend, there's a chance of at least one eyeroll. It's like she's only there for the purpose of being his girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Sergey...is a rather nasty piece of work. He aims to purge the upper class of corruption by, of course, murder, makes an obstacle course of death in his mansion, and tests it on homeless people. He gets arrested and imprisoned, and there, the manifestation of his cruelty becomes another personality entirely. Combined with his backstory, this makes for a rather interesting character. We see him at his worst, defeated, hated by almost everybody. Conversely, Igor is only ever successful in his attempts. There's also the matter of Sergey's relationship with his childhood friend, which should be given another post entirely.

In conclusion: The writing backfired, and now I am attached to a problematic character.

Bows, wiping face with tie