The danse macabre has begun.
Plague Doctor is a 2012-2013 story in BUBBLE Comics' series Major Grom, written by Artëm Gabrelyanov and Evgeny Fedotov, with artwork by Konstantin Tasarov and Anastasia Kim. The story ran from issues #1-#10, and was later collected into two volumes. It is the debut story of the series, and marked the introduction of many of the major characters of the series, including Igor Grom, Dmitry Dubin, Yulia Pchelkina, and Sergey Razumovsky.
In Saint Petersburg, the son of a city prosecutor is burned alive in his sports car, a Dirty Cop is found with his tongue cut out and his body eaten by rats, and an unethical doctor is hanged in front of his own clinic. The culprit behind these brutal crimes: a mysterious, terrifying figure who hides behind a medieval Plague Doctor’s mask. The masked killer claims that Russia’s cultural capital is infected by “the plague of unlawfulness and injustice” — and the purification process has begun.
Unorthodox police investigator Igor Grom and his rookie partner, Dmitry Dubin, take on the case. Grom quickly realizes that the Plague Doctor is targeting high-profile criminals who had previously evaded justice. Unfortunately, the investigation turns up one dead end after another. To further complicate matters, the citizens of the city have embraced the masked vigilante: they're using the popular social network Vmestenote as his tribune—and are willing to do whatever it takes to assist their new "savior" and spread his message.
For the 2021 film based on the story, see here.
Tropes relevant to Major Grom: Plague Doctor include:
- All Are Equal in Death: The Plague Doctor's notes suggest this philosophy, with allusions to the Danse Macabre. This is supported by his modus operandi, which targets wealthy and powerful individuals who are seemingly untouchable. This is ultimately revealed to be a smokescreen, as he only really cares about the sins of the wealthy and powerful inasmuch as they draw attention to his own criminal activities.
- Artistic License – History: In Issue #6, the Plague Doctor states that the Great London Fire was responsible for an incalculable loss of human life. In reality, the number of deaths caused by the fire is widely believed to have been rather small.note This is a particularly odd mistake, as the same issue gets many facts about the event right (such as that the fire burned for four days, that St. Paul's Cathedral was destroyed, and that the conflagration is credited with ending the Bubonic Plague).
- Artistic License – Medicine: Promedol does not cause hallucinations, even in high doses. The drug normally causes mild intoxication, with all the associated symptoms: nausea, vomiting, dizziness, disorientation, and euphoria—none of which Igor experiences in the comics.
- Backstory: Sergey provides his to Igor in Issue #8: he grew up in an orphanage, and was a loner and an outcast, finding serenity and solace in the beauty of classical art (which, as we further learn in the Issue #10 story "Metamorphosis", caused him to be bullied by his peers and teachers alike). He also realized that he cared little for the hedonistic activities (drugs, sex, drinking) in which most you people indulge. As such, he hates both the common folk, and those he deems "beneath" him — particularly people who are a drain on society (hence why he attempts to wipe them out).
- Bad People Abuse Animals: For the third test of character in the Garden of Sinners, the prisoner is seemingly forced to tear open live mice with his bare hands in order to retrieve the last key needed to access the antidote. The point of the exercise is to prove that the prisoner is inherently cruel, because he would be willing to inflict a horrible death on cute, innocent animals to save his own life. Grom, who is both clever and not cruel, realizes that the key is actually hidden in a hole shaped like a mouse, and spares the animals.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the start of Issue #5, Dima finds Grom's office trashed (with the Major nowhere in sight), and is confronted by an imposing figure wearing a plague doctor mask and spouting menacing catchphrases. It turns out the masked man is Igor: he was just trying to get inside the killer's head. Dima isn't amused. The alternate cover of the issue also plays with this, depicting Igor wearing the Plague Doctor's mask.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: During the ride to the police station, Sergey points out that Igor has no solid evidence tying him to the Plague Doctor's crimes or the many deaths at his mansion, and states that he will frame Grom for his crimes. In response, Igor drags the man out of the car, puts his service weapon gun to Sergey's head... and opens the magazine, revealing Yulia's tape recorder. The gun was never loaded: Igor only carried it so he'd have a place to stash the recorder, and get Sergey's confession on tape.
- Batman Gambit: Igor masterfully executes a two-fold gambit in the final act: having realized that Razumovsky is a bombastic braggart, and that he frequently drugs his victims with Promedol, Igor takes an antidote to the drug and hides Yulia's recording device in his service weapon before going to Razumovsky's mansion; he then allows himself to be captured, knowing that The Citizen will search him for weapons — and, given the villain's personality, start to monologue at some point, providing the major with the evidence he needs to convict Razumovsky of both the Plague Doctor's crimes and the murders at the mansion.
- Been There, Shaped History: The Bird (i.e. Razumovsky's evil side) claims to have been alive in the seventeenth century and caused the Great London Fire of 1666. He states that he did it to purge the city of the corrupt religious authorities and lawmen and give London society a "fresh start" — and that he intends to do the same to Saint Petersburg. Whether this was actually the case remains to be seen.
- Bird People: Sergey Razumovsky's dark alter ego (aptly named "The Bird") appears as a black-feathered, winged humanoid with Sergey's face.
- The Black Death: The arc's Big Bad, who is a medieval history aficionado, bases his public crime spree around Plague-related iconography: he compares the crime, corruption, and societal decay of Saint Petersburg to the Black Plague, himself to a Plague Doctor (even wearing a beaked mask as part of his disguise), and his crimes to "purification"; his first victim is burned like a victim of Bubonic Plague (with a note left at the crime scene referencing the "Danse Macabre"), the second has his throat cut (a reference to the medieval medical practice of bloodletting) and his body eaten by rats (a major catalyst of the Plague), the third is hanged (a medieval execution method), and the fourth is stabbed crucifixion-style and burned at the future site of the London Mall (referencing both the role of the Church during the Plague and the 1666 London Firenote ). The "infected" civilians also have their homes marked with a black X (similar to how the homes of actual plague victims were marked).
- Black-Tie Infiltration: Igor Grom and Dima Dubin attend Deputy Mayor Kamenny's birthday party, believing that The Citizen will crash the event. Much to their surprise, they discover that Yulia has infiltrated the same event as part of her investigation into Kamenny's alleged criminal activities.
- Averted with the Rainbow Orphanage fundraiser gala, which Grom attends as an invited guest after he's already been Taken Off the Case. (He donated money to the cause six months earlier, which puts him on the guest list.) Ironically, he ends up identifying the Plague Doctor at the event purely by accident, after matching Razumovsky's body language to the Plague Doctor's.
- Censor Shadow: After his clothes are removed in the final act, Igor's nether regions are conveniently obscured by shadows as he navigates the Garden Of Sinners.
- Compromising Call: Dima's mother calls him on his mobile phone just as he's trying to pass undetected through a neo-nazi boxing club — and right when Igor is in the middle of a match with one of the club's members. Since it's his first night at the club, Dima is forced to fight a member of the group himself. (Fortunately, he's a skilled martial artist, and easily defeats his opponent.)
- Construction Zone Calamity: The Plague Doctor murders Bekhtiev at the construction site of the London Mall and sets his body on fire. When Igor catches him in the act, the two face off, with Igor attacking the Plague Doctor with a nail gun (among other things).
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Albert Bekhtiev is a construction mogul and one of the wealthiest men in Russia; he made his fortune building shopping malls on historical sites (which he acquires by bribing public officials) and gentrifying low-income neighborhoods. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Sergey Razumovsky helped grease the wheels for Bekhtiev with his power and influence; Bekhtiev thanked him by selling him the land to build his mansion, and constructing the house — and the Garden of Sinners.
- Razumovsky himself also qualifies, as he's both the founder and CEO of Vmeste and a deranged, elitist Serial Killer.
- Deadly Doctor: Gennady Zilchneko doesn't murder anyone with his own hands, but he does cause the deaths of several patients by selling them fake cancer treatment drugs (while keeping the real drugs for himself and selling them on the black market).
- Death Trap: Aside from murdering people as the Plague Doctor, Razumovsky kills those he seems the "dregs" of society in the Garden of Sinners: a giant garden behind his mansion, laden with death traps. In order to escape, the prisoner — while drugged with Premedol — must survive both standard booby traps (such as pits full of spikes and bladed pendulums) and tests of character (thus proving that they are fit, intelligent, and aren't enslaved to the vices that plague most of society).
- The first key is stored in "Avaritia" (Latin for "Greed"), an open room stocked with weapons and supplies; if a prisoner attempts to take any of the items along with the key, an explosion is triggered. Grom tries to take a handgun, but survives the explosion because of his speed and strength.
- The second key is in "Fatuitous" ("Stupidity"), an aquarium room where a ping pong ball lies at the bottom of a steel pipe; the prisoner must make the ball float to the surface by filling the pipe with liquid — with a needle and catheter provided for the task. Grom realizes that Razumovsky said "liquid" rather than "blood", and breaks open one of the tubes supplying water to the fish tank. He successfully obtains the second key, but the tank breaks and floods the room with water. Razumovsky explains, with great exasperation, that it wasn't necessary to destroy the tank: there was a jug provided to scoop water out of a nearby pond (which Grom had just waded through minutes earlier).
- Defiant Strip: After Igor accuses him of being the Plague Doctor in front of all the attendees of the Rainbow Orphanage Gala, Razumovsky confirms his suspicions by stripping down to the waist onstage, exposing the cross-shaped scar on his chest that Igor gave him during their fight. Surprisingly, the ploy works: the Plague Doctor's supporters come to his aid and attack Igor.
- Distressed Dude: In Issue #7, Igor is rendered unconscious by Razumovsky hitting him on the head with a shovel. In the following issue, he wakes up naked in the basement of Razumovsky's mansion, where he's injected with a lethal dose of Promedol before being forced to navigate a garden full of death traps.
- Engineered Public Confession: Razumovsky strip searches Grom, looking for a wire. All he finds is Grom's standard issue firearm, which he waves around while monologuing about his plans for St. Petersburg — not realizing that the hidden microphone is actually inside in the barrel of the gun itself.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Literally: The Bird, Sergey's evil alter ego, who doesn't emerge in full until "Metamorphosis" in Issue #10 (and is hinted to have inspired Sergey's evil actions) appears to Igor in a nightmare in Issue #6.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Razumovsky dislikes being called "The Citizen" (the nickname that the public created for the Plague Doctor) and states that he finds it ridiculous.
- Evil Plan: Razumovsky intends to rally his supporters to overthrow the current government, then vote him into power in a snap election; once he's secured the presidency, he will reshape society according to his whims — starting by rounding up the dregs and dissidents of society and tossing them into prison camps.
- Exposed to the Elements:Razumovsky's prisoners are stripped naked, depriving them of any potential weapons and tools before they're forced to navigate the Garden of Sinners. This is intended to test their resourcefulness as well as prevent them from cheating. To enforce the lesson, one of the booby traps in the Garden is an open room stocked with supplies and weapons; attempting to take any item (besides a key) causes an explosion.
- Fan Disservice: Igor Grom, a handsome, extremely fit young man, spends three issues in the nude! Except he's being forced to navigate a dark, shadowy death maze, where he's dodging giant swinging axe blades, explosions, and pits of spikes, being sprayed with chemicals, dipping in pools of dirty water, and getting swarmed by crazed birds. Outside. On a very chilly spring evening.
- Fire Purifies: This is one reason why the Plague Doctor frequently utilizes fire in his crimes.
- Fight Clubbing: In one issue, Dubin trails Grom to an underground bare-knuckle boxing club run by Neo-Nazis, where it turns out he was infiltrating the group for leads. Dima is caught trying to sneak in, and is forced to participate in a fight. (Thankfully, his martial arts skills help him to easily take down his opponent.)
- Gorn: The third key in the Garden of Sinner is hidden in a room called "Crudelitas" ("Cruelty"), which is dressed in red and adorned with pictures depicting violent subjects.
- Full-Frontal Assault: After surviving the Garden of Sinners, Igor attacks The Citizen head-on, throwing him to the ground, straddling him, and pummelling him... while still completely naked.
- Give Me Back My Wallet: In her introductory scene, Yulia has her purse stolen by a passerby on a motorcycle. Grom chases him down and gets it back for her, physically knocking the man off his bike and fighting him with a chain.
- Gullible Lemmings: Razumovsky says this verbatim during his Motive Rant, while talking about his followers.
- Hallucinations: Sergey warns Igor that he'll experience hallucinations from the Premedol. Indeed, he does, seeing the garden statues come to life and attack him (and innocent children) while reminding him of his personal and professional shortcomings.
- He Knows Too Much: The real impetus behind the Plague Doctor's murders: each of his high-profile victims was an accomplice in creating and operating the Garden of Sinners, and he doesn't want them to rat him out (or their crimes to lead the authorities back to him).
- Hypocritical Humor: Igor Grom chides a couple of investigating officers for leaning against Kirill Gretchkin's burned car ("Don't lean on the material evidence, please!") immediately after he handles the note left at the scene of the crime with his bare hands; the same hands he was just using to handle a shawarma.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: While Igor, Dima, and Yulia are escorting Sergey back to the police station, the latter begins gloating that Igor has no way of proving his guilt, and that he will frame Igor for his own crimes. Igor orders Dima to pull over, and he drags Sergey out of the car, putting his gun to the killer's head. Yulia and Dima are horrified, and remind him of his personal oath against killing criminals. However, it turns out to be a fake out: Igor was actually just revealing the recording he made of Razumovsky with Yulia's recording (which he has hidden in his firearm).
- In-Series Nickname: The masked serial killer in the story is known as the "Plague Doctor" by the authorities. His supporters call him "The Citizen".
- Karmic Death: The Plague Doctor's victims are killed in a manner befitting their crimes against society:
- Kirill Gretchkin is burned alive in the sports car he was driving when he carelessly ran down two teenagers. For extra measure, his death occurs at the same street corner where his crime was carried out.
- Ivan Sorokin, who beat protesters and called them "rats", has his throat cut, his tongue cut out, and his body tied up and left to be eaten by rats (also at the scene of the crime).
- Gennady Zilchneko's cancer treatment center causes the deaths of multiple patients by selling them placebos (while selling the real drugs on the black market). His press statement, upon being exposed, is, "So what? More people died from medicine in the middle ages." The Plague Doctor hangs him from the flagpole in front of his cancer treatment center and disembowels him.
- Albert Bekhtiev's construction firm evicts low-income neighborhoods and buys up historical sites so he can build thigh-end retail establishments. He is stabbed crucifixion-style and set on fire at the site of his largest acquisition.
- Kill It with Fire: The Plague Doctor frequently utilizes fire in his crimes, both for the dramatic presentation and for the historical reference (i.e. burning victims and property infected with the Bubonic Plague).
- Loyal Animal Companion: Razumovsky has a pet albino raven named Margo, whom he has trained to carry out various tasks. She sometimes rides on his shoulder.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The Plague Doctor (naturally) wears a white, bird-like mask based on those worn by medieval plague doctors. His followers also wear white plague doctor masks in public to signify their allegiance.
- The bikers who mug Yulia are both wearing black biker helmets shaped like skulls. They're later identified as members of Vasya's Neo-Nazi club.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In Issue #6, Igor (having sustained a head injury in the previous issue) dreams of the Great Fire of London
; he learns that The Bird (i.e. Razumovsky's dark side) was the true culprit, having burned the city to the ground to give corrupt 17th century London society a fresh start —and that he intends to eradicate modern day St. Petersburg for the same reason. It's never explained whether the dream is a head injury-induced nightmare or a legitimate supernatural vision of the past. While Grom's vision does reveal The Citizen's motivations and plans for St. Petersburg (as well as Sergey Razumovsky's internal manifestation of his dark side), it only does so in part, and all of the details therein could easily have been gleaned from the Plague Doctor's M.O. (which Igor has been fixated on for weeks). However, given that other BUBBLE publications confirm the existence of the supernatural (including Mental Time Travel and the Great London Fire having a potentially supernatural cause) and The Bird's origins are somewhat murky, it would be silly to completely dismiss an otherworldly explanation. - Mistaken for Murderer: Happens many times during the arc:
- Grom apprehends a man in a plague doctor mask who is spray painting The Citizen's symbol on a public wall, initially believing that the man is The Citizen himself. It turns out he's just a follower, however.
- Later in the same issue, while Igor and Dima are infiltrating the Deputy Mayor's birthday gala, Igor nearly causes a commotion when he sees Yulia hiding under the politician's table with a suspicious-looking object in her hand (actually her recorder).
- Later during the same event, the lights abruptly go out, and Igor sees a man advancing on the Deputy Mayor with a knife. He dive-bombs the man—only for him to be revealed as a waiter carrying a cake slicer (which he was about to use on the deputy mayor's birthday cake).
- Shortly after Zilchneko's murder, one of The Citizen's masked followers is arrested; Prokopenko believes the man is The Citizen, and proclaims that they have captured the criminal mastermind.
- In Issue #6, Igor believes that Deputy Mayor Kamenny is The Citizen, and accuses him of such to his face. His logic is that each of The Citizen's victims had a personal connection to the man: Gretchkin and Sorokin were Kamenny's business partners in running a secret gambling parlor (and wanted out of the deal); Zilchenko ran the center where Kamenny unsuccessfully sought treatment for his son's cancer; and Bekhtiev's construction company was surpassing Kamenny's wife's company by beating them out for contracts and projects. Unfortunately, Grom is wrong.
- Mistaken for Racist: Dubin trails Grom one evening and catches him exchanging information with a Neo-Nazi; later, he catches Grom at a boxing club, engaged in a bout with another member of the same group. Much to Dubin's relief, it turns out that Igor is infiltrating the group for information on Kirill Gretchkin (who was their sponsor).
- Made of Iron: In one issue, Igor is thrown off a third floor construction scaffold during a fight with the Plague Doctor; he receives no major injuries, and checks himself out of the hospital less than 24 hours later (albeit against the doctor's recommendation).
- Two issues later, Igor gets struck on the head with a liquor bottle hard enough to knock him unconscious, yet doesn't get a concussion, waking up in Yulia's apartment the following day with just some mild disorientation. The following issue, it happens again at Razumovsky's mansion — this time with a shovel — with a similar end result.
- Deconstructed in the final issue: Igor seemingly survives being injected with a lethal dose of Premedol...but not under his own strength: he knew that Razumovsky was using the drug on his victims, and took an antidote in advance.
- Motive Rant: Once he has Igor Grom captive, Razumovsky proceeds to lay out his entire life story, from childhood to the present. Grom encourages him, in order to make sure his confession is recorded, in full, by the bug he planted in his firearm.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Dima and Yulia arrive at Razumovsky's mansion, Igor is completely naked and has Sergey — who is clad in nothing but a dressing gown — pinned to the ground, straddling him and shouting, "YES! YES!" As Dima and Yulia look on in shock, Igor says this verbatim.
- Orange/Blue Contrast: The official cover of Issue #1 features Igor Grom superimposed over a splash of blue, with Kirill Gretchkin's burning car in the center background in orange and orange flames curling up into a silhouette of the Plague Doctor. Indeed, most of Igor's scenes in the comic are depicted in a blue palette, while the Plague Doctor's scenes (and dialogue boxes) feature orange hues (usually representing the glow of flames).
- Pay Evil unto Evil: This appears to be the Plague Doctor's M.O., as he only targets people who have wronged society through their actions. (However, this turns out to be a smokescreen to allow him to eliminate his accomplices.)
- Pie in the Face: Variation: at Deputy Mayor Kamenny's birthday gala, Igor mistakes a waiter with a cake knife for an assassin and jumps the table to apprehend him, accidentally sending Kamenny face-first into the cake (and giving the paparazzi plenty of photos of him covered in cream and frosting).
- Plague Doctor: The titular killer of the series (who is a medieval history aficionado) adopts this as their persona, wearing the mask of a plague doctor and referring to St. Petersburg as being consumed by a "plague" of crime and corruption (with themself as the physician who will "purify" the city).
- Police Brutality: Ensign Sorokin, a police officer (and the Plague Doctor's second victim) is infamous for being caught on camera beating a crowd of peaceful protesters and calling them "rats".
- Igor Grom himself is certainly not averse to roughing up suspects. Unlike Sorokin, however, he only gets physical in self defense, or with people who truly deserve it.
- President Evil: Discussed: Razumovsky's grand scheme is to provoke a Staged Populist Uprising, overthrow the current president, and then rally the Plague Doctor's supporters on social media to vote for him en masse in a snap election; once he's secured the office, he intends to use his authority to reshape society on a grand scale — starting by rounding up society's riffraff (and anyone who opposes him) and herding them into prison camps.
- Prison Rape: Played With in Metamorphosis (Issue #10). After Sergey is sent to prison, he's accosted by a huge, rough-looking inmate who looks at him appreciatively, calls him "sugar" and "pretty", says he "looks like a girl", and states that he'll be "first in line" to "claim" Sergey. When Seryozha tries to fight him off by biting his hand, the man beats him into submission and hauls him to his feet, proclaiming that he's not "finished" with him; the next time we see Seryozha, he's glowering with rage and sports a slightly bruised face and a split lip. While
Word of God states that Sergey wasn't raped, many readers believe otherwise based on the visual evidence. Viewers also noted that The Bird emerges in earnest after this incident, which is consistent for someone who has suffered sexual traumanote , which lends credence to the theory. - Race Against the Clock: Razumovsky's victims (aside from his co-conspirators) are injected with a massive dose of Promedol, which kills them in 15 minutes if they fail to retrieve the antidote — from a triple-padlocked chest on the opposite side of his Death Trap-laden garden. Only Igor Grom manages to successfully navigate the "Garden of Sinners", and it turns out he was never in any danger in the first place (having taken an antidote to the Promedol before he arrived at Razumovsky's mansion).
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Plague Doctor's victims lived by this motto to varying degrees (with Sorokin, a police officer, being the only exception):
- Gretchkin was a rich party boy who enjoyed illegal hunting trips, frequenting brothels, and gambling on sporting events at neo-nazi sports clubs (one of which he sponsored). He avoided going to prison for a double hit-and-run thanks to his family's wealth.
- Zilchneko got rich selling drugs (stolen from his own treatment center) on the black market, while selling his cancer patients placebos. When his crimes were exposed, he used his money to avoid prison time.
- Bekhtiev exploited legal loopholes to purchase historical sites and low-income neighborhoods, which he bulldozed to use as construction sites.
- Razumovsky himself believes that he's entitled to "improve" Russia through socially unacceptable means (including murdering the dregs of society) simply because he happens to be a wealthy, powerful sophisticate. He also used his power and influence to help Bekhtiev to grow his company, win building contracts, and buy up properties around the city.
- Shout-Out: When Igor kicks in the door to Kirill Gretchkin's apartment in Issue #1, he yells, "THIS! IS! SPARTA!"
- Dubin compares Grom to Sherlock Holmes on multiple occasions.
- After watching Dima knock out a much larger opponent with one punch at the boxing club, Igor calls him "Petrosyan".
- Snobs Versus Slobs: There is an element of this in the final act of the story, with wealthy, sophisticated businessman Razumovsky pitted against blue collar bruiser police detective Igor Grom. It's downplayed, however, as Razumovsky is Nouveau Riche (and overestimates his own sophistication) while Igor himself is a sharp intellect (and highly educated in his own right).
- Split Personality: Razumovsky seemingly develops one in the epilogue, embodying "The Bird" (who represents his murderous tendencies and confidence: the forces that inspired the Plague Doctor's crimes).
- "Spread Wings" Frame Shot: Razumovsky (appropriately enough) gets one as he begins monologuing to Grom, courtesy of his pet raven, Margo, casting a shadow on the wall behind him.
- Stab the Salad: Averted at Kemenny's birthday party: Grom sees a man with a large knife advancing on the Deputy Mayor, and tackles him — preventing the waiter from cutting Kemenny's birthday cake.
- The Swarm: Between room one and room two, Razumovsky activates sprinklers that spray Igor with a substance (presumably some type of pheromone) that agitates his flock of crows. The birds attack the Major, who escapes by dipping in the decorative pool outside room three (which washes off the spray).
- Taken Off the Case: After Igor pursues multiple false leads and makes a fool of himself twice — once by accidentally shoving the assistant mayor's face into his own birthday cake, and once by barging into the mayor's office and accusing him of being The Citizen — Prokopenko forces him to take a two-week mental health break (even offering to pay for his vacation personally out-of-pocket).
- Undressing the Unconscious: After knocking Igor out with a Tap on the Head, Razumovsky strips him naked. He explains that he needed to make sure the Major wasn't wearing a wire or equipped with any hidden weapons (and, indeed, that he found Igor's service weapon). However, he also makes it clear that he thoroughly enjoyed the process, and compliments Igor's physique while stroking his body — stopping just shy of his crotch.
- Vigilante Man: The Plague Doctor/The Citizen seemingly targets corrupt individuals who would otherwise go unpunished due to their wealth, power, and connections. This is ultimately revealed to be a smokescreen to conceal his real motives — and to encourage the citizens to rise up and overthrow the current governing body.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Issue #4 presents two self-contained stories — both of them flashbacks. The first story, "All In All", follows Igor Grom on a sting operation at a casino a year earlier; the second, "Butterflies In the Stomach", follows Dima Dubin on that same evening as he attempts to help contain a riot.
