The Complete Bad Company (Part 1)

If I told you that this book was very “Milligan-esque” would that make you any more likely to pick it up?  Or, would you have any idea who I was referring to?  Writer Peter Milligan came onto the American comic book scene around the same time as Grant Morrison and Garth Ennis and in much the same way — headhunted across the pond from the wilds of “2000 A.D.”  He has never earned the same acclaim or following as his contemporaries, mainly because for every series he does that succeeds (“Shade the Changing Man,” “X-Force/X-Statix”) there are two that either don’t quite click (his run on “X-Men,” “Greek Street”) or just outright bomb (“The Programme,” “Infinity Inc.”).  “Bad Company,” however, shows him at the beginning of his writing career and the early stories collected here are good examples (well, two-thirds of them, anyway) of why DC Comics saw fit to put him to work writing for them.

The setting for “Bad Company” isn’t too different from what you’ll usually find in “2000 A.D.”  It’s the future.  Humanity is at war against an evil alien race.  They’re known as the Krool, and they’re as mean as they are ugly.  We’re losing, but there’s this group of morally-ambiguous (super)soldiers here to help us turn the tide.  The title group has only eight core members when they’re introduced, but it’s clear that we’re meant to think of them as the “dirtiest dozen.”  It’s into this group that Danny Franks, an ordinary soldier who likes to keep a diary, is press-ganged into and so he serves as our point-of-view character through most of the original stories.

In the interests of full disclosure, I stopped reading this collection for a while during the time I burned through most of the stuff I read and reviewed here over the last two weeks (including the generally very good first volume of Carla Speed McNeil’s “Finder Library”).  That’s because the first arc is very action-oriented and feels very heavy-handed in terms of execution.  It’s very much the work of a writer trying to find his voice, but ultimately succumbing to the “house style.”  This is also what happened to Milligan on “X-men.”  

However, like his run on that series, there are plenty of moments that make the endeavor at least readable.  From weirdness like the “Golgotha Plains” where the teams worst fears are laid out before them, Flytrap’s arm that takes after his name, literal “war zombies,” and the revelation behind what’s in team leader Kano’s black box.  You’ve also got Danny’s evolution from fresh-faced grunt to battle-hardened veteran over the course of this arc that’s slow and gradual enough to feel believable and ultimately adds weight to what Milligan talked about in his introduction.  For all the violence and weirdness, the series is ultimately about how the basic emotions and situations in war remain the same and Danny’s journey is a good example of that.

It’s a nice sentiment, but the series doesn’t get really good until the second arc, “The Bewilderness.”  Here, Milligan starts to come into his own as the quirkiness, surrealism, and non-sequiter-filled dialogue steps up to the forefront.  There’s still plenty of action, but it’s gleefully upstaged by the new supporting cast which includes a devious shapeshifter, an elite into body-modification, a pain-crazed psychopath, and a woman who can make things explode at will.  This is in addition to the survivors from the previous arc, including Danny who is now given to bizzaro monologues about dirt, how messiahs never return, and what it means to be a leader.

The whole endeavor here feels more accomplished in every regard and that carries over to the final arc of the original series, “The Krool Heart.”  Our heroes set out for the title place in the hopes of ending the war against the Krool menace, only to find that their secrets might destroy them from within first.  It sounds bad for them, but the end result is surprising and disturbing in a way that makes you go “Cool” instead of, say, never wanting to read the book again.

While I feel this series is more representative of the evolution of Milligan than anything else, it’s also a great showcase for artist Brett Ewins.  Most of this collection is in black and white, and it really shows off the detail that he brings to the page.  While his style handles ostensibly “normal” humans like Danny just fine, there’s also some exaggeration inherent in it which makes Kano, the Krool, and the various psychedelic experiences the team has look invitingly surreal.  Steve Dillon is also listed as an artist, but his involvement here is limited to inking one of the shorts.  Don’t expect to see his pencils on display — this is Ewins’ show and it’s a great one.

“The Krool Heart” was the last “Bad Company” story for several years, save for an annual that’s also collected here.  The story ended in a pretty definite conclusion, so you’d be forgiven for wondering how or even why Milligan would want to come back to this story and these characters.  He did it by focusing on one person in particular, and the end result is actually better than what I was expecting.  Come back tomorrow for my thoughts on the book’s second half.