The protagonist is a police major named Igor Grom, who is known for his uncompromising attitude to crime, his honesty and integrity, as well as his detective abilities and hand-to-hand combat skills.

In the end, Grom guesses that behind the mask of the Plague Doctor hides billionaire and founder of the Vmeste social network, Sergei Razumovsky.

It turns out that Razumovsky needs an alter ego in order to get rid of his former cronies among the elites, who could potentially incriminate him for the sadistic torture of homeless people that he commits in his mansion.

After returning to Russia, Grom stops a gang of three female bank robbers disguised as Disney princesses: Ariel, Jasmine, and Cinderella (Just Like a Fairy Tale story arc).

At this time, with the help of his childhood friend and mercenary, Oleg Volkov, Sergei Razumovsky escapes from prison and plans to get revenge on major Grom.

Grom tries to kill the Plague Doctor when he is transferred to another prison, but the latter is kidnapped by the Children of St. Patrick and taken to Siberia to become an avatar for the raven god Kutkh.

On the way north, Grom meets the ICA (International Control Agency) team along with Nika Chaikina, known as Red Fury, and offers them his help.

Razumovsky manages to escape, but Grom decides to ignore him and, instead of pursuing his enemy, starts rebuilding his own life (The Time of the Raven crossover arc).

To expand the potential audience of Bubble Comics, Artyom Gabrelyanov began developing archetypal plots, one of them being a detective story about a police officer.

When Bubble magazine ceased publication, Gabrelyanov and another writer, Evgeny Fedotov, developed the idea of a superhero police officer, deciding that he should solve serious cases, sometimes with supernatural elements.

[9] After the release of the Major Grom comic, some critics began to accuse Bubble of pro-Kremlin propaganda, since the main villain of the first story arc, the Plague Doctor, kills corrupt officials and businesspeople while leaving white ribbons (a symbol of anti-government protests) at his murder sites, and amid upheaval based on the 2011–2013 Russian protests, the public in the comics begins to consider him a hero.

Artyom, in response to the accusations, said that when he was developing the image of the Plague Doctor, he did not plan to make him such a likeable villain, and the white ribbons were added to the plot "by accident, for fun, and for provocation, of course".

The first issues of the series received some criticism from both readers and reviewers, who called out the excessively simple and clichéd plot, dialogues, and character archetypes, as well as the politicization of the first story arc.

Subsequent issues received more positive reviews, mainly for the departure from politics and the development of the characters of Igor Grom and the Plague Doctor from formulaic caricatures into deeper and more detailed personages.

[citation needed] In a retrospective from the Kanobu site, in the context of the Second Wind event, which rebooted the Bubble comic series, Major Grom was named the most impressive of the publisher's repertoire.

The reviewer did not ignore the politicization of Major Grom, noting that its first story arc was built on "plots taken from the top of the current events list", political memes such as "white ribbons", and the phrase "crooks and thieves".

Avoiding politicization in further issues was called by Krymov a successful decision, which went in the comic's favor, since the plot did not pretend to be serious political commentary.

[61] W-O-S editor Kirill Savinov, in his comments on the first issues of the series, called them "conservative, pro-government, with bright but not overly conscientious art, and simplified dialogues".

[63] A columnist from Geek-Freak.ru praised the comic for good art and charismatic characters: Grom was called an interesting protagonist and Plague Doctor a well-written villain, reminiscent of the "Joker, with a touch of typical anime antihero".

Among its flaws were the similarity of Major Grom to a typical hero from the action films of the early 2000s, as well as the weak development of Dima Dubin's character.

The artwork by Konstantin Tarasov, which the author compared to manga, as well as that of artists Anna Rud, Eduard Petrovich, and Andrey Vasin, was met positively.

[67] Nikolai Filonchik from Geekster complained of the same flaws: the character of Igor Grom was not sufficiently developed, which made him more like a "machine" than a living person.

[68] An improvement in the quality of the comics was also noticed, both in terms of story and in art; this was written in a review of the eleventh issue by Konstantin Buyanov, also representing Geekster.

A continued lack of depth in the story was noted, however, as well as the fact that too little attention was paid to Grom's partner, Dima Dubin, a potentially interesting character within the plot.

[71] The possibility of creating a film adaptation of a Bubble Comics project, including Major Grom, was considered by the general director of the publishing house, Artyom Gabrelyanov, ever since its founding.

Major Grom was selected as the first story to be adapted due to the peculiarities of its plot and setting, which would save costs on special effects.

[76][77][78][79] The story is about Major Grom, who tries to stop a bank robbery, rescue hostages, and arrest a gang of three bandits hiding their identities behind the masks of characters from the Soviet cartoon Puck!

[77][78][79] Critics' reviews were mostly positive: they noted the high-quality visuals of the film and its action scenes, but they negatively assessed the acting and a primitive plot.

[72] With the positive reception of the short, on 30 September 2017, at Comic-Con Russia, the full-length feature Major Grom: Plague Doctor was announced and a teaser was shown.

[84] Instead of Vladimir Besedin, Oleg Trofim, best known for the 2018 film Ice, became the director, and Tikhon Zhiznevsky replaced Alexander Gorbatov in the role of Igor Grom.