Recker's World
My thoughts on the Bad Company series
Warning: Contains spoilers.
I have to say, in 1986, when I became a fan of 2000AD, the first story in the Bad Company series was the most epic comic book story I'd ever read. Each week when 2000AD hit the stands I was there to get my copy, wondering who was going to get killed off this week and what the hell was in Kano's little black box? Lots of great twists and turns. Mad Tommy not really crazy. Kano had half a Krool brain. Great stuff.
There were so many great characters too. Some of them quite deranged. There was really good characterization done on some. Little done on others. Some got more time in later stories (eg Mac, Mad Tommy, Flytrap).
I loved most of the stories, even "Kano". The only really sour note for me was "Bad Company 2002" which really didn't add much to the series at all apart from getting Danny out of the Krool Heart and seemingly leaving Kano to an appropriate fate. The new characters were forgettable. One of them didn't even get a name!
One of the things that appealed to me in these stories was the fact that as each story progressed, members of Bad Company would be killed off one by one. Who would survive to the end? You never knew. However you come to love many of these characters and didn't want to see many of them killed. Which was great when it came to "First Casualties" and "Terrorists". Finally the bulk of the characters stopped getting killed off. It was actually a pleasant surprise.
The big issue I have with the Bad Company series is the problems with continuation.
Certain background information like Kano's family is contradicted, with different names of his wife and daughter and different ways they died tragically.
Also, until "First Casualties" the Krool were portrayed as a psychotic race who hated humans and were prone to sadism. They were controlled by the Krool Heart which had become corrupted, hateful and cruel. Yes, there is one short story about Simply, a kind Krool, but he was brain damaged.
In "First Casualties" it becomes apparent that the Krool aren't actually evil and the majority of them are peaceful. This doesn't really add up I don't think. If there was no Krool Heart, maybe they were a good race (Just like the Borg in Star Trek can be when not part of the collective). But it seems like the Krool Heart was in control long before the Krool Wars.
The writers came up with these later stories inspired by the Gulf War and the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were found. Maybe the US invaded simply to get resources? So we learn here in these two stories that the humans are the evil ones and they secretly invaded a Krool city in a deliberate attempt to start a war with the blame being on the Krool. Which of course completely contradicts the fact that the the Krool were controlled by the Krool Heart to begin with and thus were psychotic monsters who wanted all humans dead.
Ok, maybe I can look beyond this. Maybe, the majority of Krool were not controlled by the Krool Heart. Maybe, as in the case of the Germans in WW2, most of them were decent people and it was the minority, ie the Nazis and those in charge of death camps who were the evil bastards. But generally, the Germans are great people and we love them now. Even with tales of WW2 you hear many stories of the German soldiers being decent honorable people. All though we don't see that in Bad Company.
"First Casualties" and "Terrorists"... even though probably the best Bad Company stories since the epic first story, had me scratching my head. It brought back dead characters as if they had never died. Yet, later, it did acknowledge they had died but never really explained how they could still be alive. You had Danny remembering their deaths and that's that. No further questions from him or theories. No reactions from the dead characters once the meds wore off. And how the hell can Kano possibly be alive with part of his head blown off and a big hole in his torso? Why did the writer not give some clear explanations for all this rather than just the Kano had spent years recovering?
This was the most infuriating thing for me. No real answers given. Maybe the writers couldn't be bothered trying to explain these things so decided to leave it up to our imagination. I hate that!
They did seem to leave some possible explanations though. Maybe the dead characters were manifestations like the multiple Golgotha Joes in the latest 2 stories.
Or maybe they had their brains removed shortly after death and then transplanted later (like what was going to happen to Mac's brain in "Terrorists"). Although you would expect to see lobotomy scars on Thrax and Mad Tommy, which there were none. Kano yes, but not them.
Perhaps this planet Danny is on is like the one Kano lived on for a while, where it brought back dead friends to help him cope? Maybe he is on the Good Planet? All though if that was the case would the ghosts be able to leave the planet to go to Ararat?
Perhaps there are alternate timelines with different realities? Maybe Danny remembers things from a different reality?
Maybe they were simply undead versions of themselves? After all, zombies have featured in this series. This would also explain how the apparent undead ones managed to survive overwhelming odds with sometimes terrible wounds, continuing on as if they were minor flesh wounds (eg when Thrax had his left arm blown off "It's just a flesh wound!" "I've had worse!", "Fight, you bastard!"). Speaking of Thrax he's always looked like he was a zombie or a vampire. So maybe he was undead right back in the first story which meant all those bullets ripping through his body in the final battle on Ararat didn't hurt him.
The Undead theory and the Manifestation theory have more veracity when you consider that one of the few real living characters died so easy. ie, Mac.
Or maybe the writers just didn't give a shit about continuation?
Maybe I'm overanalyzing this. I'll let you be the judge.