A long running
story featured in the
British cult comic 2000AD.
In the year 2210 Earth is locked in a war with a vicious, super-intelligent (and damn ugly) race called the Krool. The theatre of war is Arrarat, an alien world mid-way between Earth and the Krool homeworld, and the perfect bridge-head for an offensive against Earth.
Danny Franks is a soldier with Earth's regular army. Against such a ferocious enemy and after heavy losses in all quarters Danny feels that the war is about to end and he and all the other Earth soldiers will die. When the Krool attack however the enemy are defeated by a bunch of mean, ragged soldiers. Bad Company.
The men are lead by Kano, a man with most of his skull missing and a singular determination to kill Krool. There is Mad Tommy who thinks he's fighting in World War 2. There's Thrax, who is missing his skin, Flytrap whose arm was replaced with a venus flytrap-like plant arm as part of a Krool experiment. And there's Malcolm, a regular soldier, new to Bad Company.
The renegade company, who launch raids behind enemy lines conscript the few who survived the attack.
They don't last long.
Along with Krool, the Bad Company have to face renegade earthers - the Skull Crew, zombie earth soldiers, the various flora and fauna of the planet, and not least, each other.
In the tradition of journey story-lines, the true journey is made by Danny as he comes to terms with the fact that his humanity diminishes the more he perseveres.
The series finishes in a planet-shattering battle, after which some crucial mysteries are revealed - especially the true nature and history of Kano.
The original series of Bad Company ran over 19 issues starting from issue 500.