REVIEWS

BRZRKR review | Written 10/09/2024

The BRZRKR in question is B, an 80,000 year-old immortal with a regularly overtaking bloodlust. His favourite hobby is sitting in locations for extended periods of time and his ultimate goal is finding a way to die. I love and respect him terribly.

In the here and now, he’s an attack-dog for the US military — convenient for satiating that bloodlust — who in return are trying to solve the mystery of his existence and eventually find a way to let him die. Amusingly, B could not care less about what else they’re doing with his genetic material — he’s fully aware of their attempts at making a cloned berserker army — because after so many years of people poking and prodding, his only priority is getting that end result, and even then he’s resigned to it not happening any time soon. Again, I massively enjoy B’s characterisation.

Part of the tests involve his conversations with Diana, who’s approaching the problem from a psychological angle, hoping that if they can get enough details of his origins, they can find something to undo his immortality. This means that a fair chunk of the comic is set in B’s past — a starkly different world to the bullet hell of his present — providing both exposition and contrast.

The art by Ron Garney and colours by Bill Crabtree are graphic and gritty, both telling B’s story with emotion and action. Characters are drawn consistently and recognisably across changes in appearance (and in B’s case, entire time periods), and I was never lost reading the panels, even in frenetic fight scenes. There are some especially painful-looking moments achieved entirely by rough linework and bright colours. Similarly, Clem Robins’ lettering is clear and well-suited to the story.

The big thing with BRZRKR is that Keanu Reeves’ name is on the cover; from what I can tell he’s mostly involved in the development of this world and its characters, and leaves the actual comic-creating to the professionals. This makes sense considering B is obviously designed after him and has characterisation that appeals to his acting strengths. You may also have seen a big hardcover in bookshops recently with large pink text, *The Book of Elsewhere*. This is essentially an AU novel about B written by well-respected sci-fi author China Miéville. I haven’t read it yet, but two of my friends are halfway through it and they report that B is just as much a fan of sitting in locations as ever. Frankly, I support Keanu’s weird sad OC stories; the things he seems to want to see from B are also what I want to see, so I have no criticism there.

The actual writing of the comic itself was likely done by the other half of the writing credit: Matt Kindt. The moment-by-moment pacing works, the dialogue is good, and the characters are distinct and well-established. My main issue is one that seems to come up a lot in the mainstream comics I read — *Sentient* by Jeff Lemire springs to mind — the endings sort of jump out of nowhere. Admittedly, BRZRKR did a slightly better job of foreshadowing and building up to it, but I can’t help but think there was more that could have been done before the big climax — let me see more of B’s everyday work! Show me more of that one guy who turns out to be massively important! Give it all a tiny bit more space in that last volume. I understand why this didn’t happen: BRZRKR was kickstarter-funded and limited to twelve issues, so the build-up was always going to be slightly rushed. Rushed will always be the way comic stories lean, given how much work has to be fit into very literal space, but still, I can wish.

There are spinoffs coming out as we speak, and a film apparently in talks, so hopefully we’ll get to spend more time with B and his colleagues in years to come.