Keanu Reeves plays a character so tough he killed all the vowels in his book’s title! Want to read a comic that rips out the spine of good taste and murderizes subtlety with it before dancing in the blood of restraint? Disappointed that no comic out there caters to the FBI watch list crowd for deranged psychopaths? Worry not, my soon-to-be-suicided-by-cop friend - BRZRKR is here for YOU!
I’m not sure why Keanu Reeves has decided now is the time to embark on a comics career - maybe he thought he’d publish the storyboards of his next project and make some extra cash that way (ie. the Mark Millar school of comics) - but here we are with what is essentially a story about John Wick with Wolverine’s healing factor.
Novelty Neo aside, it’s not that great. It’s one extended hyper violent action scene after another which gets banal and repetitive pretty quick, not least because B. (the imaginative name for Keanu’s character) is unstoppable so it’s hardly tense or gripping reading. B. is 80,000 years old (he looks great for his age, like Keanu) and the sliver of a story that’s here is B. trying to find a way to die for good, which involves talking to a psychiatrist apparently.
That angle is only half-heartedly pursued though as the main point of the book seems to be having Keanu killing a LOT of dudes, either in the present day or caveman times, for no real reason other than he can. And, though I found the action tiresome after a while, the bloodiness is so absurdly over-the-top that it made me laugh occasionally.
How to ensure a guy doesn’t throw away a grenade after you pull the pin? Simples - hold the grenade against the man until it blows up! B.’s healing factor means his arm grows back but the guy stays dead! Out of stabby things? Punch into a man’s torso, tear out a rib and stab the other man with it! Want to stop a bullet? Put your hand over the muzzle! It’s coconuts, brah.
Kudos to artist Ron Garney for his work on this book, bringing the non-stop carnage to life so well. The action is easy to follow because of his fine cartooning and the epic scale of Keanu’s violent fantasy is fully realised thanks to him. If this book succeeds at all, it’s entirely due to his talents.
I liked the nod to the Sad Keanu meme from a few years ago on the first page and I’d’ve preferred to see more playful references to Keanu in the book - I mean, there wasn’t even a single “woah”! And how B. came to be born is hilariously stupid too, though the caveman stuff in general didn’t do anything for me - I’m not a huge Conan the Barbarian fan, and that seems to be the audience for this part of the book.
BRZRKR, Volume 1 wasn’t for me - it looks great, it’s easy to read, some of it is amusing, but it’s way too much gratuitously pointless action and not enough story. Keanu enthusiasts might enjoy it purely for his involvement, as might the readers of Conan the Barbarian and Valiant’s Eternal Warrior, the latter of which this comic is basically ripping off completely!
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