BRZRKR #1

BRZRKR #1

BOOM! Studios 2021

Written by Keanu Reeves & Matt Kindt

Illustrated by Ron Garney

Coloured by Bill Crabtree

Lettered by Clem Robins

The man known only as Berzerker is half-mortal and half-God, cursed and compelled to violence... even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the world for centuries, Berzerker may have finally found a refuge -- working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, Berzerker will be granted the one thing he desires -- the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence... and how to end it.

What an explosive and interesting first issue this is. We all know that there was a lot of hype over this series and that Keanu himself is so heavily involved in its creation and writing is a big deal. He also couldn’t have a better writing partner than Matt so this is already a combination for success. To be frank I wasn’t sure what to expect from this but I will say here and now that this exceeds any and all of my expectations. I am pretty mightily impressed with the amount of information we get in this issue while at the same time it’s just enough to wet the appetite leaving us wanting more.

I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is extremely well done. They say actions speak louder than words and a picture is worth a thousand words and both are true and utilised to their utmost in what we see here and it is rather violently glorious. Plus there is the narration that permeates throughout which is a sensational tool that works beautifully alongside the whole then and now storytelling. This makes the character development we see extraordinarily well achieved. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the characters and the world they live in is spectacular!

I am really impressed with the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow throughout the issue. It is very easy to understand why the title and the descriptor fit him so very well. Then of course there’s that last page shocker as well. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is really marvellous.

The interiors have a very rough feel to them. Not in a bad way but in that they showcase how gruff and unyielding his penchant for violence is. Majority of the linework is hard and strong with some varying weights thrown in to soften up moments and make the detail work really pop. the way backgrounds are being utilised within the composition of the panels bring us some really solid depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stupendous eye for storytelling. Seriously the page layouts and utterly spectacular in their own right. The colour work is interesting to see. There is a lot of solid colour packed in here, think tattoo style packing of colour, and yet we still see various hues and tones being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work. The way we see the colour blocking fits beautifully with the whole premise and tone of the book.

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This is why I love BOOM! Studios, they find those folks who want to create something new, original and pretty unique and aren’t afraid to let folks like Keanu have a crack at doing it. This really is extremely, brilliantly and gorgeously violent and that is balanced out beautifully with some of the angles within the storytelling. I wholeheartedly support this and think that every single person needs to be reading this, it’ll surprise you in the best ways possible.