BRZRKR #1, a comic created and written by movie star Keanu Reeves, only just released on March 3rd of this year, and today Neflix has announced its plans to release both a live-action movie and a follow-up anime of the series.
Released from BOOM! Studios, BRZRKR is Reeves’ first venture into comic book writing. The comic is co-written by Matt Kindt (Mind MGT and JLA) and features gritty art by Ron Garney (Amazing Spider-Man and Hulk) with colors by Bill Crabtree (Invincible and The Sixth Gun). The series follows the bloody adventures of a character named only B, an 80,000-year-old immortal half-god, half-mortal warrior who is cursed and compelled to violence. After such an unnaturally long life, B seeks only to discover the secret of his existence and, more importantly, an ability to be able to end it. As such, he has teamed up with the US government, where he takes on the sort of dangerous suicide missions that other, mortal, soldiers can’t, in exchange for the answers that he’s after.
It’s clear that B is physically modeled after Reeves himself, with a similar build, hair, and features. As such, it’s no surprise that Reeves will be portraying the character in the upcoming live-action movie and voicing him in the anime. Honestly, the resemblance is so uncanny that it’s possible that a film version of the comic was planned from the very beginning. No worries if that’s the case – the comic reads like a movie already. The first several pages are action sequences with a voice over conversation between B and the (as of yet unnamed) scientist/therapist who has been working with B for a year to help him remember his origins, and hopefully unlock the key to his mortality.
The use of science to uncover B’s ancient origins is a compelling plot device, and B himself comments on the sort of medical and scientific advances humans have made since he first arrived in the US during the Civil War. It’s clear that he has seen a lot in his long life, and he has an almost photogenic memory of a most of it; missing, however, are the memories of his own past. In this regard, we see that B is being injected with some sort of serum and is taking a mysterious half-red, half-blue pill (a nod to The Matrix, perhaps?) as part of a “protocol” to help him remember. Furthermore, it seems that these protocols are actually helping as, at the end of the comic, B confesses to being able to remember his very birth.
BRZRKR is set to be a 12-part series, during which we will delve deeper into B’s story. Due to the announcement from Netflix today, it’s logical to think that the first issue could skyrocket in price, as tends to happen whenever any comic is slated to become a movie or a tv show. Don’t run out and grab every copy you can find, especially as there’s not yet a release date from Netflix, but maybe make sure that you have one or two in your collection. Even if the comic doesn’t go up in value, it’s a good, solid read and looks to be an entertaining series going forward. Issue two releases April 28th at local comic book stores everywhere.
Angela “LaLa” Rairden is an avid fan of comic books, Star Wars, and most things nerdy. A cosplayer, she loves to attend comic cons dressed as her favorite fictional characters, particularly Harley Quinn. Although her day job is at a grocery store, writing has always been her true calling. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is currently writing her first novel.