Thursday, March 4, 2021

Brzrkr #1 Review!

Brzrkr is blood soaked action comic with the likeness and writing of Keanu Reeves!   His co-writer, Matt Kindt, is currently writing Ninjak and Rai for Valiant Entertainment, though not the Eternal Warrior.  The Eternal Warrior is known as the “Fist and the Steel”, he is chosen warrior for the Earth, born Gilad Anni-Padda in 3268 B.C.  He found that he was immortal, he can’t be killed by any weapon, and fought throughout history.  Eventually, he is found by a Geomancer, who speaks for the Earth and sends the Eternal Warrior on his missions.  His rival is the Immortal Enemy, a man with two colored eyes who reincarnates to constantly fight the Eternal Warrior.  John Morrison played Gilad in Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe.  Dave Bautista was set to play the Eternal Warrior in 2017.  The artwork is by Ron Garney who drew Captain America and was an illustrator for the film, I Am Legend (2007).  The comic was about to be released last year, then had a Kickstarter for collecting it into graphic novels, now it is released by Boom! Studios in twelve issues.  


There are are several covers, but the regular cover is by Rafael Grampá which has the hero moving forward pierced by arrows, bloody, but still resolute with several gargeting lasers on him while there is a red fog behind him!  The comic opens with a close-up of the unnamed hero’s furrowed brow in the rain.  It is soaked in blue, nice colors by Bill Crabtree.  This pulls back to him sitting on a bench.  A car’s headlights passes by him and he hears the words, “It’s time.”  This resolves to a close-up of his face, now in color, but still grimacing.  His eyes flash blue.  He wraps his arms in bandages while the rest of the soldiers watch him.  The Brzrkr leaps out of the helicopter.  This is a Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) move.  We get a splash page of Brzkr leaping down, in a very Frank Miller style, with the rest of the team rapelling down the helicopter.  There is dialogue, a conversation it seems with Brzrkr and a therapist or researcher.  


Most of the enemy soldiers lie dead.  Brzrkr walks up to one soldier and kills him with a single punch!  Gruesome.  He enters through a door, his shadowy form is splattered with gunshots and his eyes glow.  Bzrkr walks down stairs with the other soldiers, he takes several blasts form a gunman, but in shadow takes down the gunman.  He faces an elegant room filled with soldiers.  It gets bloody, his powerful strength makes fast work of the soldiers, including ramming his fist through one!  The other soldiers take out the remaining enemy and the last one is interrogated and gives up that the president is at the airport.  The soldier element is kinda like Old Guard, the comic and the 2020 film.  Brzrkr responds by throwing him out the window with himself.  He slams into a truck and then goes under fire by an armored transport.  He kicks through the transport’s window and we get Brzrkr answering that he remembers the Black Death.  



Another enemy comes out the back with a handgun, Brzrkr leans back, but the gunshot makes a mess of his face!  He responds by forcing a grenade on the soldier’s chest, it is a violent end.  A sniper and spotter are on a rooftop following his progress in the transport.  He rams it into the learjet.  After the explosion, Bzrkr walks out like the Terminator, mangled and burnt.  The president gasps at him!  He is told that the president is wanted alive.  Bzrkr is about to smash him with his fist and sees in his face, a memory (in black and white) of another bearded face.  He kills the president and tears out his heart.  The young man has fear in his eyes which makes Bzrkr flash back to another young face in black and white.  The flashbacks are interesting, his past is catching up with him, this may move him in a different direction.  Afterwards, a soldier offers him a pill, a new protocol.  This is similar to the twisted Nuke in Daredevil comics.  


We get a government facility where the bloody Brzrkr is brought in by a soldier.  He is taken to a operating table and hooked up to wires.  The medical personnel are not there to help him and instead slice of a piece of his finger to clone it.  Every part of his body is analyzed.  It looks like the government is looking to make more Bzrkrs.  We see the body on a table with all of the cloning work.  There is a woman doctor or scientist whom he was having his conversation.  She says he is not a god.  Brzrkr doesn’t care about cloning him, he wants mortality.  We find out that the flashbacks have triggered something dark from his past and his family.  This is a very violent comic, but it needs to bring out different facets to this character type. It is cinematic, there are panels that look like storyboards, and it has a power.  We haven’t learned the name of the character or why the comic has the title.  Brzrkr is a bloody sensation for Keanu Reeves!  


Three Protocols out of Five! 


#Brzrkr, #KeanuReeves, #MattKindt, #RonGarney 

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