Warning: Contains spoilers for BRZRKR #1
Hot off the heels of its best-selling first issue, Keanu Reeves’ runaway hit comic BRZRKR is back. Co-written by Matt Kindt with art by Ron Garney, this newest episode in the life of everyone’s favorite hyper-violent immortal, B. (based on the culturally-embraced, gentlemanly Reeves) will take a trip back to the origins of his incredible power to rapidly regenerate from any injury and depict his conception and birth 80,000 years ago in chaotic tribal times.
Highly anticipated from its initial announcement that Reeves himself would be penning the comic, readers were thrilled/horrified last issue in their introduction to the walking murder machine simply known as B., a mysterious government operative with a can-do determination and an incredibly violent fighting acumen. Volunteering as a black-ops soldier for the United States government in exchange for their assistance in discovering the key to his immortality, B. experiences an emotional episode at the height of his battle-rage during a mission to take down the president of an unnamed country. This experience unlocks some of his earliest memories.
In this new preview from publisher Boom! Studios, the hunter-gatherer lives of B.’s parents are explored, lives which essentially take place in cave-man times. The constant victims of raids by enemy marauders, the art depicts B.’s mother and father mixing together some kind of mysterious elixir made from prehistoric vegetation and mushrooms, most likely a magical concoction that imbues upon B. his godlike powers. Garney’s art, colored by Bill Crabtree, presents a demonstration of his slightly gentler side, where often his scenes in the series turn hellishly gory. Check out the preview art below.
Working with B. on the side of the U.S. government in an effort to discover the secrets of his immortality is Diana Ahuja, a doctor who appears to have darker designs behind her exploration of B.’s past. Together in issue #2, the two will explore the lifetime of hardships and long-lost relationships endured by B. over the years. Previously having claimed to remember the Black Death of the 14th century as well as the founding of the United States, B.’s narrative of being an unkillable warrior across a wide breadth of human history is sure to be a riveting, if not exceedingly blood-soaked tale of discovery, wonder and terrifying violence.
One conversation-piece in the previous issue between Ahuja and B. that will likely serve as thematic resonance is B.’s possible identification as a modern-day god, possessing abilities known only in myth and legend that equate him in some ways to those divine beings of worship in older tales. Ahuja has claimed that, his death-defying feats of strength aside, she does not view him as such a being, however her ankh-shaped earrings on display in the preview art, the symbol of life in the famously polytheistic ancient Egypt, seem to hint that this may not be quite truthful.
With a new deal at Netflix for both a live-action series and an anime series recently minted, what horrifying hyper-violent hijinks will BRZRKR get up to this time? Issue #2 goes on sale April 28 at local comic shops and from Boom! Studios.
