Comic Review: BRZRKR #5

BRZRKR #5

Publisher: BOOM! Comics

Writer: Matt Kindt & Keanu Reeves

Art: Ron Garney

Letters: Clem Robins

Last week we got the first issue in the second volume of BOOM’s BRZRKR. A comic book series about an immortal god who lives his eternal days as cannon fodder for whoever is willing to help him die. The premise is quite interesting, despite not being brand new and BRZRKR has its charms for the approach it’s chosen until now.

The new volume begins with Diana visiting B. at his home. She states that she’s decided to approach his memory problem in a different way. She intends to connect to B. personally in order to understand his true motivation in his quest for death and maybe connect that to his lost memories.

Kindt and Reeves are building their own thing here. As I stated before, this story isn’t necessarily new. In fact, the similarities to other Wolverine stories continue to distract me. However, that is not to say this isn’t work well done. I’ve been a bit disappointed with volume 1 of BRZRKR because I expected more action scenes in the present day before going into B’s origin story. This new chapter makes it clear that the story is now shifting its focus on present days as Diana finally makes a breakthrough with B’s birth place. Although I’d liked to have acquired some concern for our protagonist before getting to know his roots, I did like that we got past that in a straightforward manner too.

Garney’s work continues as awesome as in the other issues. He keeps the facial expressions as consistent as ever and even gets to play with quirky panelling for this chapter. But what I appreciated the most were the many different backgrounds and coloring as we follow B reminiscing on his past lives. Incredible stuff, with many different clothing and sceneries. Cannot have been easy. The lettering by Clem Robins is quite tame for this issue. Although there is a scene where the lyrics for At Last, by Etta James take the spotlight in a few panels clearly illustrating how the loud music suddenly filled the silent room.

BRZRKR is starting its new phase with issue #5 as it focuses now on the government’s interest in the immortal god rather than on B’s past. It’s, yet again, a certain recommendation for any fans of Wolverine (specially from the Mark Millar run) as it tells a tragic story of an undying being who only wishes to rest with an amazingly talented creative team.