BRZRKR #3
The government learns more about B in BRZRKR #3, by writers Matt Kindt and Keanu Reeves, artist Ron Garney, colorist Bill Crabtree, and letterer Clem Robbins. Most of this issue is just action, but it also is able to do some rather subtle character work on B.
The issue is basically a chronicle of B’s early years, fighting against other villages and his suspicion that his father is just using him. His village’s borders keep expanding, and he keeps being used more and more. He doesn’t like his life, but when the killing starts, he can’t help it. In the present, Diana tells her boss what she’s learned, and they talk about putting him on another protocol to keep him under control.
Kindt and Reeves deliver both an action-packed issue and one that does an amazing job of capturing the dichotomy of B. In his quiet moments, he questions everything- his role in the village, how he was born, and why he has to keep killing. At one point, his father tells him that the people of the village call “unute”, which is a word for tool or weapon, and he struggles with this. Is he a weapon, or is he a person? After every slaughter, he asks his father the same thing- did he do well? Is what he did good? B was a person who felt he had no other use in the village than killing.
The issue also illustrates what happens to him when he’s killing- he goes berserk. At one point, his father sends him to destroy a rich town. He kills the leader and then goes out and slaughters everyone else because his father told him that no one lives. He doesn’t question what he’s doing while he’s killing, but afterward, he questions why he had to kill everyone. There’s a part of him that sees that to his father, he’s just an unute, a weapon to use against the world. It’s all laid out in such a thoughtful manner, and Kindt and Reeves do a fabulous job of building B without hitting the reader over the head.
Garney has long been one of the best action pencilers in comics, and this issue is yet another example of that. He’s able to capture the chilling tableaus of the dead at the beginning of the chapter, the terrible slaughter that B commits whenever he’s unleashed. The action scenes are visceral and bloody and get across the horror of what B is capable of. He also does a great job of capturing the quiet moments and the emotions of the characters.
BRZRKR #3 does a lot with only a little bit. Kindt, Reeves, and Garney deliver a ton of brutal action yet also fill the book with pathos to get readers into B’s head when he was young and questioning his existence. In fact, this issue makes his life even sadder in retrospect, as he’s been doing the same thing for millennia. BRZRKR #3 is a great comic, both overt and subtle, and one fantastic read.
