BRZRKR, Tome 3

BRZRKR #3

by Keanu Reeves (Contributor), Ron Garney (illustrator), Matt Kindt (Contributor)

Dans cet ultime tome de la trilogie, les anciens mystères sur les origines de notre anti-héros et son destin final sont dévoilés ! Alors que la fureur de B. se déchaîne, une nouvelle découverte promet d'apporter les réponses qu'il cherche depuis des siècles. Mais alors que l'équipe voyage pour enfin comprendre les mystères de la naissance de B., va-t-il atteindre son objectif, ou tous ses efforts auront-ils été vains ?

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Comic Book

120 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 2023

About the author

Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986). He had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), and he reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991) and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994).

Following several box office failures, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came for playing Neo in the science fiction series The Matrix, beginning in 1999. He played John Constantine in Constantine (2005) and starred in the romantic drama The Lake House (2006), the science fiction thriller The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and the crime thriller Street Kings (2008). Following another commercially down period, Reeves made a successful comeback by playing the titular assassin in the John Wick film series, beginning in 2014.

In addition to acting, Reeves has directed the film Man of Tai Chi (2013). He has played bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 72% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: Obscenely quick, nothing sticks, nothing much to say, all sizzle no meat, it's repetitive beats, albeit the ending's okay.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #9-10 ◦ Issues #11-12

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, so this had a better ending than I was expecting.
Granted, I wasn't actually expecting much. <--thankfully.



Disclaimer: I absolutely love Keanu. So. Yes, all three stars are a tribute to my love and have absolutely ZERO to do with this wonky-ass story. And using the word "story" is really pushing here. This whole thing is more like the outline of a story.



HOWEVER.
I can see how this might get better once they turn it into a Netflix show. There might be a real backstory. And I can picture how cool that CGI lightning bolt to the vag is going to look when B's mom gets hit in the twat with god-spooge. And the gore! Every frame just dripping with intestines and coagulating blood. Mmmmm. <--you think I'm kidding? No.



Alright. Without spoiling too much of the plot (HA!) this sees Unute/B/K-Reeves finally get the one thing he really wants. But be careful what you wish for...
For example, I once wished Keanu would write a comic.



Recommended for fans.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 1 out of 5]

So this went out like a wet fart, didn't it.

This last volume feels very derivative, full of cliched storytelling. Suddenly we get an antagonist, that is barely revealed before they're conquered OR ARE THEY??? Obvious sequel is obvious.

This whole book is obvious sequel is obvious. Get ready for a lot of new elements to get introduced, most of them either there to create a quick ending, or as set-up for that obvious sequel (Franken-B, holy crap, ridiculous..).

The whole series felt like a slog, with not a lot happening, The Slowest Story Ever Told. Just terrible pacing. To have had twelve (12!) issues to tell your story, and still dump all these new elements in the last issue, is just.. bewildering. This whole series could've been told in four, maybe five issues? Five bucks an issue, so $60 total for this thing..? They saw us coming.

I'll leave you with this thought: imagine trying to sell this 12-issue run without the backing of Keanu Reeves. Yeah, that's not happening.

[wet]PARP![/wet]

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bit ashamed I enjoyed the first issue so much and gave it such a high rating. What a waste of time this series was.

Individual issue reviews: #9 | #10 | #11 | #12

Total review score: 1.125

[Scott Rhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third volume of BRZRKR brings to a satisfactory conclusion certainly one of the more fun if not extremely violent action-adventure graphic novel series in recent memory.

Written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt, the series is just begging to be made into an HBOMax or Netflix series or a three-part movie series, starring Reeves.

While relatively short on plot, the series isn’t vapid or one-note. There’s a surprising amount of depth. Just not a lot of actual story, and what story is there is actually kind of confusing. It has a lot of moving parts but not a lot of explanation for them. Not that this detracts from the fun in any way.

What started out as a clever pastiche of Conan the Barbarian, John Wick, and The Punisher has become somewhat more of a weird science-fictional Messiah story, as the title character—-a man simply called B.—-finds out where he came from and what his ultimate purpose is.

There’s certainly nothing ambiguous about the ending, which adequately concludes the narrative arc while leaving it wide open for a sequel.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no fucking idea what just happened.

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

The finale to the Keanu Reeves opus BRZRKR is…. An ending.

I have to admit this was a guilty pleasure read but it’s not a bad little action read.

Despite the less than stellar reviews, the finale was not bad. I assume that Kindt added a bit of nuance in Reeves’s plot. BRZRKR isn’t all that much different than most of what is on the comic shelf- Mark Millars over the top ultraviolence, Mike Mignola’s mix of noir and horror, and the always popular Conan/Kull derivatives and maybe even a bit of Brian Michael Bendis’s too clever ambitions.

It isn’t a bad story. It’s just a common story. I have read the criticism that we don’t get any answers at the end and it’s just a start of a new arc. In theory, I would be ok even if that was the case, but I have to admit that’s where things go off the rails for this volume.

The action and momentum this volume starts off is wasted on the ending. I have no regerts but I suppose that’s my overall opinion on the series- moments of brilliance that never quite come together satisfactorily. There is already a next issue which replaces Kindt and Garney with writer/artist Steve Skroce

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 1 out of 5]

BRZRKR Volume 3 collects issues 9-12 of the Boom Studios comic written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt, drawings by Ron Garney, and colors by Bill Crabtree.

B/Unute/Keanu Reeves travels back to where it all started in hopes of getting the answers about his origin. Blood, explosions, and lightning ensue.

WOW. This series turned out… awful. There is a lot of talent in this book so I don’t know where it wrong. The book started off with an interesting premise and devolved into sci-fi/fantasy mumbo jumbo and Keanu Reeves ripping mercenaries limb from limb because he is a very angry being? I don’t know. Please make it make sense. Hopefully Netflix can take this mess and make it an interesting story.

[Krystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a disappointing ending, to be honest. I kinda lost the plot.

It's a mess of army dudes doing weird things and I don't know where this other guy came from - clearly missed something there.

Also not quite sure what happened with all the black lightning and zapping and whatnot. I thought I was following things okay and then ... nope. No clue.

Weird led to weirder and it really didn't need the last few pages setting up for a sequel. Would have been happy to just let this story rest in peace here.

Sad to have it end like this - really detracts from the whole series which, up til this point, was totally badass.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

And ... that's a wrap. To the extent I started it, I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity and finished it. Having said that, three installments was plenty for me; I'm not sure I would've kept going if it was much longer.

Given the premise, and the aspiration to close the loop rather than running an indefinite series, this seemed as good a way to end as any (even if road there, particularly most of the third book, didn't necessarily work for me).

Of the three installments, I enjoyed the first the most.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

What in the meandering narrative nonsense did I just read?

[Matthew Ward · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars. This entire series has felt like an answer was coming for what was going on really soon. And then more action would happen. And no answers would be given. I hung on to this series in hopes of a solid story payout, but this one left me very disappointed and as if I wasted my time (though these were ridiculously short reads due to each book being 93% action sequences) reading this series.

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this final of three acts, I found the story hard to follow, and the visual presentation and pacing worked against supporting that. It was very much in a mode that leaves the reader simply summarizing the series of events for themself in the end. I think it was too rushed to fit it all into those final issues, rather than letting the story breathe without a strict endpoint.

The end state is pretty wild.

[༶ Laura ༶ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Waste of time.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know what was going on half the time and it felt very rushed. Like they had the story line for 6 more volumes but shoved it all in 1 volume mainly without words and lots of Ahhhhhhhhhhs. I still like the overall concept though and the gore is fun.

[ScottIsANerd (GrilledCheeseSamurai)]

I read all 12 issues in a row. It was easy. The comic ain't all that deep.

I liked it though. If this actually does become a show I can see how it has the potential to be pretty dang good.

Mostly, I read it so I could read the Keanu/Mieville novel, The Book of ElsewhereThe Book of Elsewhere, when it releases in a few weeks.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final volume brings the story arc to a close in a rather unsatisfying way. It's not because of the minimalistic story and somewhat chaotic climax, as I was fine with both those things. It's mainly because too many new elements were introduced in a conclusion that made the entire story arc merely a prologue for a more complex, in-depth series.

Unete's raison d'être is purported in the following quote: "HQ thinks you're just a seed...a pollinator spreading technology and ideas." I don't think it's a spoiler to say that both within the story and in the context of a franchisable universe, HQ was correct. As annoying and unsatisfying as that may be, I'll probably still read whatever follows.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRZRKR Vol. 3

Unute finally gets his heart's desire, but at the most dreadful of prices. Diana learns that life is precious, even when it's incredibly complicated.

The mystery is solved and the story is brought to a fine conclusion. The artwork is amazing and - even though the dialogue is sparing - this has been a thought provoking piece of art.

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Леко хаотична и объркана ми дойде финалната развръзка, та се наложи да препрочета набързо предните два тома и отново да прехвърля третия, но пак не схванах напълно всичко... Както и да е, радвам се, че видяхме цялата серия преведена.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whelp, that sure was a comic.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

BRZRKR goes off the rails here, with Unute and the scientist lady becoming like...space ghosts and then returning to Earth with superpowers. Well, she gets superpowers (and also gets pregnant??). I guess Unute actually loses his berserker abilities.

Then there's a whole "we gotta find out something about your mother" bit that goes nowhere. Then one of the scientists betrays everyone. Battle. Long denouement. None of it is really terrible, it just doesn't make much sense. This series really lived up to the billing of "Keanu Reeves writes a comic book."

[Khurram · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an action movie in the form of a comic. The overall plot or story I really don't care about Keanu/B ripping through people in Wolverine style berserker rage. That is the selling point. It's not my favourite artwork, but it fits the story book and brutal fights/massacres panels.

B back, and he is madder than ever, but has he now found a purpose? He might even have allies, but there are a number of agencies with their own agenda's. Is a happy ending even possible?

Forget trying to add to the story with all the political and religious manoeuvring and try to enjoy the brutal battle for B's "purpose" place in the world.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

[Alex Sarll]

Initially this is the trippiest the series has been, ultraviolence almost a background to cosmic communion; then it crunches through the gears of several different Hollywood clichés, before ending with a final issue that felt like it could easily have been a whole further volume if given space to breathe. A far odder comic than it seemed at first.

[Will McClintock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished the original 12 issue series with volume 3 here. Interested to see where they could possibly take the character in the future. I’ll give it to Keanu Reeves, he can write a fun comic book that’s very engaging to read. Overall a fun read. Interested to see if he’ll write more comics in the future

[Alex Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

So That’s how it ends. Now that this story is essentially over (for now anyway), after the whole buzz on a Keanu Reeves “cowritten” graphic novel, after the three graphic novels, the story of Unute is kind of...is that it? After all the hype and buzz about it I think once it reached its end it was a messy story with a convoluted conclusion.

After Unute/B somehow connected with the “Force” that created him and somehow ascended to space or another reality while Diana, his therapist and researcher is in stasis getting infused with the same power that inhabits Unute. As Unute returns, Caldwell enacts his secret plan to seize this power for himself.

After I thought the second volume carried a heavier story beat to it, this one just seemed like a ton of stuff was chucked in, and only about half of it stuck. I kind of got what the story was (mostly) but there’s a lot that I either missed, was badly explained or was just plain not in there. I don’t think it helped that as I read it, it didn’t exactly flow well and seemed hard to follow what was going on. Jumping between B transcended into space/Other dimension as some sort of power being, Diana building power while suspended in a vat, Caldwell up to no good back in the lab and Keever trying to get a handle on the situation. This isn’t well explained, and this is only the first third of the book and it doesn’t get better from there. Unute comes back, in another murderous rampage killing loads of soldiers he works with, which he tend to do time to time, and apparently the US military is fine with this state of affairs, but while still super strong he has lost his immortality. While Diana breaks out of stasis and now has superpowers of her own, shooting lightening from her eyes. Caldwell was working for a secret cult all this time to steal Unute’ power, which was given almost no hints that I can remember. I get he had a secret motive, but this seemed like a reveal with no setup, and Keever seems to have a bigger role, yet given no buildup in the past two volumes to warrant a sudden importance now. Like the way the story is told the ending is messy. What I understand the conclusion to be, is Unute was created after a cosmic alien force gave him his superpowered immortality after his mother prayed for something to save her tribe. Why would a sentient alien force do this? No clue. Anyway, as Unute survived the centuries, wherever he went, technology and knowledge increased. Why? Don’t think about. Anyway, for Unute to become mortal he needs a crown of feathers his mother made millennia ago, buried under the Saudi Desert. Why will this work? Magic apparently or something you get no details. Caldwell also needs the crown, as part of an ancient cult that has worshipped Unute, to be able to take Unute’s power. Somehow, I got lost here, Diana gets powers of eye lightening from Unute/space alien power god. She and Unute battle Caldwell and his army of cultists. Here, Unute loses his immortality, Caldwell gains it, Diana shoots lightening at stuff and is given the immaculate conception treatment as its pregnant with twins. In the last battle, the US military drops a bomb on Caldwell to stop his cult, where Chadwell’s body ends up as a roadside attraction, like in Jeepers creepers 2. Unute and Diana escape, hiding from the government as Diana gives birth to a bit and girl. These have powers and abilities too. The government finds them, and in a fight Unute is killed. The kids grow up, and what I get is that they have some sort of mission to “propagate” or spread their power by sex. . By the end, it was just a big, muddled jumble that felt like a chore to read. I got the main ideas, but the stuff in between I got completely lost and any interest that had lasted too this point I lost. For a story sold on an immortal warrior killing terrorists for the government with a shadier conspiracy in the background this took itself way to seriously or wasn't written well enough to be taken seriously.

After a lot of hype and promise, Bzzrkr failed to be a fun and action packed and seemed a bit too high minded and a little bit pretentious, without the weight to carry it off. With these three volumes and the book (which I’m currently reading) that should be the ems of this story. Whether the ending here lends to a further continuation of the story or it was successful enough (the fastest Kickstarter ever I think) to justify doing a sequel, I think I’m done. My enjoyment reading this has gone down with each volume. While the second played with having something a bit more deeper going on, that ended up going nowhere.

Overall, I found it OK, but a bit disappointing, but then it didn’t know what I was expecting. Would I recommend it? As a harmless waste of time? To see of Keanu Reeves is a good storyteller? Maybe. The art is fine, even if it lacks any originality and could look like it came from a hundred other action based graphic novels. Now I suppose we just have to wait for the inevitable Netflix adaptation.

[Andrew Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviews for: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3

Admittingly, some areas were hard to follow the flow, with the motives and dialogue appearing to be missing chunks of connection. Still, an interesting and cosmic story, leaving in the air what is the purpose of life, what entails from philosophies, and what does eternity mean. Throughout the series, we watched Unute's growth and evolution, believing his anger and loneliness were well defined, so it seems like an easy out to set Diana up at the same level of Unute only after a very short period of her having shared in his powers. Where Unute was born of a cosmic union, and honed his skills through eons of warfare and battle, Diana, Caldwell, and the kids are more artificial yet just as deadly as Unute, or more so. Ron Garney's art holds up through it all and I would have liked to have seen clone Franken-8 in some brutal dealings, with a little story of its own. Maybe there's a future story for a family of immortals but Unute's loneliness and detached berserker rage is the biggest attraction for this story, his heartbreak at watching every lover die, every child of his die.

Chapter Nine
Unute dreams, or hallucinates, a cosmic void where he sees his father, causing a chaotic berserker rage. He appears to be reborn at Caldwell's research facility, where Diana tried to reach him psychically. Unute infiltrates the secured areas with a fiery rage and devastating murderous persona, and it's Diana's new special powers that halts his progress.

Chapter Ten
It's revealed, through a dream-like state, to Unute, that he was born in the Saudi Arabian desert of Nefud. The bird, a gift from his mother, is buried there. Whatever his purpose, Diana now shares in it, and they converse psychically to avert listeners. After healing from Diana's attack, down to stop his berserker rage, Unute and crew go to his birth spot for the bird, something only he and Diana are privy to, and it attaches to Unute causing another possible berserker rage.

Chapter Eleven
"Bless us". Caldwell's apparent cult of fellows come in hot to steal Unute and Diana's immortality and rage, seemingly making Unute mortal and Caldwell an enraged killer.

Chapter Twelve
Caldwell's cult creates chaos, but he is no match for immortal Diana. Though Keever helps the couple escape, he will take his orders to his grave to "leave no witnesses", as the BSATM annihilates most of their traces ... except for Franken-8. Now mortal, Unute whisks away with Diana, who is pregnant with twins, twins that grow at an accelerated rate like Unute. Keever is able to find them, and as a battle breaks out, the twins show they are as berserker as Unute. Battle isn't the same for Unute and he seems to get what he always wished for ... yet a vicious circle of seed-sowing reverberates through the next generation and Unute's finality is different than what was to be expected.

- B./Unute - immortal/half-god; doesn't quite have all his memories
- Diana - associate of Caldwell; doctor/therapist/scientist
- Stephen Caldwell - head of Belief Systems and Ancient Technology Migration; wants to learn more about repeating B.'s creation
- Jim Keever - field soldier for Belief Systems and Ancient Technology Migration

[Colleen Villasenor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story told more in pictures than in words. It is the culmination of Unute's story arc, though I found the ending somewhat confusing. Unute may be gone, (still not quite clear on that point), Diana now has her powers of her own, and Unute's legacy continues. I'm not sure where the story will go from here, but it does seem to be ready to carry on in some form. I did find it amusing and a little confusing that one of the soldiers kept calling Unute "kid". Unute is an immortal being who has lived for millennia. It seems weird that someone would keep calling him "kid". I suppose it's just a term of endearment, but Unute has far more fighting experience than the soldier calling him that. I will be reading the next book. The ending of this one seemed rather ominous.

[Ron.e · Rating 2 out of 5]

If feel they are trying to rush a story with a writer who doesn’t break it down right. I feel it can be a good story if they would give more info about what’s going on and stick to a story line and explain it in full, instead of jumping around so much and expecting you to know and think what they are thinking and feel they are getting across with little information and story line because they know the whole story and want feel like everyone else will get it. See, That last bit I wrote in my review just now didn’t make much sense right, that’s exactly what is going on in this book! Lol

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really not sure where this story jumped off the rails, but I just read it and tried to enjoy it for what it was, not truly understanding what all was going on. TONS of violence and gore here, so the action and illustration kept me going, but I hope I will be able to understand what happens in this story when the Netflix series comes out. LOL