BRZRKR #9
Blood will flow in BRZRKR #9, by writers Matt Kindt and Keanu Reeves, artist Ron Garney, colorist Bill Crabtree, and letterer Clem Robins. This issue starts off trippy and then goes insane, a heavily visual issue of storytelling.
In a between realm, Unute calls Diana as he speaks to a being who could be his father. She’s trapped in a tube, her new energies calling to him, and soon an egg appears outside the facility. It’s Unute, and he rips through everything in his way, trying to get to Diana in a complete berserker state. He’s lured into an incinerator, but Diana reaches him in time, their energies playing off each other wildly.
Kindt and Reeves let Garney and Crabtree do most of the talking in this issue, and it’s great. The book’s opening sequence has a hallucinogenic feel that combines coloring and pencils expertly. Once things get back to reality, as it were, readers are treated to yet another fabulous Garney/Crabtree drawn bloodbath. Just a naked man, his anger seemingly making his skin red, tearing through every soldier thrown at him. The final sequence between Unute and Diana is just as striking, their energies intertwining and colliding. This is an intensely visual issue, and Garney and Crabtree really rise to the occasion. So much of BRZRKR has hinged on their interplay, and this issue is no different.
Kindt and Reeves do a wonderful job with the script. This issue is definitely visual-heavy, but the writers do some interesting things. For example, the opening sequence. Where is Unute? What’s going on? Is it really his father he speaks to? He and Diana are obviously linked, but how is she able to call him back? How come he can berserk, but she can’t? Why are her powers more energy based? There are so many little questions that this issue brings up, and what’s more, it’s done in a way so that it doesn’t hold the reader’s hand. Less is more when it comes to this issue’s script, and it works.
While a little bit more of a traditional lore dump would have been appreciated, the issue is still entertaining. It feels like a couple of minute-long action scenes, a one-shot deal moving along with Unute as he rips apart everyone in front of him. If there’s any problem with this series at this point, it’s that there are only a few issues left and a lot of questions left to answer, with the entirely new development of Diana gaining powers of her own and how it all ties together compounding things. This is a good issue, but using it as yet another visual-heavy action scene delivery system might hurt things in the run.
BRZRKR #9 is a feast for the eyes that raises a lot of intriguing questions. It’s quite entertaining, with Garney and Crabtree carrying the issue on their shoulders like champs. Kindt and Reeves do a good jump, but they may want to start dropping some explanations soon, or things at the end are going to feel a bit bloated and rushed.
