The issue just before BRZRKR #5 made it seem like some kind of plot revelation was going to happen in this issue. Alas though…
BRZRKR #5 is the 5th issue of this comic book by creators Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt (Folklords, Bang!). Ron Garney (Wolverine, Captain America) remains the artist, with Bill Crabtree (BPRD) remaining the colorist and Clem Robins (Hellboy) remaining the letterer. Lee Garbett (Skyward) did the main cover, while Giuseppe Camuncoli (Undiscovered Country) and Declan Shalvey (Moon Knight) are responsible for the 2 variant covers. Oh, and lastly, BOOM! Studios remain the publisher for the comic book series.
BRZRKR #5 went on sale on September 29, 2021. You can get the physical copies at your local comic book shop for that classic paper feel. Or if you’re fine with the digital version, you can download it from content providers like ComiXology, or direct from BOOM! Studios themselves.
Warning: spoilers for BRZRKR #5. If you want to read how the mystery deepens for yourself, stop here, and come back once the screaming and breaking is over.
BRZRKR #5: Plot Summary
BRZRKR #5 picks up where we last left off on the last issue, with Dr. Diana about to reveal some truth to B/Unute that she’d been keeping from him. Something that would radically alter how our protagonist deals with the US government. Unfortunately, you’d be disappointed. As it turns out, Diana is just admitting that she has no idea what to do about B/Unute. He defies all known science, and she’s just working on guesses trying to figure him out. This is something that should be obvious, but I guess it wasn’t?
Anyhow, Diana does figure out something after a late-night chat with B/Unute about music and love. And yes, they did just chat only. No hanky-panky. Not this time. Back to the subject though, our good doctor made some kind of…doohickey that apparently allows B/Unute to better recall memories he himself suppressed.
This little trip into memory lane sees B/Unute go through a very long string of lovers in an attempt to fill the hole in his heart. Almost entirely women, but it seems at least 1 man too. Some loves end badly for him, while others end more or less well. The problem though is that all the loves eventually end. That’s the problem with immortality. B/Unute lives forever, so he eventually always outlives his lovers. This is where a large part of his trauma comes from. That, and the fact that his attempts to have kids seems to always result in stillborn infants, or worse. He’s just one big bag of trauma from those incidents.
The trauma is so great that he makes Diana’s doohickey blow up. He leaves thinking that he accomplished nothing yet again and is next seen in a submarine prepping for yet another mission, but Diana apparently managed to get her data regardless of her doohickey’s destruction. What data is this? Well, that’s what we’ll find out in BRZRKR #6, because that’s the end of this issue.
BRZRKR #5: The Good
The artwork is still one of the best things about BRZRKR #5, despite the lack of bloody action in this issue. There is bloodiness of a different sort though, especially in the scenes of childbirth gone horribley wrong. That’s nightmare fuel of a different sort here. Even worse than the previous action scenes, personally speaking.
B/Unute’s development in BRZRKR #5 is also one of the best points here. We get to see something that was almost certainly the case in Highlander but was never explored in that film. That would be one of the problems of immortality: being immortal while your loved ones aren’t. See, while Diana insists that D/Unute is a god, he clearly doesn’t behave like a god. At least, not like the Ancient Greek ones. Those gods and goddesses had absolutely no problem with mortal lovers coming and going at will. B/Unute is clearly someone with human morality, so he has a lot of issues with outliving his lovers. It’s nice to see that issue explored here.
BRZRKR #5: The Bad
If you were expecting the brutally violent action scenes of the previous issues, BRZRKR #5 will disappoint you. Yes, there is some violent action scenes, like that of B/Unute getting pulled apart by horses, but for the most part, this is a pretty non-actiony issue. The next issue will almost certainly compensate for this though, so it’s something to look forward to.
I also felt slightly disappointed by Diana’s “truth”. The truth she reveals was just how science works. You find out more about something, and you realize that you don’t really know anything. B/Unute is definitely a prime example here since he defies quite a bit of accepted science. I suppose I can credit Diana for continuing to try and figure things out instead of just giving up. The problem here is how the story seems to be treating it as a major revelation when it seems pretty obvious to me. Eh, oh well, at least the rest of the issue isn’t as bad.
Conclusion
The last issue of BRZRKR promised us a plot revelation from Diana. Unfortunately, BRZRKR #5 failed to deliver on that promise, so that was a bit of a disappointment. The rest of the issue carried it hard though, so it’s fine in the end. The relative quietness and lack of bloody action in this issue may turn off fans who were fond of the earlier issues though. Hopefully, the next issue of this comic book from BOOM! Studios will make up for that.
Source: BOOM! Studios