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BRZRKR features the fascinating psychology of an immortal soldier, with the latest issue explaining why he works for the US government.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for BRZRKR #6, now available from BOOM! Studios.
BRZRKR focuses on the eternal life of a warrior who survives for millennia through a magical immortality that proves to be as much a curse as it does a gift. Known as B, the protagonist of BRZRKR provides constant gory violence to titillate fans looking for action, but what proves to be the most intriguing hook to the series is the psychology of its main character as immortality takes its toll on the warrior.
The mind of a man who has seen empires rise and fall makes for fascinating subject matter, and in the latest issue readers delve into his motivations to learn where exactly his allegiances lay.
Since its first issue, BRZRKR split its narrative primarily between the missions of an immortal soldier working covert operations for the United States government and the “protocol” sessions he goes through during his off time in order to piece together a past he cannot entirely remember. With so many hundreds of years behind him, it is difficult for B to answer so many questions he has himself, but even though he struggles with the questions of where his immortality came from he seems far more certain with the question of why it is he is doing what he does.
In the latest issue by Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, Ron Garney, Bill Crabtree and Clem Robins, B’s mission goes awry when he and a fellow soldier are blown out of a helicopter while behind enemy lines. With his colleague grievously wounded, B navigates the mountains he recalls from centuries past as his own wounds seamlessly recover. Along the way he forms a bond with his brother in arms, leading to an enticing conversation in which B is asked how it is he chooses his allegiances. After all, the politics of a relatively young nation should matter little to someone who lived through ancient Rome and feudal Japan. He’s asked if he picks his allegiances based on studying “the politics of the region,” but it turns out that has little to do with how B chooses sides.
Weighing right and wrong against each other proves difficult for B, and he seems weary and almost beyond pondering such questions. Instead, it turns out that his key motivation centers around the berserker rage the magic that fuels him forces him to feel. He has an uncontrollable rage that overpowers him at times when he tries to resist it, so instead B learned to direct his compulsions toward violent ends in order to satiate that rage. In ancient times he could fight openly and without concern alongside other mythic heroes, where the days of campfire stories made his immortality feel positive to the people of the world. But as the world increasingly modernized he was forced into hiding, avoiding openly flaunting his immortality as the attention it always brought him became too much of a hassle.
More recently, the advancement of science created possibilities like the “protocols” the U.S. government uses to dig through B’s memories, and he reveals that the protocols bring him some measure of comfort from the rage within him. Rather than fighting for any particular ideal of justice or advancement of civilization, it seems that B’s arrangement with the U.S. government is one of convenience. Their covert missions offers him an outlet for his violent impulses, and their technological therapy offers further relief he hopes will one day lead to the discovery of how to end his life at last.
These are the makings for a truly great antihero. Throughout the issue he displays a clear concern for the lives of others, protecting his wounded brother in arms as throughout their journey to safety, and his final words in the issue insist that even though he cannot die he is not living a life without consequences. And yet at the same time his immortality made B callous to the concerns and ideals of the mortal lives around him, leading him to primarily serve the U.S. government as a weapon because of what they can offer him personally rather than what he can do for the world at large.
Of course, a conflict brews behind the scenes as that same government delves into the secrets of B’s immortality for their own ends. They keep much hidden from the immortal and each issue features their plotting in secrecy. The time may come to put B’s loyalty to the test, and although his current relationship with the government is one of convenience it could come as a great inconvenience when they inevitably piss him off.
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