Keanu Reeves is a comic book author (and superhero) now

By Britt Hayes  |  July 20, 2020 | 3:38pm
Aux Features Comics
Keanu Reeves is a comic book author (and superhero) now
Photo: Yuichi Yamazaki

Keanu Reeves is continuing to be most excellent, as the beloved actor has written a 12-issue comic book series titled BRZRKR in which he’s also depicted as the eponymous superhero. Keanu is a superhero. It is canon. Per USA Today, Reeves collaborated on the new comic book series with artist Alessandro Vitti and Matt Kindt, a New York Times bestselling graphic novelist whose credits include MIND MGMT and runs on Justice Society Of America and Suicide Squad. The series follows Berzerker, a demigod who wanders Earth for centuries in search of answers about his existence until the U.S. government approaches him with an offer to take on the “battles too violent and dangerous for anyone else.”

One series of panels from the comic shows Reeves-as-Berzerker recreating the the famous Sad Keanu meme, in which the actor was photographed on a park bench looking sullen. Reeves described working on the series as a “dream come true,” adding, “I have loved comics since I was a young kid and they have been a significant influence on me artistically”—obviously.

BRZRKR will be released by Boom! Studios, the same publisher behind the Bill & Ted comics, with the first issue arriving on October 7, followed by a new issue each month. Reeves told USA Today that he first met with Boom! last fall to discuss a possible collaboration that could inspire new live-action properties in which he would star. The actor described BRZRKR as a story about “this character who was born 80,000 years ago, half man, his father’s a war god. It’s a little fantasy in reality. I had this image in my head of a guy fighting through the ages because of his father’s compulsion to violence,” but, he says, the character is “trapped and trying to figure it out.” When asked about the possibility of portraying Berzerker in a live-action adaptation, Reeves was effusive: “I’d love to play Berzerker! It’s a really fun story so if it’s not me, hopefully someone can play it.”

 
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