Warning: This article contains spoilers for BRZRKR from Boom! Studios.
As Keanu Reeves’ hit comic series BRZRKR gets its second act underway, the popular movie actor has begun fielding questions as to how much his art imitates his life, from his own artist Ron Garney no less. Though the actor denies it, recent issues have shown certain similarities between BRZRKR’s protagonist, the unkillable, 80,000-year-old B., and his co-creator Reeves, with whom he shares his likeness. Reeves has remained adamant that the slam-dunk indie comic phenomenon is a simple action-fantasy and shares no resemblance to his own life, however Garney questioned this in a recent interview, and not without solid foundation.
BRZRKR is the cinematic best-seller from Boom! Studios, featuring Reeves and Matt Kindt on writing duties, that, while setting a new standard in hyper-violent chaos, centers on a deceptively cerebral series of philosophical quandaries concerning what the psychological makeup of a true immortal demigod/warrior would entail if such a thing were real. Following the antihero B. through his many lifetimes of slaughter and tragedy, the title often dwells on the question of how B. handles the tragedies inherent in his existence, such as the deaths of his family and 80,000 years' worth of lovers. While the 57-year-old Reeves is known for his action roles on the silver screen, the rage-fueled, blood-splattered B. shares few overt commonalities with his creator, a beloved cultural icon of style and generosity of spirit.
However, in a recent interview with Polygon, Reeves was confronted with the question by the very illustrator of his likeness-bearing hero, Garney himself. The artist claimed that, after spending his days drawing Reeves’ scintillating, violence-oriented hero in painstaking, yet immaculately gritty detail, he has “Keanu on the brain 12 hours a day” and “it’s been revealing itself to me as being a metaphor for his whole life actually.” Reeves denied this corollary to interviewer Matt Patches in reply to his follow-up question, saying, “No, man, it’s a work of art!” to the direct inquiry as to whether BRZRKR was a metaphor for his whole life. However, the fact remains that, even at a superficial level, one could easily draw this comparison.
Though mostly known for his cool, everyman action hero-roles such as Neo from The Matrix, John Wick in the John Wick film series and of course Bill from the Bill & Ted franchise, Keanu Reeves is no stranger to his own personal tragedies, tragedies he has spoken at length about in a litany of past interviews. These include the pre-natal loss of his daughter, the subsequent death of his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Syme and his own difficult family life, like his lifetime estrangement from his own father. Given that these are all parallel tragedies in B.’s life, which includes an inability to produce live offspring, and a first story arc that ends with an episode in which B. abandons his father after having been used to pacify neighboring tribes in a series of wars, it’s not hard to see why Garney would mention it.
However, this does not necessarily mean that Reeves is not being genuine in his answer. As an actor, Reeves is trained in exploring the depths of human psychology in bringing the fictional archetypical characters he plays to life. As a storytelling discipline he is no doubt dredging up powerful images from his own life to tell an emotionally resonant tale, however that does not necessarily signify that this is how his actual personal tragedies unfolded in the experiencing of them. Given that Reeves is clearly pointing to his own symbolic role as a violent hero in the culture at large while in reality being known as a personable man-about-town, it is possible that the metaphor has more to with his image than it does his actual life.
But is Garney actually correct about writer Keanu Reeves' surreptitious sublimation of his own life story? Only time will tell as BRZRKR’s dark tale unfolds.
Source: Polygon.com