BRZRKR: Poetry Of Madness #1: Great Legend No One Has Ever Heard Of

Continuing on the success of the series with the same name, BRZRKR: Poetry Of Madness is a self-contained, one-shot story, telling the story of B’s time as the guardian of Atlantis (although in this story he’s known as Unute). It opens on a battle of an invasion of Poseidon’s city, where the invading army clashes with B and experiences the strength (and ultimately, their death) of the defender of Atlantis. The story unfolds to chronicle how B arrived at Atlantis, how he became its guardian, and what led to the legendary city’s destruction.

Cover Art

The main cover was created by Steve Skroce (X-Man, Cable) and Dave Stewart (The Walking Dead, B.P.R.D.: Heal On Earth). It depicts B standing firmly looking down while holding his sword, with the right half of his body deteriorating and the left half in his armor, with spears, swords, and daggers impaling him. He stands on top of an army of mutilated bodies while a squid-like creature is above him, starting to wrap two of its tentacles around his leg. It’s a very stoic imagery of the character, showing his calmness in the midst of pain and horror, which really captures the story well in this cover.

There are 13 other variant covers for this issue. One of them is a 2023 SDCC BOOM! Exclusive foil variant by Jenny Frison (Wonder Woman, Revival). Her cover depicts B in his red-clad of armor with various weapons (swords, daggers, arrows) sticking out of him while he’s standing off-center with his sword up covering his face between his mouth and eyes as he’s staring at the reader. This is an epic portrait that could serve as inspiration for a movie poster.

Another foil cover for this issue was done by Travis Charest (Batman / Catwoman, X-Men: Red). At the center of the cover is B in his red armor with what appears to be a trident in front of him as he extends his sword out in both hands toward the reader. Behind him is what appears to be two eyes of a larger creature staring back. The use of shadows on B makes it appear that they connect to larger tentacles of the monster that stands behind him.

Writing

Skorce’s writing was done perfectly well for this story. The pacing was on point, it didn’t drag on with details that didn’t need to be shared but it also gave the reader enough to follow along with the story. A reader doesn’t need to know the previous issues of BRZRKR, which is ideal for a one-shot, self-contained story. The narration by B’s servant does a great job of keeping the reader informed in order to allow the story to keep moving along. Even though there are characters and stories that seem to jump right in with the action, it is done in a way that doesn’t distract you from the main story, making you wonder who such and such character is prior to the story.

The only downside with the writing in this story is that there are some lines of dialogue that really served as filler lines that teeter on the border of cheesiness. Comics are known for having embellished dialogue during fight scenes, but that doesn’t always mean that witty lines need to be written for each panel. Lines such as “you’ve invited death into your gullet” and “I can smell your fear” really felt out of place for the character and scene where the readers just saw pages earlier how he demolished a whole army with only a handful of words.

Artwork

The art by Skroce was another testament to how well he pays careful attention to his craft. The use of space and imagination how to show the numerous ways of violently killing someone is rather impressive here. But just as much as his art shows violence, his panels where it shows B at peace with the moment(s) is a striking balance that has just as much impact. But with all of the gore, the blood work needs to be developed more. A lot of the scenes where blood is spurting out looked more like spaghetti sauce in a more solid-like imagery than it does as blood in a liquified state.

The colors by Dave Stewart gave a nice balance between lights and shadows with a color palette that really allowed the scenes to shine through when they needed it. For a story that is grim in nature, the colors match that feel and tone to a T. Lettering by Ed Dukeshire (Irredeemable, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) filled in those details that allowed you to experience the story. The sound effects that were drawn in really made you feel those squishing and stabbing sounds.