Keanu Reeves: I’m thinking about death all the time

Reviews of the comic book were broadly positive when it came out, so Reeves and Miéville will be hoping to replicate that success.

In Flickering Myth, Calum Petrie awarded it seven out of 10 stars, external, writing that it was “enjoyable” but also “a bit more on the gory side than I am used to in a lot of comics”.

It was given 9.5 stars, external by Justin Harrison in AIPT Comics, who praised it as “excellent” and “intriguing” while also cautioning readers about the violence it depicts.

There’s no doubt that this book is violent. In its opening pages, it describes a shooting, followed by “the tough bloody business of the clean-up”.

We asked Reeves about the much debated link between violence on-screen and in books, and in the real world.

Momentarily, he appears defensive.

“I hope if they read BRZRKR, that they don’t go out and start ripping people’s arms off and chopping their heads off,” he said.

“Because there’s also a love story in it. But if you do read it, I hope maybe you can find love if you don’t have it.”

Miéville also pushed back against there being a connection between depicted violence and real violence.

“I get quite irritated about how this question is posed,” he said.

“It’s so clearly a kind of cultural scapegoating,” he added. “I think the idea of looking at video games and movies and so on, it’s just a way of exonerating the people who are really profiting from the violence.”