Back in the 80s Marvel did a What If comic which showcased an alternate story where Conan the Barbarian got stuck in the present day Marvel Universe. Beserker Unbound takes that basic idea and does it in a more “realistic”“ way. I recall how much I loved that What If so lets see what I think about a similar story sans any superhero involvement.
So Bez (the nickname the creators give Berserker in the supplemental material) is pretty much Conan. He’s a powerful barbarian warrior who escaped slavery to become the Mongrel King of his people. This is really the crux of the series, but more on that in a bit. Bez is introed heading home after his latest adventure, mentally monologuing his history of accomplishments as he does so to establish his credentials as a warrior. However, he discover his entire village, including his wife and daughter, have been slaughtered by his enemies from the Kingdom of the Mist and the Golden City. After defeating the war party responsible for this genocide Bez stumble upon a magical cave full of mystic sigils and passing through one in a fugue of sorrow, finds himself in our modern world.
Bez is befriended by a homeless man named Cobb. This is where Lemire gets quite clever with his story. You see Lemire has a message with this story. Its a story about the haves versus the have nots, about classism, racism and perhaps even social justice or socialism. But Lemire doesn’t shove all this down you throat within the first couple of pages, its there mind you, but he is wisely subtle with it. He takes his time to build on this over several issues. He shows how despite the cultural differences between this white barbarian and this homeless black man, that they have a great deal in common. Both have come from slave stock (Cobb’s obviously in the distant past of our country), both have lost everything (families and homes), and both are oppressed by the people of the cities. Now all of these points are immediately relevant for Bez while less so for Cobb but it gives them a common ground to build up to help get around their cultural and language barriers. Its clever and the sincerity of both characters keep this class struggle plot point from ever getting to heavy handed for me to enjoy the story or the two men bonding over loss and tragedy.
Once you see the story for what it is you can’t unsee that but Lemire has done what some of the best fiction authors manage to accomplish. From old Dr Who, to the best Star Trek episodes, its been proven that you can tell a political story if the foundation for that story is built upon a smart narrative and strong characters.
ART
Deodata has always been a strong artist as far a my recollection of his work goes. His style was tailor made for drawing the extremes of physical perfection taken to ridiculous extremes. So a lot of this comic was very interesting visually in an unexpected way. Bez looks like he stepped right out of a comic page. He looks to be seven feet tall and impossibly muscular even by Mr Universe standards compared to all the characters in the “real world”“. There is a LOT of photo-reference used in this comic to make this point but in this case it ends up working to make Bez really stand out.
I can’t stand the way Mike breaks up his panels in this series though. It needlessly disrupts some beautiful images with unnecessary panel gutters which do nothing to enhance the story but instead distract at best in compromise the art at worst. The final flaw is Bez’s character design. He carries an enormous sword AND and enormous axe. The axe is apparently there for decaration only. I guess Mike is still carrying around a few bad habits from the 90s.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While this story is the story of a couple of men who become stronger together, I was expecting more sword and sorcerery and got a lot of heart and soul instead.
SCORE: 4 out of 5
Writer:Â Jeff Lemire
Art:Â Mike Deodato Jr
Colors:Â Frank Martin
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