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Will Your Copy Of BRZRKR #1 Be Signed By Keanu Reeves?

We've been warning you that Keanu Reeves' BRZRKR #1 with co-writer Matt Kindt and artist Ron Garney was poised to be the biggest launch in the history of Boom Studios for some time. And as we brought to your attention over the weekend, Boom Studios seems determined to make the launch issue not just their biggest creator-owned launch ever, but their biggest launch in the history of the company period by adding a bunch of additional incentive covers. But we left off the biggest incentive of all… as retailers learned on Friday, BRZRKR #1 will now come with a 1-in-1000 incentive variant by Jonboy Meyers which will come autographed by Keanu Reeves himself.

Wll Your Copy Of BRZRKR #1 Be Signed By Keanu Reeves?
Will Your Copy Of BRZRKR #1 Be Signed By Keanu Reeves?

While they've offered 1-in-500 copy incentives on franchises like Power Rangers, Boom has never offered an incentive with this high of a ratio, which gives us a good sense of how much bigger they expect the sales to be on this title. A 1-in-1000 incentive puts BRZRKR in rarified air. After all, even Marvel only went up to 1-in-500 on King in Black #1 by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman and other major recent events like House of X and Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman. But given that this may be comic fans' only chance to secure a copy of BRZRKR #1 autographed by Neo himself, it makes some sense that the barrier to entry is set incredibly high.

It's in even more rarified air when you consider BRZRKR is a creator-owned title and even as rival Image has recently expanded the number of ratioed incentive covers they've offered, the highest they've offered is 1-in-200 on Cates and Geoff Shaw's megahit Crossover. And yes, that's the same Donny Cates who in an alternate universe might have been co-writing BRZRKR with Keanu.

Wll Your Copy Of BRZRKR #1 Be Signed By Keanu Reeves?
Will Your Copy Of BRZRKR #1 Be Signed By Keanu Reeves?

The last time Image and Boom put aside their rivalry to crossover was for James Tynion IV to launch Department of Truth over at Image with Martin Simmonds before helping Something Is Killing The Children #11 reach new heights over at Boom . Could Cates use his special relationship with Keanu to make BRZRKR crossover with or into Crossover?

At the same time, Boom also pushed back the release date of BRZRKR #1 one week to February 24th to give retailers time to figure out if they want to increase their orders for the 1-in-1000 incentive cover. Will your comic shop be one of the ones that bumps their orders to snag John Wick's John Hancock?

And to make the opportunity even more compelling for comic shops, Boom has also added additional 1-in-100, 1-in-200, and 1-in-500 incentive variants, which will allow retailers to spread the cost of that signed comic across multiple variants. Details on those covers haven't been revealed yet, but we suspect they are coming next week ahead of FOC.

We already know that BRZRKR is the highest-selling original series just based on the initial orders. We also know that it already has orders higher than Image's top title in February, Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa's Radiant Black. The question that remains unanswered at this time is will Keanu's creator-owned megahit be bigger for comic shops than Donny Cates' creator-owned megahit? And if Crossover was the biggest Image launch since Danger Girl in 1998, how far back will we have to go to find a creator-owned title that has sold as much as BRZRKR?


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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