Comics! The Crow #1

The Crow #1

Written by John Shirley
Art by Kevin Colden

The Solicitation
“Death and Rebirth,” Part 1. THE CROW is reborn—in Tokyo. Can a dark spirit fight for the light? THE CROW has always done just that—striking from the shadows, a kind of shadow himself. The spirit of the Crow is back, transfiguring Jamie Osterberg, an American studying in Tokyo and deeply in love with his Japanese girlfriend, Yumi… until the love of his life is stolen. The Crow must once more make the wrong thing right—but this time he might have to do it by killing his own true love…

Preview

Why I Bought It
I was a fan of the original story, and a sucker for keeping up with the latest movies. I saw that this was the first original story in a while so I thought I would give it a go.

What I Liked
The attempt. It really tried. It really wanted to be taken seriously. And there were parts that were nice ideas, but terrible execution.

What I Didn't Like
This issue felt very stuffed. It tried to do a lot for a first issue.

I would say the book is on par with one of the New 52 DC books - some of the reading required some familiarity with the character and the general story line in order to get what was going on. The last page is a perfect example of this. If you know nothing about how The Crow works, you end the issue wondering what the fuck is going on.

I believe it was The Crow: Salvation that had the master criminal trying to do scientific experiments on himself. I don't remember clearly, its been awhile. So this book tries to go on a sci-fi bend, but I don't think that is the territory that it needs to go for a Crow story. They are two different genres that just aren't meshing well in this story.

The art is just a mess for me. The art does try to take up as much room on the page as it can, which is commendable, but it has too much jammed in there. I don't know if that is more the fault of the writer wanting to show something and not letting the artist doing their job or the artist trying to show off. Since this is a collaborative medium, I'll share it 50/50 between the two.

How the story should have gone: Start out with Jamie already the Crow. Have him go through attacking the science guys. Have him talk with the spirit of Haruko along the way. You are already dealing with the spiritual, and I liked that idea thrown in there. Have Jamie flash back to his past as he is killing people. Maybe show that's where he learned his sword wielding skills. At the end of the first issue, have him come face to face with Haruko's possessed body. Don't use science to explain the body being taken over, we are already dealing with souls and spirits so keep it in that realm. Let's say our main villain has the ability to travel between bodies as it likes, forcing the current spirit of the body out. But it has to be specific bodies that it takes from, just as there are specific bodies that the Crow has to instill with life after death.

It may be a shitty idea, but it works better in bringing all the characters to the table that need to be brought to it.

And the cover I bought, the regular edition, WTF is going on there? I wish I bought one of the other covers that made sense and didn't look like a mess with the logo just slapped on there. The picture above is smaller than the actual cover and it begins to look like something. But the physical copy of the book is just a different beast altogether.

Panel to Remember
The last panel, but for all the wrong reasons. It wasn't earned. It was a panel of Jamie as the Crow. New readers won't get it. Its just presented with little telegraphing or explanation.

Quotable
"It's done. He's gone and he won't be coming back..." - last line in the book.

Grades
Words: 2/10
Pictures: 2/10
Buy Next Issue: Read the last line of the issue and that should tell you if I am or not.