Crow (comics)

The Crow is a fictional antihero character and the protagonist of The Crow comic book series, originally created by American artist James O'Barr in 1989.^[1] The titular character is an undead vigilante brought back to life by a supernatural crow to avenge his murder and death of his fiancée.

The character has subsequently appeared in several feature films, a television series, and spin-off novels and comics. In the various incarnations, films, and spin-offs, many people have taken on the Crow persona in order to avenge their own wrongful deaths. In 2011, IGN ranked the Crow 37th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes. The Crow made his live-action debut in the 1994 film The Crow, portrayed by Brandon Lee. Later, The Crow was portrayed by Mark Dacascos in the 1998 television series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven.

The Crow (bird)

The Crow is a supernatural bird that serves as the protagonist's link between the living world and the realm of beyond. The magical crow is capable of resurrecting people who have been murdered, so that the victims may be able to seek justice on the person or people responsible for their death. This story is said to come from an old Native American legend.

During the person's "rebirth", the crow serves as a guide, helping the individual tap into his or her potential and assisting in tracking down the wrongdoers. Other people do not see the crow, only the reborn, unless he wants it. The Crow communicates with the reborn in a manner akin to telepathy, often helping guide them to exact their revenge.

In the film adaptations, the crow is a real bird and if harmed or killed, the reborn becomes vulnerable. However, the Crow also seems to be much more enduring than a regular bird and might possess some regeneration abilities (e.g. in The Crow film the bird survives after being shot with a rifle).

Powers and abilities

While they are in possession of the Crow's powers, the reborn are endowed with several unique abilities. As they are already dead, the reborn are incapable of feeling pain or fatigue and are not capable of healing. In the films, however, they possess a supernatural ability to recover from seemingly all injuries in a matter of moments. Chief among their physical abilities is their inhuman strength and enhanced reflexes; able to quickly brutalize several opponents simultaneously, even those who would be otherwise untouchable, as well as catch fast-moving projectiles such as throwing knives with their bare hands. In both Wicked Prayer and Stairway to Heaven, the source of the reborn's strength is attributed to their love for the ones they've lost. Alternatively, Ashe Corven says in City of Angels that the fuel for his power is pain. In either case, the Crow's magic is rooted in lost love.

Also, again in the films, the reborn possesses the ability to see images from his or her loved one's memory when touching things he or she touched before, or to see the memories of a person when touching them. In addition the reborn usually can send the images and feelings from the memories already absorbed to the person whose eyes the reborn touches at the moment; in The Crow, protagonist Eric Draven makes villain Top Dollar feel 30 hours of his (Eric's) murdered girlfriend Shelly's pain in one moment. In The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Eric can see events that transpired simply by touching objects that belonged to someone.

Although the person brought back to life by the Crow is physically invulnerable, in the films and later Crow comics they do have one weakness: they lose their power if the crow is harmed or killed. In addition, the reborn lose their invincibility when they consider their mission completed; in The Crow: Salvation, protagonist Alex Corvis is tricked into thinking that he completed his mission, thus he becomes vulnerable. His guide Crow ultimately makes Alex realize his mistake and rise again.

In the comic book The Crow: Waking Nightmares, it is stated that the Crow power is taken from the reborn if they abandon their mission. In case of losing special powers, the reborn become vulnerable, start to rot, and rigor mortis sets in, as if the reborn were still in their graves.

In The Crow: City of Angels and The Crow: Salvation, those resurrected by the Crow have the ability to turn into crows themselves and possess the natural abilities of a crow, such as flight and night vision.

Appearance

In the comic book, the origin of Eric's make-up is explained briefly as "painting his face in the colors of joy". This indicates that he copied the Greek comedy masquerade mask in his and Shelly's house. Contrary to the film, in the book Eric does not paint his face with white. The white pale color comes from the fact that Eric is dead and it is just a corpse inhabited by a soul. Joshua and Mark Leung do not wear any distinctive make-up, and Ashe's is provided by Sarah, as in the film. Iris Shaw paints the semblance of a Crow on her face with the tail covering her nose, and the wings covering her eyes. She removes it to face her final killer. Michael Korby's makeup covers his neck and shoulders. The makeup is referred as "the mask of death" and "the trails of Gorgon's blood" in The Crow: Wild Justice comic book. In The Crow: Death and Rebirth, Jamie Osterberg's pale skin color and eye/mouth lines are not created by make-up, however, and his hair has turned completely white. In The Crow: Curare, Carrie's pale skin color is not accomplished by make-up, there is no horizontal line over the mouth, and the vertical lines over the eyes are shorter and thinner.

According to O'Barr, Eric Draven is based on the face of Peter Murphy (of Bauhaus) and the body of Iggy Pop.^[2]

In all feature films, except The Crow: Salvation, the protagonist wears make-up that cover their face. In the first film Eric Draven copies the pattern from one of the masquerade that decorated his and Shelly's apartment, which consists of white paint placed over the face with black paint around eyes, black vertical lines over and under eyes, black paint on the lips and a black horizontal line across the mouth and cheeks, resembling a Glasgow smile. In The Crow: City of Angels, Ashe's make-up was provided by Sarah and looks similar. Jimmy's make-up in The Crow: Wicked Prayer is similar as well, though there is no horizontal line over the mouth and the vertical eye lines are shorter and thinner.

In the third film, The Crow: Salvation, Alex Corvis is executed in the electric chair, and his face is burned by the metal helmet which was worn over his head during the execution. He removes the burned skin following his resurrection, scarring his face around the eyes and lips, thus forming a pattern similar to the classical make-up. However, there are two vertical lines over each of his eyes and they cross with the horizontal lines on his mouth.

In The Crow: Stairway to Heaven TV series, Eric's "make-up" appears automatically whenever he "changes" into The Crow. His fingernails become black, while his face becomes white, with vertical lines over the eyes and short horizontal/diagonal lines extending from his lips, like a smile; they disappear when he becomes 'normal'.

Even though not all the reborn wear make-up, they are still usually drawn in a certain style: their lips are usually distinctively black, skin around eyes is black, while the eyes are sometimes burning white. Generally, the style of drawing is reminiscent of the pattern of the classical makeup.

The resurrected souls in the Crow novels do not wear the traditional face paint/markings.

Fictional character biographies

Comics

Eric

The protagonist of the original comic book. Eric and his fiancée, Shelly, are on their way back from a romantic get-away, when their vehicle breaks down on a deserted road. A car full of gang members stops, not to help, but to take advantage of the couple's misfortune. They shoot Eric in the head paralysing him while they rape and kill his fiancée in the car, while Eric dies hours later in the hospital. A year later, resurrected by The Crow, Eric exacts vengeance on the men responsible for their deaths.

Following the original series, London Night Studios published the six-issue series The Crow/Razor: Kill the Pain (#1-4, #0 and a Finale issue) in 1998, which saw Eric paired with

Eric was also in a 10-issue series by Image Comics which reimagined the plot, adding influences from the film. Eric and Shelly's lives are cut short when a wrong apartment number leads a gang of drug lords to mistakenly murder them only days before their wedding. Now, Eric haunts the city as the Crow, a shadow administering revenge for not only his loss, but for others as well. A police officer enlists the aid of the Crow to uncover the truth about the jailed suspect of a murdered 9-year-old girl. As the Crow is flushing out information about the murder, he discovers that Shelly's grave has been desecrated and her body has been removed. Another vigilante, a Native American named Walker, who communicates with a wolf, begins killing local murderers.

Joshua Zane

Joshua appears in the three issue series