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The Crow (Kitchen Sink Press)
The Crow: City of Angels
78 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
John Wagner
1,284 books189 followersJohn Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 6, 2017
This book is actually an adaptation of the original screenplay. This story represents the original vision for the film before the studio decided they wanted it to be similar to the original. This story is fantastic. It remains very different from the original film, but still keeps that mystique around the actual crow. Ashe is an engaging character and Sarah is much more likable than she is in the film. If you're a fan of the films this is worth a read. I enjoyed the film but felt that something was lacking. This book fixes that issue.
October 20, 2020
The story takes place in an alternate reality that looks something like an even more extreme, grim and merciless version of Batman’s Arkham Asylum. Despite the cruel and unforgiving society they live in, Eric Draven and his fiancé Shelly fall madly in love and find comfort in each other’s arms. Eric and Shelly go for a peaceful, romantic drive down the open road one fine day, enjoying each other’s company when their car is suddenly pulled over by a violent gang of thugs. They drag the two out of the car and they force Eric to watch them torture his girlfriend to death before shooting him in the back of the head. Just like that, the two lovers are dead. On the anniversary of their deaths, Eric resurrects from the grave as a vengeful spirit and takes on the mantle of a supernatural avenger, tracking down the thugs that killed him and his bride-to-be one by one and slaughtering them without mercy.
The story begins with Eric violently interrogating a man named Mr. Jones, a thug with connections to the criminals that murdered him and Shelly. Here we get a taste of the protagonist’s cruelty and lust for vengeance. He’s not the sweet and compassionate man he used to be. He’s cruel, sadistic and enjoys the suffering of the people that wronged him. He’s no hero of justice and he doesn’t quite fit the definition of vigilante hero either, he’s just a heartbroken man fixated on personal revenge and he’s willing to throw away his humanity to get what he wants. The Crow does a great job of showing just how tragic and depressing revenge truly is. It’s not glorified or beautiful, but it can be dangerously satisfying, and that addiction to the pain can destroy a person from the inside.
That’s the gist of the plot. A man resurrects from the dead and hunts down the men that killed him and his girlfriend. It’s a very simplistic revenge story with a unique gothic-horror aesthetic. Eric often goes into insane ramblings where he randomly babbles out dark poetry and edgy quotes like Edgar Allan Poe hopped up on drugs, vengeance and a rockstar charisma. Speaking of Poe, this story is pretty much what you would get if John Wick was written by Edgar Allan Poe. The villains are fairly one-dimensional, but it suits the mood of the story. This is about a broken man lashing out at the world because he's unable to contain his grief. It captures how one truly feels toward people that steal everything that was once precious away from you. There's no mercy or sympathy, there’s no attempt to see eye to eye or try to understand why they did what they did, there’s only a spiral of despair, rage and a self-consuming lust to give them the punishment they deserve
The story feels more personal and intimate when you read it knowing that it’s loosely based on the author’s own experience and feelings of losing his significant other. You can feel his rage and despair pouring out from the writing and the bleak black and white pages smothered with rain, blood and grime. It also has an extremely good movie adaption featuring the late Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee. It’s rich with a gothic atmosphere and has that nostalgic 1980’s action hero that throws out cool one liners vibe. I heard it was recently released on Netflix and I would definitely recommend giving it a watch.
The original comic is a short and sweet self contained story, but there are quite a few spinoff stories where James collaborated with other authors to show off the dark avenger in action once more. In most of these stories, Eric resurrects other unfortunate souls that died tragic deaths and gives them the opportunity to avenge themselves like he once did. None of these stories are quite as good as the original in my opinion, but I thought they were worth mentioning for people that really want to see more from this cool character.
***
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The story begins with Eric violently interrogating a man named Mr. Jones, a thug with connections to the criminals that murdered him and Shelly. Here we get a taste of the protagonist’s cruelty and lust for vengeance. He’s not the sweet and compassionate man he used to be. He’s cruel, sadistic and enjoys the suffering of the people that wronged him. He’s no hero of justice and he doesn’t quite fit the definition of vigilante hero either, he’s just a heartbroken man fixated on personal revenge and he’s willing to throw away his humanity to get what he wants. The Crow does a great job of showing just how tragic and depressing revenge truly is. It’s not glorified or beautiful, but it can be dangerously satisfying, and that addiction to the pain can destroy a person from the inside.
That’s the gist of the plot. A man resurrects from the dead and hunts down the men that killed him and his girlfriend. It’s a very simplistic revenge story with a unique gothic-horror aesthetic. Eric often goes into insane ramblings where he randomly babbles out dark poetry and edgy quotes like Edgar Allan Poe hopped up on drugs, vengeance and a rockstar charisma. Speaking of Poe, this story is pretty much what you would get if John Wick was written by Edgar Allan Poe. The villains are fairly one-dimensional, but it suits the mood of the story. This is about a broken man lashing out at the world because he's unable to contain his grief. It captures how one truly feels toward people that steal everything that was once precious away from you. There's no mercy or sympathy, there’s no attempt to see eye to eye or try to understand why they did what they did, there’s only a spiral of despair, rage and a self-consuming lust to give them the punishment they deserve
The story feels more personal and intimate when you read it knowing that it’s loosely based on the author’s own experience and feelings of losing his significant other. You can feel his rage and despair pouring out from the writing and the bleak black and white pages smothered with rain, blood and grime. It also has an extremely good movie adaption featuring the late Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee. It’s rich with a gothic atmosphere and has that nostalgic 1980’s action hero that throws out cool one liners vibe. I heard it was recently released on Netflix and I would definitely recommend giving it a watch.
The original comic is a short and sweet self contained story, but there are quite a few spinoff stories where James collaborated with other authors to show off the dark avenger in action once more. In most of these stories, Eric resurrects other unfortunate souls that died tragic deaths and gives them the opportunity to avenge themselves like he once did. None of these stories are quite as good as the original in my opinion, but I thought they were worth mentioning for people that really want to see more from this cool character.
***
My Social Media
My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
My Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/michael_sor...
My Wattpad Account: https://www.wattpad.com/user/Michael-...
My Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/SorbelloHorror
My Facebook Account: https://www.facebook.com/michael.sorb...
July 21, 2024
Hm this one felt very confusing. I get the impression it only makes sense if you watch the movie it's based on. There was no chemistry between the leads. The antagonists were all over the place. The art was pretty average (mostly due to the colouring-it felt gaudy). Bit of a mess.
May 26, 2024
This was meant intentionally as a cash in and it feels like it.. I've come to actually liking this story/movie more in the last several years,which leads me to saying that this adaptation makes what was unfortunately butchered by Pressman already and makes it ugly and harsher. Adding to that is the compression of the story between three issues. The only thing better than the movie is the novelization adding more color and guts that bring it more to life. If the novelization added to it, this comic adaptation takes away from it. I can't not put emphasis on the fact that the comic makes ugly creatures out of the characters. Otherwise, the only redeeming factor about this adaptation is that , if not even through my review, it nudges people towards the movie and the paperback adaptation by Chet Williamson. One last point. The only good art is from the cover and that's a damn shame.
October 17, 2016
A poor adaptation of a bad movie, The Crow: City of Angels is an incredibly disappointing follow-up to James O’Barr’s epic graphic novel. Partly a spin-off, partly a sequel, the story follows a single-father who’s resurrected to avenge the deaths of himself and his son; who were both killed by a gang after witnessing them commit a murder. The storytelling is terrible and is often incoherent; as if there are missing panels, causing the story to jump sporadically without explanation. And the characters are underdeveloped, and aren’t given much of a motivation or backstory. The artwork is also rather underwhelming, with fairly generic designs and coloring. A cheap knockoff of the original, The Crow: City of Angels lacks passion and vision.
July 27, 2015
Way better ending than the movie.
December 16, 2017
The Crow in color.
How dare they.
How dare they.
August 15, 2020
Similar If not better than movie. 3 issues quick read!
4/5
4/5
April 24, 2023
A fun little revisit to the movie. I read this in single issues and I wish I could still get all the merch they have in the back.
January 1, 2025
A serviceable adaptation of the movie, which wasn’t so hot to begin with (not helped by the way the Weinstein’s cut it), as a comic story it moves too fast and you don’t get much character development apart from Sarah. It does include some of the extra scenes and dialogue found in the workprint but even this is zipped along by the pacing, including Nemo’s death which barely gives him an intro before he bites it. To its credit it does attempt to explain a lot of the mystical elements which are generally absent from the theatrical cut of the movie so that’s always a plus, I just wished it was longer than it is.
The artwork is a bit too blocky for what I’m used to seeing in a Crow comic, granted there is no matching the legendary status of James O’Barr’s original creation.
If you were disappointed by the movie then this probably won’t sway you either, but if you want a condensed version of it in the medium of comics then this will be as good as you’re going to have it.
The artwork is a bit too blocky for what I’m used to seeing in a Crow comic, granted there is no matching the legendary status of James O’Barr’s original creation.
If you were disappointed by the movie then this probably won’t sway you either, but if you want a condensed version of it in the medium of comics then this will be as good as you’re going to have it.
March 26, 2024
Floja la película, flojo el libro
December 30, 2012
I actually really liked this until the end. The stupid, stupid end.
July 18, 2015
Possibly not the best idea to read this without reading The Crow first.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews