The Crow: Hark the Herald

by Tim Seeley

Every year, a group of six people gather for Christmas in a cabin in the far North Woods of Wisconsin. But this isn’t your average bickering nuclear family—these are six of the most prolific killers in North America. Now, last year’s sins have risen from the grave, ready to deliver the gift of revenge. Guided by the Crow, Cecilia Rite will give six psychos a holiday hammer party. The Crow knows who has been naughty...

Genres: Comics, Horror

34 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 27, 2019

About the author

Tim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of murderers and assassins try to be normal people for once, but one of them just can't turn off for one day and it ends up getting everyone supernaturally hunted down. This is why we can't have nice things.

But why do you bother doing all this spooking and gloating to someone you're about to kill? They won't remember it. They won't learn from it. Because they're dead. "When you have to shoot," Eli Wallach said, "shoot, don't talk."

It feels like she's either gaining far too much satisfaction and catharsis out of what should be a simple job of cold justice and karma - or she's breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the audience. Either way is unsatisfactory, and a bit of a black mark to an otherwise nice morally-grey supernatural vengeance horror flick.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a really compelling Crow story somewhere in this comic - or perhaps the beginnings of one - but I’ve got a fundamental problem with this one-shot book, “The Crow: Hark The Herald.” It’s not that writer Tim Seeley’s premise is ridiculous, even though the idea that a bunch of professional killers would gather every Christmas season to act like a normal family IS quite silly; nope, my gripe is that Seeley lays the foundation for all this by explaining it with a brief prologue paragraph before the comic even starts. I get that space is limited with a single issue standalone comic but c’mon! There’s more elegant ways to pull that off. Otherwise, this comic is fine. Nothing is going to live up to the lightning-in-a-bottle perfection of James O’Barr’s original, with all its grit and warmth and violence and poetry. Meredith Laxton’s art is dramatic (maybe a bit too clean for a Crow book) and Seeley’s tale ends with a nice bit of ambiguity. I just wish “The Crow: Hark The Herald” had fulfilled its potential better, particularly the awesome contrast of the vengeful supernatural crusader within the snowy wilds of rural Wisconsin.

[Mega · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bro, imagine being so fucking butthurt by what one guy says about you that you go and straight up murder him AND his daughter. That has got to be the saddest thing I have ever seen, both for the guy and daughter and the one that killed them. This is pretty much the equivalent of someone killing someone over some negative comment that they made on a YouTube video, it's just stupid, why would you even do it? Also, apparently the Crow here isn't going to kill that one last girl, because...... reasons? I mean, I guess she didn't want them to die in the first place, but at the same time, she was still there, and she didn't stop the rest from killing you, so wouldn't she be just as guilty as the rest of them? That's the logic you have used for all of these other comics, so why would you bother to stop using that logic now?

Issue #1

[Mark Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great story, short and nothing too special.. 3/5

[A.L. Bellettiere · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to wait until Christmas and finally got to Christmas Day and remembered about it. At first, I didn't understand the ending but all that the avatar wanted was for someone to express some remorse. Not a great story by any means but a really decent story and I liked it.

6/3/24
My problem with this story now is that they provide a back story but not enough. . Maybe enough for some people for the main character as a young woman as well as how she and her father were killed but not enough to make me care. A step up from Flesh and Blood for a female avatar but just not enough. Also, much like Wild Justice, they're trying to convince ypu that the bad guys were redeemable. Overall, the story feels incomplete. It was ok but not great.