Anghus Houvouras reviews the first two issues of The Crow: Curare…
“Retired Detroit cop Joe Salk was a good cop, but after a little girl’s murder, his wife left him because of his obsession to find her killers.”
The Crow is one of those wonderfully simple ideas where tales of sorrow and revenge are woven together with a simple conceit: sometimes the dead return to exact vengeance on those responsible for their untimely death. Like many, I became aware of The Crow through the now classic 1994 movie starring Brandon Lee and became equated with the comics afterwards.
To me, The Crow is the perfect kind of anthology vehicle. Different protagonists, different locations, different times. The genius of The Crow is that it can be any kind of story. From a dark, brooding tale of tragedy like the story of Eric Draven. Or a woeful tale of horror like the recent Crow: Skinning the Wolves. Creator James O’Barr has flipped the script again with a jarring, haunting story dripping with despair.
Joe Salk is a cop who has obsessively committed to an unsolved murder of a little girl. The kind of despicable act that fractures the soul and hollows the heart. Her lingering memory permeates every aspect of his life. He is transformed into a brutal, perpetually frustrated blunt instrument who has no problem bending the law to see perpetrators punished. It’s also turned him into a distant, emotionally unavailable husband and father. Salk’s obsession has it’s own workspace in the bowels of his basement where he can pour over every disturbing detail of the case.
The first issue gets us inside the head of Joe Salk taking the reader on a procedural style Detective story. Antoine Dode’s artwork is so perfectly suited for this twisted mystery. His etched style carves out a grim world for Joe Salk to inhabit. The brutal violence is depicted head on with blood soaked beatings, but he’s also able to capture a dream like quality to the story. Especially in the flashbacks. I found myself thinking about David Fincher’s Zodiac while reading the second issue when puzzle pieces are introduced into a larger mystery. I also couldn’t help but think of some great ghost stories like The Orphanage while reading it. Stories that are drenched in melancholy and draw you in to a frightening world.
I can’t heap enough praise onto The Crow: Curare. The first two issues are fantastically realized. It’s a gripping crime story cloaked in the sorrow and supernatural of The Crow concept. O’Barr has tweaked the formula here by bringing us a wayward soul who is very human and a redemptive spirit who isn’t a muscle-bound gun toting avenger but a little girl in search for answers. Really good reading and well worth checking out.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon.
