The Crow: Skinning the Wolves #1 (of 3) Review: The Crow is Back

Can this new Crow series match the original?

Written by James O’Barr and Jim Terry

Art by Jim Terry

Edited by Chris Ruaff

IDW Publishing

Release date 12 December, 2012

$3.99

I did not have the highest of expectations going into this series, and The Crow: Skinning the Wolves still managed to disappoint. After quickly burning through the book’s thirty pages, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. This is not a good thing when your miniseries is only three issues long. We are now a third of the way into the story, and nothing of note has yet happen. This problem is only worsened by the $3.99 asking price.

Big reasons for this lack of plot development are the many violent action scenes. I’m not against overly violent scenes in comics, but there has to be a reason for it. When well executed, as in the original Crow, violence can be a powerful storytelling device. Unfortunately, The Crow: Skinning the Wolves #1 appears to have violence only for the sake of violence; it is all style without any real substance.

The Crow: Skinning the Wolves #1 doesn’t offer much that cannot be found in dozens of other comic books. But perhaps Skinning the Wolves’ worst crime is that it now has be questioning the quality of the original. The comic book medium has grown quite a lot since the original Crow series began. Perhaps there is no longer a place for this ultra-violent man out for revenge in today’s comic book industry.

Rating:

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