Comics
Review: ‘The Crow’ #1
James O’Barr and Brandon Lee just rolled over in their graves. From quality of content, all the way to artistic style, this book is a dismal let down; a story line that doesn’t know its ass from its elbow, dialogue that is unintentionally comedic, and art like an acid flashback.
WRITTEN BY: John Shirley
ART BY: Kevin Colden
PUBLISHER: IDW
RELEASE: July 11th
Starting at the core, the structure of the story is weak. It constantly jumps around making it hard to know who we are following, and more importantly why this has anything to do with the Crow himself. As the story/acid trip continues it’s a further trip down the rabbit hole, and it’s easy to get lost in the fray with additional characters thrown in all over the place, with little to know explanation of who/what they are. The story jumps around from panel to panel without explanation, and perhaps a narrator would have been useful.
I know it’s the first issue, and I know this sounds harsh, but something has to be there to draw the reader back in. Unfortunately, there are just way too many unanswered questions, but not the good kind. Specifically, who the hell is this guy in the grave yard and why is he being affiliated with the spirit-crows? Even the ending is anti climatic. Finally when there is going to be action of some kind it is a let-down.
Once again, this book looks like a bad drug trip. Swirling art with no definitive outline makes some panels indistinguishable, and combined with light pastels, it makes it even worse. The sketchiness of the art is far too over the top, many of the panels look like there was a lack of effort, or more likely, Colden was in a rush to meet a deadline. There is very little to no effort is put into the backgrounds of half the panels, just some light shading of what could be buildings or a wall? It’s hard to tell. The extreme sketchiness of the art coupled with the over use of light shading at times and extremely dark at others adds to the acid -like nature of the comic.
IDW needs to go back to the drawing board for this book. It has the potential to be something huge, but with its erratic layout, and lack of quality art, it is definitely not a book I can recommend, which is disappointing because I’m a big fan of the original story.
1.5/5 Skulls
Review by- GreenBasterd
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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