The Crow: Death & Rebirth is supposed to be depressing because of the story and the art, but as it dips a bit lower in quality with issue three, I find myself getting depressed for other reasons. Here’s the official description from IDW:

“Dark Bird, Lonely Island.” Shibishii: “Lonely Island,” off the coast of Japan. The entire island, a high-security fortress and a comfortable retreat at once, belongs to Biotrope International. Surely the Crow can’t get them there, can he? He can and will, in search of Hendra, the woman who stole his beloved’s body. He searches, too, for the shadowy Soro, the
man who hides secrets within secrets… and uses the electronic to mask the demonic…

This issue has a number of deaths and an awesome decapitation involving a hot tub, but John Shirley is spinning his wheels. Hendra’s compatriot, Shin (or Eto, they can’t decide which) is having second thoughts about what they’ve done, Haruko’s father tries his hand at vigilantism, and a greater force for evil is hinted at behind Biotrope. These parts fail to form a cohesive whole however, and I found myself struggling to care one way or the other about any of the characters. Additionally, there are several breaks in the dialogue and some bad transitions from panel to panel that make it difficult to follow the story.

The visual tone that Kevin Colden creates in this book is perfect. Even though he leans closer to a traditional comic style with this issue, with more clearly defined panels, his art still matches the depressing mood and goth feel (Not gothic. Goth.) of the story and the Crow himself. However, the impressionistic nature of his style also contributes to the difficulty of following the story. As several points I had to compare panels to tell who was who.

As superfluous as this issue feels, it seems to get the story to a point where it can regain focus next month. I have a feeling that by the time Death & Rebirth is over, I’ll think it only needed four issues. Hopefully I’ll be able to say issue three was the worst of the series.

2.5/5