I am not the type of guy who would be into this franchise. I’ll tell you that straight out.

The Crow is a dark, gritty place, born out of the creator’s sorrow and a need for catharsis. James O’Barr lost his fiance when she was hit by a drunk driver while coming to pick him up. Already having lived a less than happy life, the Marine manual illustrator (O’Barr was a Marine), he blamed himself for her death, and that plus an article on a couple murdered by a gang for a $20 engagement ring inspired the comic series. That is a very truncated history, but we aren’t here to discuss just the one book.

While the original series is considered the best, it is most likely because O’Barr had a stronger connection to the hero and his story than the writers who came after. However, there is more than one character over the years who has been brought back to life by a crow to put their lives right after being brutally murdered alongside a loved one to enact a gory vengeance on their murderer. While the first one has seen four different takes across movies, television, and of course the comics, the one everybody knows is not the only one, so why the more recent movie couldn’t have simply introduced another Crow instead of remaking the first movie comes down to the name and wanting to do “their version” of a movie that doesn’t need a remake in a franchise that doesn’t require one. Just do the next Crow, keep to the rules, and continue the same continuity. It might not be as beloved, but neither is bastardising the original.

As I did with the various Silver Surfers, I’m going to the Fandom wiki landscape and a wiki dedicated to the Crow franchise. Unlike most people who defend bad adaptations, I’m not trying to prove a point with the most surface level view possible. This is a brief overview of each of the Crows in comics and movies because I thought it might be interesting, and it will prove the point for me: that you don’t have to remake a franchise just to have your version of the fan favorite. It’s a franchise that’s practically an anthology at this point, and unlike a lot of superheroes (if you can call the Crows that) the mantle changes can make perfect sense.

Sometimes the first is still the greatest. Like Transformers movies.

Eric Draven

Not the first Crow in that universe’s history, but the first one introduced to readers. Between two movies, a TV show, and the original comics you already know this guy’s story. A musician whose fiancé is brutally murdered with him, Eric’s spirit couldn’t rest, and so the crow brings him back to the living to get revenge on the gang who murdered them, led by the vicious Top Dollar. Top Dollar also has corrupt cops on his side and the city is…well, it’s Detroit. You can guess what it’s like.

Because a lot of O’Barr is in this character, it’s not surprising that he is the one most fans think of as THE Crow. Obviously he’s going to put more heart into it. That doesn’t mean you can’t get a good story out of the others. It just means nobody is going to measure up to the original. You shouldn’t try, but it also makes it even more important that his story be translated correctly. There’s going to be more pushback, but since Hollywood love “anybody can be (X)”, this is the franchise where you can honestly pull that off. Of course it still means playing by the rules when it comes to powers and weaknesses, so they’re still going to get it wrong, but look who already exists.

“I didn’t even get a haircut.”

Joshua Zane (Dead Time)

A member of the Crow tribe, Joshua tried to live life like the white man until he and his family were killed by soldiers. What could have been a cool story of the Crow appearing in the Old West was instead moves to present day, as Joshua is driven by the crow to kill the reincarnated soldiers. Kind of missed an opportunity there, James. So what happens if they reincarnate again? Is this going to be a centennial event?

Speaking of needing a haircut…

Iris Shaw (Flesh And Blood)

Look, Hollywood. It’s a woman! And you can make her indestructible and able to toss big dudes around without any complaints. Just remember that hurting the crow that brought her here will weaken her and deciding she’s done with vengeance will end her powers unless she goes into vengeance mode again, and you’re good. Fans won’t complain that she exists. Just write her well. Fat chance, I know. It’s also a story that doesn’t take place in the city.

Iris isn’t even the first female Crow. We’ll get to her. I’m going by the list order on the wiki. Working for the Bureau Of Land Management, Iris isn’t too thrilled with farmers poisoning coyotes. There’s a right way and a wrong way to deal with animals going after your livestock, and that was the latter. When she tries to stop them, they blow her up, killing her and her unborn child. Because apparently they decided to compound their stupidity. I only skimmed through the summary after that, but it appears she had a real complex story, wondering if she was going to keep the baby, confronting the baby’s father, and wanting the deaths of her killers to match the crime. She apparently argued with her crow a lot. There has to be a good story in there somewhere, which Modern Hollywood would of course screw up completely, but imagine it in the hands of someone who didn’t suck.

Such a lifelike drawing I’d swear it was a real person.

Ashe Corven (City Of Angels)

Our first movie-exclusive Crow (who also had a crap video game), Ashe and his son witness a gang murder near his workshop, and is killed for it. Ashe is resurrected, and meets Sarah, a young friend of Eric’s from the first movie, based on Sherri from the comics, who helps him understand why he’s here: vengeance with a vengeance.

This shows you don’t even have to follow the comics to use someone as a Crow. You can create an original character and it could technically still be canon. Has there been a gay Crow? We saw an Indian/Native American/First American/whatever we’re using this month, so why not a black man? We’ve seen women? What about a Latina. You’re only limits are the human race. Though the idea of a anthropomorphic Crow brought back by a normal crow is amusing.

“This isn’t the throw rug I ordered!”

Michael Korby (Wild Justice)

I looked up the summary and apparently this one focuses on one of the criminals who killed Korby and his wife for their car. He actually regrets that night, so it’s a question if Korby is right to go after him or not. Also, Korby gets two crows for his trouble. Not sure why as the wiki has little to say about him. Some of the Crows on the list don’t even have a link to a profile. My wiki dive is hitting shallow waters, with what profiles I can get to having the barest of information at points. Like the next guy.

We apparently missed the chance to have Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Crow.

Mark Leung (Waking Nightmares)

Mark’s own profile is so bare I had to go to the miniseries page to get anything, and even that isn’t much. Leung is a Chinatown policeman whose wife is murdered and his daughters kidnapped for a child pornography ring. Having someone to save is new but this is just sounds a lot darker since we got into kiddie porn. i stopped reading Forest Hill because it was getting too squicky (necessary as it may be) with its subject, and it wasn’t even this bad.

Crow Bamboo Branch Kawanabe Kyosai by The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Jamie Ostenberg (Death And Rebirth)

No character art, so enjoy this image of the bird. He’ll be back. Or she. I can’t tell with birds, call me speciesist if you want. Even the comic cover for the miniseries isn’t useful because as of this writing it’s for the wrong comic! Look, I never claimed all these entries were good. I even noted that nobody is going to top Eric. Still, you’d think the fan wiki for the franchise could at least have the right cover.

Jaime is a foreign exchange student living in Japan, so I guess you have to be some kind of American to be the Crow? Then again, there’s three French people coming up. All we know here is that Jamie’s girlfriend is taken and that he might be forced to kill her. Basically, they took IDW’s blurb and made that the entry, or at least that’s how it feels to me.

Should the Nazi killer really look scarier than the actual Nazis?

Maudlin Treacle (Skinning The Wolves)

Look, a Crow that fights Nazis when the term “Nazi” actually meant something. When he beat a Nazi captain at chess, the scumbag had him and his family executed. Talk about a poor loser. Oh yeah, Nazi. Makes sense.

No, guys, this is the Crow, not the Butterfly.

Carrie/Curare (Curare)

I recommend not using children as your Crow to not mess with the young performer’s mind, but in the comics that’s easier to get away with. It’s not the girl who is doing the vengeance thing, though, but officer Joe Salik. Carrie, calling herself Curare for some reason, is helping find her killers, but probably not raking up the body counts? She’s a cutie, so I hope not.

Let’s hope Joshua and Iris don’t go to HIS barber.

Salvador (Pestilence)

A boxer in Mexico who refused to throw a fight, the baddies kill him, making them think they killed his wife and son, selling them to slavers instead. The wiki is getting less and less useful. I don’t even have entries for the next three, so let’s put them together.

There’s that bird again.

Leandre, Vincent, & Elorah

From The Medieval Crow, Bride Of The Crow, and Blood Of The Innocent respectively, I guess this is either a French miniseries or just a trio of stories set in France, or something. I have no idea based on these entries. When a lord wants an heir, he just steals Leandre’s son, killing him and his wife. Leandre gets his revenge but accidentally kills his son, and now wanders the world trying to figure out what his purpose is. Then he kills Jack The Ripper. I hate those stories.

Vincent falls for a make-up artist in the 1930s and fails to save her from being raped, getting himself killed in the process. So he comes back. That’s all I have.

Elorah is yet another female Crow, who must be in the future or something because she fights a cyborg. She’s the only one thus far who is only getting revenge for herself. No other loved one listed on the wiki anyway. She’s an undercover cop trying to kill the narcotics baron who killer her, and deal with a cyborg vampire. Running out of ideas, are we? Not that “Crow versus cyborg vampire” sounds bad on the surface, mind you.

Hannah Foster (Stairway To Heaven)

The first girl Crow we see comes from the television series. meaning she gets a longer arc than most Crows, with the exception being this show’s version of Eric Draven. Kidnapped and left to die of thirst along with her daughter, she seeks vengeance on her kidnappers. Why leave them there? Not really mentioned in her wiki entry. As the show gives us an Eric who got his revenge, was stuck in the mortal world, and now looks into redemption, she tries to get Hanna to turn her enemies over to the police rather than do the murder thing. She’s a stand-out among Crows, but I don’t think the TV show is canon to the comics anymore than the movies are.

Alex Corvis (Salvation)

A movie-exclusive Crow, Alex’s look comes not from being drawn to the same make-up but scars from being put in the electric chair. Falsely accused of murdering his girlfriend, Alex has to clear his name by coming back from the grave and finding her real killers, learning about another side of her life in the process. His opponent is one of few who are aware of the whole Crow thing and rather than attacking the crow that brought him back, opts to convince Alex that his mission is done so he’ll lose his powers. It’s certainly a different method of dealing with a Crow and sets him off from the other villains in this franchise.

Jimmy Cuervo/Dan Cody (Wicked Prayer)

Apparently there’s also a novelization. where Jimmy is named Dan Cody and his girlfriend is called Leticia Dreams The Truth instead of Lilly Ignites The Dawn, probably the last draft the author had access to before sending the book off to publishing using those names. That’s what interesting about novelizations, comparing the differences to the final film. In this case our victims are attacked by Satanists trying to bring about the Antichrist because some people are really impatient. See also my fellow Christians trying to hasten Jesus’ return. It’s going to get worse before that happens, folks, even if we do see signs of what the Book Of Revelation warned would happen. It’s been a few thousand centuries, folks, This isn’t an overnight operation.

This is another rare example of someone using the supernatural against a Crow, whether trying to steal their power or already being a demonic force.

On the plus side I’m not filling my media library storage space on one article.

Okay, lighting round of original novel Crows, so no pictures and decreasing explanations of backstory.

William Blessing (Quote The Crow)

The psychos in this story are a literary…goth…gang. What? Another wife vengeance, and that’s all I know about this story. The Crow wiki doesn’t even have an entry as of this writing.

Jared Poe (The Lazarus Heart)

A gay man falsely accused of killing his boyfriend goes after the real killer and homophobic cops, plus the guy who murdered him because his brother was one of the real killer’s victims. And Jared, who name would have better fit the last guy given the theme, is aided by his lover’s transexual sister. Wait, when did this novel come out? 1998? Sounds more like a modern Hollywood mess to me. It’s different at least.

Amy Carlisle (Clash By Night)

Part of me wants to read this novel, but after the last one part of me is scared to read it, and not for the obviously incoming body count. Amy is a day care owner whose business, clients, and self are blown up by domestic terrorists who didn’t check to make sure the senator they were after was actually there. Ah, more incompetence. She comes back, learns her husband, who later joins the mission, has moved on with her best friend, who actually survived…this could either be really good or a disaster. I mean, if you’re Amy you already have an answer for that.

Steven Lelliot (Temple Of Night)

“He appears in The Crow: Temple of Night, the fourth published novel in the series. Enter a young American journalist, assigned to expose the latest cover-up. Stephen is about to break the two cardinal rules of journalism: Don’t fall in love, and don’t get killed.” That’s literally all the wiki told me.

Billy and Dren (Hellbound)

Billy is a demon, Dren is a hoodlum, and that’s all I know. How and why a DEMON needs to become a Crow is beyond me. This is the last of the novels. Don’t worry, we’re almost to the end of this list.

Bernard Wright (The Crow Conspiracy)

Does he even count? For one thing he doesn’t have the classic look, either from make-up or Ol’ Sparky, and for another this is an X-Files crossover so I don’t know if this is canon with either property. Assailants going after the popular conspiracy hunting trio The Lone Gunmen kills his girlfriend and their unborn son so he turns Crow and goes after them. Not sure if Mulder and Scully are in this. I would love to hear Scully trying to explain the Crow if Bernie had broke out the full look. Also want to see her explain The Mask, now that I think about it.

Brandi (Hark The Herald)

The Fandom wiki refers to her as “The Crow”, the unnamed Crow, or Hark The Herald, but her father calls her Brandi once, and that’s what I’m going by. Originally her name was going to be Cecilia Rite, but that apparently didn’t make the comic. Now you know as much about her as I do. Were some of these from a short story anthology or something?

David Amadio & Sarah Palladino (Momento Mori)

They’re…in the story. I’ve got nothing here. Sarah is surprisingly cute for a dead woman in clown whiteface and too much eyeliner. Not sure when the crows and their Crows thought that was a good idea. I guess Bernie just noped out of that look. It took place in Rome and David was after his girlfriend’s killers (most likely his, too). I know nothing else, but if Sarah turned out to be that girlfriend and they both went Crow for each other’s vengeance…does that count as romantic? This is not my genre.

Oh come on, wiki, this was the last one!

Null Narcos (Lethe)

I can’t even tell you where this is from beyond a title, nevermind why he…she…they…it became a Crow. For all I know this was the first audio drama or something. Mobile game. RPG. Canonized fanfic. You’re guess is probably better than mine.

There you have it. The Crow is exactly what you’d think Hollywood has been begging for, a way to pass a mantle off, create their own version without any burdens beyond the rules, which they’re already bothered by, for a Crow when it comes to powers and limitations. Heck, you could make the first Black Crow…yes, I know how that would go over in the press now that I wrote it. Hawaiian Crow? Instead they remade the first one…again…and apparently not to the fanbase’s satisfaction, which doesn’t surprise me out of modern Hollywood. I know we don’t need more proof that they don’t know what they’re doing in La-La Land, but they keep giving it to us.

And if the audience will never except anything beyond the Brandon Lee movie…then why bother? Either way, this was destined to fail. At least fail trying to do something new that might work. (That last part seems to be Hollywood’s biggest issue.)