Story: Roberto Recchioni
Art: Werther Dell’Ederia
Colors: Giovanna Niro
Letters: Giovanni Marinovich
Published By IDW
Cover Price 3.99
Reviewed by Wheezy
Back Up – The Most Beautiful Suicide
Story: Micol Beltramini
Art: Daniele Serra
Letters: Giovanni Marinovich
David’s quest for revenge comes to an abrupt end and not in the way you might think. I am unsure how long this series is set to last but the words ‘to be concluded’ at the end if the issue has me inclined to believe that the next one will be the last.
The issue opens with some symbolism showing two crows to be battling, this, unfortunately, loses all subtlety as the issue progresses. David confronts Father Raphael on why he killed him and the others turns out he is a religious zealot who believes he is at War (presumably with other religions) and he used the guise of terrorism to convince people there was an immediate threat out there. This is shown throughout a series of flashbacks along with Father Raphael and David conversing around David’s demise and who was ultimately responsible for his resurrection, as it looks like David is having his belief in god tested, in walks Sarah (yes, David’s dead girlfriend) with all the attributes of the crow and delivers some swift, brutal justice in graphic style. Father Raphael has his head blown off with a shotgun, after David had initially tried to intervene also gets shot as well.
As David is bleeding he learns of the severity of the situation and realizes Sarah now has the mantle of the Crow. Whilst he says he is sorry, Sarah agrees and blows his head off in the same fashion as Father Raphael. The issue then cuts to the two crows we say at the start and it shows one killing another, then the proclamation that someone has murdered love on the world and she will make them pay, all of them.
I am unsure how to feel about this in all honesty, the ex-machina style of Sarah showing and exclaiming that God has nothing to do with this cheapens the previous issues and the entire theme of this, the last issues touches on the philosophy of life itself, there are biblical quotes thrown in for good measure. It all felt like an unnecessary stunt as if the creator panicked as they need to wrap this up. I have no idea if that’s the case but I was hoping this was going to be a bit deeper, an ethical question on whether capital punishment should be implemented for the crimes of the most heinous, or how much religion plays a part in our society. I guess we will never touch on this and the time invested in Davids story is now wasted, this leading me to the point of not caring about the book. Maybe I am jumping the gun, in a book about resurrection it may come back around so we will see, but the shock value storytelling doesn’t really sit well with this reviewer.
As usual for this book, it comes with a back up which I will mention as its thrown in there. This particular installment feature themes of depression, homosexuality, and suicide. The Art is scratchy paint style which I didn’t really care for and some of the writing was in cursive, which again is not for me. It never really states anything profound, maybe I missed it but it has been the same for all of these backups, they just seem to be there, apart from the main issue, just gothic horror for the sake of gothic horror.
Bits and Pieces
The art is the same as it has always been throughout, which I think has been ok, with a couple of good panels of Rome. The story was shock value and didn’t really work with the out of the blue reveal and the sudden killing of the main protagonist and antagonist, leaving not much in the way of characters as this was thin on the ground for them anyway. The sad reality is this was working as Crow book and some fans could have been sold on that alone, but now the hero (anti-hero?) is no longer involved it may be a breaking part for some.
5.1/10
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