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Released By: IDW Publishing
Release Date: April 16, 2014
The Story:
In issue #1 of The Crow: Pestilence, we were introduced to a boxer named Salvador who ran afoul of Mexican drug and sex traffickers the Saint Death Cult, and saw his family brutally murdered before being done in himself. Brought back to life by a crow, Salvador decided that vengeance was in order, taking out SDC top dog "Raw Dog". And so the story may have ended, if it weren't for a number of other SDC bosses that would have to be taken out as well.
Book 2 gives us more of the same as book one, with Salvador, now in Texas, tracking down the remaining members of the Saint Death Cult. Flashbacks show in detail what happened to Salvador's family, and his tormented self wrestles with the guilt of having killed his loved ones with his greed. This time, the target is Mange Dog (yes, Mange Dog) illustrating a bit of a developing theme.
Also entering the fray is undercover Agent Diaz, who has infiltrated the SDC and wants to get to the bottom of Raw Dog's torturous murder, all the while trying to maintain his cover story as one of the inhuman scumbags and not getting slaughtered by either side in the process.
Showing off some impressive healing abilities and firing off some very strangely-written uncharacteristic dialogue, Salvador follows the SDC's lower-level goons to the home of Mange Dog, where he plans to make an example of the second...er, top dog.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed with issue 2 of this new series. While Bill's writing seemed capable of pulling off something more than straight-ahead comic book violence in the first issue, this edition seems to have been incredibly dumbed down. While O'Barr's original comic was probably not going to be confused with A Tale of Two Cities, it seemed like it was operating on a few different levels. With the appearance of "Mange Dog" and Salvador's almost ridiculous goth-sounding threats, one worries that The Crow: Pestilence is heading into stupid territory.
Time will tell.
The Final Word:
It would be nice to see Bill amp up the writing for issue #3, but this one sounds a resounding, "Meh".
