Eric Draven/Comic

For the film/TV character, see Eric Draven/Live Action

Eric Draven
Name:	Eric Draven
Age:	Unknown (approx. mid to late 20s)
Height:	6'2 (187cm)
Weight:	170lbs
Current Status:	Deceased
Relatives:	Shelly Webster (fiancée, deceased)
First Appearance:	The Crow
Powers:	immortality, invulnerability, physical prowess, animal telepathy, sheer brilliance
Weaknesses:	insanity, emotional instability
Created by:	James O'Barr

Eric Draven is the fictional protagonist in James O'Barr's The Crow, who was conceived as a vent for O'Barr to channel all his anger and pain after the tragic loss of his fiancée to a drunk driver.

In the graphic novel, Eric loses his life to a gang of thugs and is forced to watch as his girlfriend Shelly is raped and beaten to death. Eric is then resurrected from the dead and begins to methodically stalk and kill the thugs one by one, aided by the crow which acts as both a guide and a goad.

Powers

• Immortality: Eric cannot die a natural death, due to already being dead and being resurrected by the Crow.
• Invulnerability: Although Eric can feel pain, he is invulnerable, nothing can stop him.
• Physical prowess: Whether or not Eric was at peak of human fitness before the events of The Crow is unknown.
• Animal telepathy: Eric can communicate with the crow inside of his head, it is implied he can also do the same with cats.
• Sheer brilliance: Both before and after resurrection, Eric displays strong levels of intellect.

Weaknesses

• Insanity: Even though Eric is intelligent, he is also insane. Which can distort some of his choices and fracture his emotional state rendering him incapacitated.
• Emotional instability: Eric has shown that emotionally he is unstable, showing fits of tears, rage and bloodlust. He even engages in self mutilation and drug abuse as a result of his instability.

Allies

• The Crow: The Crow assists Eric in his mission acting as both a guide and a goad. The Crow taunts Eric during his dreams. It is shown that the Crow also acts as Eric's eyes when he cannot see, for example when Funboy had a gun under his pillow.
• Sherri: A little girl whom Eric begins to sympathize with. He gives her Shelly's ring as a present which makes the girl cry tears of happiness. She represents the only link Eric has to humanity, stopping him from becoming a total monster.
• Captain Hook: The man in charge of Eric's case; after he heard of the musician's misdeeds, he trashed his case file so there would be no record of him, He also takes care of Eric's cat Gabriel.
• Officer Albrecht: A police officer, who unlike many other police officer's in that area is not corrupt, reasonable, a good man. He unsuccessfully stops Eric from destroying Gideon's pawn shop. Albrecht has recently left his wife for her safety, Eric convinces him to see his wife and make amends because it was not a decision for him to make. He also asks Albrecht to keep an eye out for Sherri.
• Gabriel: Eric and Shelly's pet cat.
• Shelly : Eric's fiancée whom he loved.

Enemies

Most of the criminals in the story are killed by Eric.

• T-Bird: The leader of the gang of thugs that killed Eric and raped and killed Shelly. He was killed by Eric in the closing acts of the graphic novel, who bashed his head in with a hammer.
• Funboy: One of T-Bird's crew who rapes and kills Shelly, Funboy is the most immoral; he does what he does for fun. He acknowledges that he is a monster, he has killed families in the past. Funboy is shown to be true to his word and knows that he is going to die. He just asks Eric to make it quick. Funboy is also very intelligent. A morphine addict, Eric lets Funboy atone for his sins by killing himself with the morphine. Funboy overdoses on T-Bird's kitchen table and dies.
• Tin-Tin: One of T-Bird's crew, who rapes and kills Shelly. Eric shoots him in the head with a pistol
• Top Dollar: One of T-Bird's crew, who rapes and kills Shelly. He is higher up in the criminal society. Eric empties a pistol clip into his body.
• Tom-Tom: One of T-Bird's crew, who rapes and kills Shelly. Eric kills Tom-Tom by cutting his feet off with a katana, he eventually bleeds out and dies.
• Gideon: Local pawn shop owner. Eric goes looking for Shelly's engagement ring and Gideon gets stabbed in the hand. Gideon tries to shoot Eric but the undead avenger kills him first.
• Shelby the Giant: Eric cuts three of his fingers off and makes him eat them for information on T-Bird. He tells him to find Mr. Jones and Eric kills him with a shotgun blast to the head.

In Other Media

• Eric's face was heavily based on Peter Murphy.
• Eric Draven was the protagonist in the 1994 film The Crow and the TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven.
• in the Comic Eric dies in the hospital from the shotwound inflicted on him by T-Bird.
• Eric's profession is not given in the original comic, however O'Barr stated that he had imagined him being a Steelworker.In the movies he is a rock musician.
• Eric was not given a Family name in the original comic.
• Eric appears in the 1998 crossover comic book The Crow/Razor: Kill the Pain with Everette Hartsoe's character Razor. The second issue shows a partial glimpse of his gravestone which reads "Er[ic] Drav[en]", confirming that he has the same surname as he did in the movie.
• Eric stars in the 1999 Image Comics reimagining of The Crow.
• Jason Momoa was set to portray Eric in Corin Hardy's adaptation of James O'Barr's original series. However, in May of 2018, both Jason and Corin dropped out of the project due to financial issues.