Iris Shaw is the third protagonist of James O’Barr’s The Crow: Flesh and Blood & the first female Crow. Iris was an officer for the Bureau of Land Management. She ran afoul of local farmers illegally poising coyotes. Iris died when those same farmers planted a bomb in her office building and the bomb went off and her unborn child died along with her. Iris was resurrected by the crow to exact revenge.
Past[]
As an officer working for the Bureau of Land Management, Iris busts Two men for dumping waste illegally on federal land. The men however simply tell her to go away. When they see a poisoned animal, Iris asks the two men if they’ve been spreading poison on an open range, and how many animals have ingested it. They inform her that they’re being paid to get rid of the coyotes. The men tell Iris that federal workers aren’t gods, and threaten her if she decides to get in their way again. At some point, Iris got into a relationship with a man named Rick and got pregnant with his baby.
The Crow: Flesh and Blood[]
While walking through the halls of her office building, Iris is warned by Tony, the janitor, to be careful as the floor was wet and Iris thanks him. Fred asks Iris if she was going to stay late, and he was going to offer to stay late with her until Iris tells him to go home to his family, telling him that the Marshal was still around. Iris urges Fred to go home, and he tells her that he has nothing to do. Iris says that she’ll stay in the office all night if the man that was called could do what he said. Iris is assured by Fred that they’ll find the farmers illegally poisoning the coyotes. As they continue talking, a bomb that had been planted in the building detonates at 7:15 and destroys the building, killing Iris and her unborn child in the process.
Sometime after her death, Iris is resurrected by the crow. She asks the crow if she’s a zombie, and the crow tells her what’s important; she’s back and she will make those men pay. Iris questions why she was brought back, and the crow says it’s there to bring her peace. The crow tells Iris that she knows why she was brought back as Iris and the crow both know that she was pregnant.
Iris, having donned herself in black, goes to see her former lover Rick. She startles him, and Rick panics and runs to his pick up truck with Iris chasing after him. Rick shoots Iris and she tells him to stop, and he does when he recognizes her. Iris tells him that they should talk in the house and she kisses him on the cheek. They go in the house, and Iris says that she understands that Rick is scared but she wasn’t sure how to tell him that she was dead. She goes on to say that she wasn’t sure if he’d want to see her again after hearing of her pregnancy. Rick says that he didn’t know what to think and he needed time and asks if Iris was there to get even with him. Iris tells him that she didn’t know if she was going to keep the baby and that she never had a chance to choose. She goes on to say their baby is as dead as everyone who was in the building and she came to him to see if there was a relationship to mourn too. She notices Rick’s open suitcase with clothes still in it. Iris questions Rick if he was packing his things, wondering if he was that upset, and wondering if they had something real. Rick comments that Iris is cold, and Iris urges Rick to touch her skin saying that she thought she wouldn’t feel anyone’s touch again. Iris says that she can no longer feel pain. Iris tries to convince Rick to spend one more night with her and he says no and pushes her off. This leads Iris to conclude that Rick was unpacking his things and he was initially trying to leave her after finding out about her pregnancy but after she died there was no reason to leave. Iris tells Rick not to unpack and he gets in his truck and drives away.
The crow asks Iris if she’s ready and she said she will be soon. While in the bedroom, the crow asks Iris where they’re going to go first and Iris tells it she is going to head to Rowdy’s during happy hour. When the crow asks if it will make her happy, Iris says that she would be happier than anyone who gets in her way. Before leaving, Iris paints the image of a crow on her face.
Iris heads to Rowdy’s and introduces herself, commenting that most of them know her, and she says that she thinks that someone in the room knows who killed her. Iris is approached by a man brandishing a weapon calling her crazy. She shoots her gun into the ceiling and says that she needs a name and directions.
Having got the information she needs, Iris finds her first target; Wayne. When she finds him, the crow instructs her to kill him. When Wayne drives off, the crow asks why she didn’t kill him as now he’s getting away. Iris says she’s dead not twelve years old. She goes on to say that anyone could just get revenge and call it justice, but she’s after “the real thing”.
When Iris catches up to Wayne he was with Marty. She shoots both men but doesn’t kill them. When Marty asks why she just doesn’t finish them off, Iris informs him that she wasn’t the only one who died in the explosion. Mrs. Burke, an old woman who worked at a nursing home, also died. She was crushed under rumbled and left to bleed out and suffocate. Making sure they suffer the same fate, Iris then puts both men in a hole she dug and buries them alive. The crow tells Iris that it is going to enjoy working with her.
Sometime later, Iris while in a building, notes that although she can’t be hurt she can’t heal either and she uses a staple gun to close a wound she received earlier. The Crow then informs Iris that a man is at the door. G-Man holds her at gunpoint and she tells him not to shoot. She holds the staple gun up in response and G-Man tells her to put it down or he’ll shoot. G-Man shoots her, and Iris tackles him to the ground and staples his tie to the wall to prevent him from moving. Iris tells him not to try to figure out what going on, and tells him not to investigate until after she’s done with her mission.
She takes a shotgun, and rides away in a jeep. Another FBI agent gives chase, but Iris prevents him from pursuing her any further by shooting out his tires. Iris stops in the middle of what appears to be a field. The crow tells her that she was smart in the way she evaded the FBI and asks her what’s wrong. Iris grabs the bird and tells it that she doesn’t know what she’s doing anymore and that she needs to think. The crow reasons that it’s because she worked for the government as well. Before it can finish, Iris tells the crow that the way the sheriff looked at her made her think that he thought that she was something horrible. She says in rural areas everyone’s opinion has to matter. The crow tells Iris that it’s a shame that she could live in a civilized place and if she hadn’t been involved with the “cowboys and hermits” she might still be alive. Iris tells the crow that she grew up in that part of the country and that those “Cowboys and hermits” are her people and the crow tells her that she must be very proud. Iris tells the crow that there is no shame in wanting to breathe clean air and to be left alone, saying that there are more decent people where she grew up and then in any city. The crow starts to reason that Iris saw her reflection in the eyes of a decent man and now she doubts her purpose. Iris denies this and says that the memories of a sense of family and shared beliefs and freedom came back to her. Iris goes on to say those are real things and dismisses the city folks that might laugh at that. She says that that was the reason why she joined the land management bureau, to do what she could to keep everything pure. Iris says she realizes it’s too late and what they used to have in common has become an incurable and terminal sickness for others. She says that she has to come to grips with the fact that she has to pull the plug.
Later, Iris breaks into the trailer her killers were hiding out in. When one of them shoots her in the head, he’s surprised when it has no effect. Iris holds another man at gun point and orders another man to kill him, and he complies. Iris shoots Willis and asks who was the man behind everything, and he tells her; Ray Henderson. When Willis asks Iris to kill him he obliges and turns on the gas stove. The trailer explodes and Iris emerges unharmed while Willis is burned to death.
Iris drives to find Ray, and the crow asks if she knows him. Iris explains that Ray is one of the “local nuts” always complaining about something and now he’s giving her something to smile about.
When she finds him, she’s a far enough distance away that he doesn’t notice her. The crow urges Iris to kill him and just like he did to her and he’ll never see it coming. Iris tells the crow that this is different as it will feel like the loss of a child as there is a child with Ray. The crow tells her it is a creative idea to wipe out Ray’s entire bloodline and Iris tells the crow that she’s glad he likes her idea. Iris shoots one of the men with Ray, causing a panic.
Iris takes a few minutes to go into the bathroom of a nearby building and wash off her make up. The crow asks if Iris wants to look her best before sending the rest of them to hell and Iris says that she wants them to recognize the woman they killed, and she wants them to know who’s baby they murdered. She tells the crow before they go back to Ray, they’re going to see Bryce. Before she can continue, the crow asks Iris if she was going to keep the baby. Iris initially ignores the question, and continues talking about Bryce. The crow asks Iris again if she was going to keep the baby but Iris doesn’t respond.
Iris goes to see Bryce. She makes quick work of them by cutting and tying him up and hanging him from the ceiling, but she leaves him alive. Iris calls Ray and tells him that Bryce won’t be able to meet with him later. Ray tells Iris that they’ll send her back to hell but questions why did she become a killer. Iris doesn’t answer the question and instead tells Ray that she’ll see him in the morning. Iris goes on to explain to a barely conscious Bryce that she caught farmers poisoning coyotes for ranchers. Before she could do anything about it Ray had her killed and the Marshall who was also in the building at the time was also killed as he had been cut into pieces and bled out on the street. She goes on to say that she believed it was Bryce who pushed Ray’s buttons and he and his cronies are losers who kill innocent people to get their way because it’s too much trouble to let animals live. Iris says her last official act would be to put a stop to their poisoning of the land.
Later that night, Iris goes to see the sheriff. She tells him that there’s going to be a show down the next morning in the stand of trees east of the dam. The sheriff tells her that the FBI will definitely be there if Ray is going to be there. Iris shows the sheriff a gun that she took from a young agent. The sheriff asks if she killed anyone with it and Iris tells him that she can’t remember. She hands him the gun and asks if he won’t have a problem excepting it. Before Iris leaves the Sheriff wishes her luck in dealing with Ray.
Iris asks the crow what happens when she finishes her mission and the crow tells her that some return to the dead and others aren’t dead anymore. Iris then drives off in her jeep.
While driving, Iris crashes into a fence and shoots several people. She finally comes upon Ray who is with his family. Ray tells her that he’s ready to die but he’s not going alone. Iris starts to fight Ray asking him if he’s a martyr. Iris then shoots herself in the head much to everyone’s shock, although it has no affect. Ray’s wife comes up on the group and tells Ray to be a decent man and give everyone else a chance to live again and Iris takes Ray to her jeep. As they’re driving, Ray comments that his family betrayed him and Iris asks if it was because he couldn’t use their bodies to build a monument to himself. Iris tells Ray that she could’ve had a family as well but now she’ll never know as he killed her child when he killed Iris. She pours gasoline over herself and lights a match as she continues talking. Iris asks Ray if he thought that she would give him a choice in his family’s future after he took away hers. Iris tells Ray that what she’s doing she’s doing for all the people that Ray has killed but what she did back at Ray’s house she did for her “flesh and blood” and the two are engulfed in flames.
Trivia[]
- Throughout all the media Iris is the second female crow after Hannah Foster from the 1998 television series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. However, Iris is the first female crow to appear in the comic books