The Crow: Dead Time is a comic book that was written by James O'Barr. The comic was published in 1996 and had three issues.
Summary[]
A young man is resurrected by the crow one hundred years after his death so he can seek vengeance on the reincarnations of the men who murdered his wife and son.
Plot[]
A man sits in a cemetery in the rain. The man staggers out of the cemetery to a busy street and collapses. He looks up to spot a crow calling his name, "Joshua". Joshua takes in the scenery around him; two men and a woman spot him and comment that the circus is in town, and he sees that he’s surrounded by people laughing at his anguish. Joshua concludes that he must have died and went to Hell. Joshua is approached by a couple, with the man telling Joshua that he’ll die, and the woman telling the man that he’s been shot, as Joshua has two gunshot wounds in his chest. Joshua is then shot at by an unknown assailant and he’s run over by a car. The driver gets out of her car and comments that he just walked out right in front of her car. A man approaches her and tells her that if she gives him $100 he’ll corroborate her story. The civilians realize that Joshua is still alive, with someone commenting that he must be made of concrete. Joshua once again hears the crow calling his name. He then stands up from underneath the car, flipping the car over in the process. The crow tells Joshua to follow him, and Joshua tells the crow he doesn’t understand, with the crow replying that he will remember.
Suddenly, Joshua envisions himself in the past when he was still alive many years ago. Joshua recalls the phrase “One crow for the sorrow...”, something his wife Maudie always said. Joshua goes on to state that creating a living the way the white man could, only causes sorrow and they didn’t need anymore. Joshua then throws a rock at the crow telling it to go away. As the vision plays out, a young boy calls out to his mother that the riders are coming as he runs towards the house. The leader of the riders tells his group that they have to rest with someone commenting that maybe they’ll find some pretty ladies, and someone else commenting that it’s been so long that the men are starting to look attractive. The leader of the riders continues leading his group.
Back in the real world, a motorcycle gang approaches a house with the lights on with one of the members commenting it looks like someone’s at home, addressing the leader as Chill. Chill comments that people have no sense of self-preservation, and says that it’s fun time before proceeding.
Returning to Joshua‘s vision, the riders show up to the house of the woman, with the leader introducing himself as Captain McCoull and asking if they can impose on her hospitality for a night. The woman tells the riders that they’re not welcome at her home with McCoull replying that she shouldn’t talk to them that way, revealing that they are soldiers. One of the soldiers spots the boy and comments that the child looks half “injun”, saying that a white woman hooking up with an “injun” was just wrong, revealing that the woman and child are actually Joshua’s wife and son, Maudie and Matthew respectively, as Joshua is Native American. Maudie points a shotgun at McCoull and tells him to leave, with a few other women backing her up. One of the soldiers says that if she doesn’t want them in her house then they should just leave. Suddenly one of the soldiers takes Matthew hostage, refers to his pet rabbit as a cute little bunny and saying that he’ll cook up real nice, going on to explain that he’s going to skin the rabbit. Suddenly one of the soldiers tries to shoot one of the women but he misses and she shoots him in the head. One of the soldiers shoot Joshua in the chest, and grabs Maudie and holds her down as she has to watch another soldier beat her son.
Back in the real world, Chill and the rest of his gang had broken into a house, telling a man that he’s been selling cheap products in his territory and he’s going to make an example out of him.
Switching back to Joshua’s vision, a soldier just starts shooting. Back in the real world, Chill puts a gun in a man’s mouth, telling him that he let one person get away with it and everyone started doing it and it became a bit of a headache. Switching back to Joshua’s vision, Maudie screams at the soldiers for their souls to be damned to hell, with one of the soldiers commenting that it looks like they’ve got themselves a hero. Switching back to the real world, one of the members of the biker gang hits someone at the back of the head with a baseball bat. Switching back to Joshua‘s vision, Joshua is shot twice in the chest by one of the soldiers. Back in the real world Chill and his gang have killed two men by shooting them. Switching back to Joshua’s vision, Joshua lay mortally wounded on the ground moaning his wife’s name. A soldier shoots him several more times commenting that Joshua doesn’t die easy.
Back in the real world a member of the biker gang is holding a man by the hair while another member gets ready to slice off his head, telling his colleague to hold his head still. They then proceeded to rape one of the women. After they finish their business they leave.
One of the women who is accompanying the gang, was horrified by what she had just witnessed and she throws up with another woman commenting that “Rosann don’t feel too good“with another member of the gang commenting that that’s a shame. One of the members of the gang yells at Roseann telling her that she was the one who wanted to hang out with them and he proceeds to ask if she doesn’t like them anymore. He then proceeds to yell at his colleague, P.B, for bringing her with him saying that P.B must’ve had his brain in his dick.
Back on the street, the woman asks what she’s going to do about her car as it has just been flipped over, with the police officer telling her to calm down. The police officer relays to his colleagues on his walkie-talkie that a man with gunshot wounds was heading west on Brecker, and a civilian tells the officer that he was following a crow.
Joshua continues to follow the crow into an alley way, with the crow urging him to hurry up. Joshua comments that the crow brought him back to life and the crow tells him that he can’t give him life. Joshua continues following the crow asking why the crow brought him back and the crow tells him that somethings just can’t be forgiven. Just then, Joshua grabs a broken piece of glass out of a trashcan and looks at his reflection, and spots scars running across his neck.
Joshua has another vision; a soldier holds down his wife and proceeds to slit her throat. They tied Joshua up using barbed wire, and he watches helplessly as the soldiers kill his son. McCoull tells Joshua that it was nice meeting his family but he brought this on himself. McCoull tells his colleagues to just leave him as Joshua won’t be hurting anybody. Joshua tells the soldiers that someday he’ll make them pay, with McCoull telling Joshua that if that happens it will be in a different lifetime.
Back in the real world, Joshua looks up at the sky commenting that he doesn’t know what kept him alive but he figures that the Lord wanted to punish him and make him suffer. Joshua sheds a single tear, apologizing to his wife and son, resolving that he must be strong for them. Joshua continues to wonder why they were killed and not him.
As Joshua continues to look at his reflection, he comments that he tried to track the soldiers, but the darkness was pulling at him. The crow tells Joshua that it was there, and Joshua continues to say that his footsteps let him to a burial ground and that he laid down while the darkness closed in around him.
Joshua comments that he knows he died but then the crow called. In a fury, Joshua yells at the crow, wondering why it brought him back, questioning if he hasn’t suffered enough and asking why he can’t just rest. The crow tells Joshua that there’s too much pain in his heart to let him rest, and there can be no peace until the evil men are punished. Joshua questions the crow on how he can punish the evil men since he was brought back to life in a different time. The crow explains to Joshua that time is no barrier and urges him to hurry as people are approaching.
Back on the main road, a gang is making a lot of noise with their car and a group is yelling at them to be quiet. A man named Varney steps out of the car with Rosann commenting that it was a nice car and Varney reveals that he stole it, commenting that the owner shouldn’t have left the keys in the ignition. Varney tells Roseann that she’s getting on his nerves and he threatens her, before she cuts him off asking if he’s going to cut off her head. Meanwhile, another member of the gang recounts how he decapitated a man commenting on the look on the guy’s face in his last moments. Just then Varney comments that Rosann is troublesome.
Meanwhile, Joshua still following the crow asking where it’s taking him. Suddenly a member of the gang, Monkey, spots a bird and says that he sees an eagle. Varney tells him that it’s not an eagle but it is in fact a crow. Monkey says that he hates crows because they’re bad luck and Varney comments that the crow brought a friend. Joshua stands in front of the men with the crow telling him that it’s never too late. The crow lands on Joshua’s shoulder and Joshua asks why the bird is speaking in riddles. The members of the gang start commenting that Joshua’s talking to the crow, and one of them starts yelling at him calling him a freak. Joshua suddenly recognizes one of the men’s voices as the voice of the man who killed his wife.
One of the men confronts Joshua and punches him in the face. Joshua has a brief flashback to his wife’s murder as she yells “damn you! Damn you’re souls to hell!“. One of the men comments that Joshua isn’t answering and Chill takes a sword and stabs Joshua in the stomach commenting that they should wake him up. Just then Joshua has another flashback to after his wife and son’s murders, the soldiers tied him up with barbed wire and Captain McCoull told him that it was nice to meet his family but he brought this on himself.
Back in the present, Rosann pleads with the gang to stop fighting, and one of the members of the gang instructs a colleague to keep her quiet. Joshua suddenly remembers one of McCoull’s soldiers telling him that he doesn’t die easily and that if he were ever to get revenge it will be in a different lifetime.
The crow asks Joshua if he remembers, and Joshua says that he does, as he starts to fight the gang members.
Back on the main road, another police officer shows up. The other officer comments that around 11:15PM, a man came through the sidewalk with bullet holes in his chest and wearing warpaint. The woman continues asking about her car and the police officer tells her to relax. So the officer continues describing the situation, a man walks in front of the car and gets hit, he stands up, flips over the car, and wanders off following a crow. The other officer asks which one of them is going to tell that to the lieutenant.