[1] The titular character is an undead vigilante brought back to life by a supernatural crow to avenge his murder and death of his fiancée.

The character has subsequently appeared in several feature films, a television series, and spin-off novels and comics.

During the person's "rebirth", the crow serves as a guide, helping the individual tap into his or her potential and assisting in tracking down the wrongdoers.

Chief among their physical abilities is their inhuman strength and enhanced reflexes; able to quickly brutalize several opponents simultaneously, even those who would be otherwise untouchable, as well as catch fast-moving projectiles such as throwing knives with their bare hands.

In addition the reborn usually can send the images and feelings from the memories already absorbed to the person whose eyes the reborn touches at the moment; in The Crow, protagonist Eric Draven makes villain Top Dollar feel 30 hours of his (Eric's) murdered girlfriend Shelly's pain in one moment.

In The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Eric can see events that transpired simply by touching objects that belonged to someone.

The makeup is referred as "the mask of death" and "the trails of Gorgon's blood" in The Crow: Wild Justice comic book.

In The Crow: Death and Rebirth, Jamie Osterberg's pale skin color and eye/mouth lines are not created by make-up, however, and his hair has turned completely white.

He removes the burned skin following his resurrection, scarring his face around the eyes and lips, thus forming a pattern similar to the classical make-up.

In the end Eric must face the events which led to his death, and the realization that his soul cannot rest as he blames himself for being unable to save Shelly.

Eric and Shelly's lives are cut short when a wrong apartment number leads a gang of drug lords to mistakenly murder them only days before their wedding.

Joshua appears in the three issue series The Crow: Dead Time, the follow-up to the original graphic novel.

Leandre and his wife Jeanne are murdered and their son Lestal stolen on the orders of Lord Arthuro, who is seeking an heir.

He tries to rescue Evy from being raped by a gang of stagehands but is murdered by them, and he returns a year later, aided by a Spirit Crow, to seek vengeance.

Appearing in the five issue series The Crow: Death and Rebirth, Jamie Osterberg is a foreign exchange student studying in Tokyo, Japan.

In the three issue series The Crow: Curare, Carrie is a young girl who was murdered by a serial killer who preys on children.

She is also the only protagonist in the "Crow" canon who does not personally engage in violence; instead, she helps Detective Joe Salk, who investigated her murder, to find her killer and take revenge.

In The Crow: Momento Mori, David is a Catholic altar boy who is killed along with his girlfriend Sarah and dozens of others in a terrorist attack in Rome, Italy.

Resurrected as the Crow, he wreaks vengeance on those who committed the atrocity, but wiping out the terrorists does not prove the end of the story, as the mastermind behind the attack and the reasons for it still remain a mystery that he must solve before he can rest in peace.

In The Crow / Hack/Slash, Marcus was a young gay man in 1980s San Francisco who was murdered along with his lover by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads in a homophobic attack.

He is resurrected by the magical crow to avenge the death of his son Danny, who was killed along with him after accidentally witnessing a gang committing a murder.

Alex is assisted by Lauren's younger sister, Erin (portrayed by Kirsten Dunst), as they uncover the mystery surrounding the murder.

Blessing is a popular horror writer who is murdered by his jealous protégé Donald Marquette, aided by a goth gang with literary aspirations.

Poe is a controversial S&M photographer who becomes the target of a serial killer in Louisiana who preys on gay men and transgender people.

Upon his rebirth, he tries to track down the real killer with the help of his lover's transgender sister, while also avenging himself on the corrupt police officers who were responsible for his arrest, conviction and death.

Six months after the bombing, Amy is resurrected by a Spirit Crow, but discovers that her husband Rick has moved on with her best friend, who survived the blast.

In turn-of-the-century Bangkok, the Klong Toey shantytowns are home to shadowy erotic emporiums where millionaire celebrities act out their darkest sexual fantasies, protected by money, influence, and American diplomacy.

In this book, a demon named Dren is looking for salvation; the Devil's fiery underworld has become a foreign place to him and feels he is different from the other souls.

Billy is a young hoodlum working for a big-time mobster, and like Dren he has also changed and wants out of the seedy underworld he calls his home.

In the end, the two must call on the powers of the Crow to save them both and to escape their own hells — waging a full-scale war on the mobsters of Earth above and the lord of darkness below.