Dark stars

There's a scene in James O'Barr's The Crow comic book where the main character, Eric Draven, approaches a female junkie who has been neglecting her pre-teen daughter, squeezes her arm until the heroin comes dripping out again, and says, "Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children. Do you understand? Morphine is bad for you. Your daughter is out there on the streets waiting for you."

It's only when considering the fact O'Barr, now 51 years old, was born in a trailer on an undetermined date in 1960 and raised within the Detroit foster care system, being allowed out of "underfunded orphanages" to stay with foster "parents" on weekends who, in O'Barr's words "shouldn't have been allowed to take care of a dog, never mind a child," that one can see just how personal a voyage The Crow was for him to write — and that's only half the story. When he was in his teens, O'Barr's fiancee was killed by a drunk driver. The Crow's story of never-ending love was O'Barr's therapy, his means of dealing with what was taken from him so recklessly, highlighted by a quote which reads, "If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever." The Crow was such a difficult project for O'Barr that it took a full 10 years to write, between the ages of 21 and 31. As a result, it's a beautiful piece of work, certainly more "art" than "comic."

James O'Barr found great success in the late '80s with The Crow, and again, hugely, in the early '90s with the movie adaptation. Overnight, O'Barr went from indie writer and artist with the Detroit-based Caliber Comics to a big name within comic book circles and beyond into pop culture. The Crow, both the comic book and the movie, was a tremendous success financially and artistically (though the less said about the horrible sequels and the worse TV series, the better). Dealing with dark subject matter and very personal issues, readers and viewers related by the millions, and O'Barr insists that the story is rooted in Detroit.

"The city of Detroit is a major part of the story," he says with detectable pride. "There are references to streets, hotels and restaurants in the book. There are also references to Devil's Night, which, I found out later on, only occurs in Detroit. Detroit gave birth to that character. The sense of chaos and danger and cultural decay is very much present in the book."

O'Barr's interpretation of Detroit is very personal, but the Motor City's presence in the comic book world doesn't stop there.

In the mid-'80s, Aquaman kicked Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and most of the other big guns out of the Justice League of America because they were too busy in Metropolis, Gotham City or elsewhere to devote their time fully to the League. In their place, Aquaman recruited lesser-known heroes Vibe, Vixen, Gypsy, Steel, Zatanna and Elongated Man, retained the services of the Martian Manhunter, and based his all-new team in an abandoned warehouse in downtown Detroit.

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