Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGet Volume 1 & 2, Maybe Skip 3...
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2018
As many others have started their reviews - I am a huge fan of The Witcher. The books, the games and even the first two comic volumes are all great and all help create and reinforce this amazing world that is a blend of the familiar and the unique. However, I can't help feeling that the team behind this entry (Curse of Crows) really phoned it in.
The art is mediocre - lots of brown and tan city backgrounds or clothing and many frames feature the characters in an "out of focus" perspective with very little fine detail. Also, all the main characters (Ciri, Geralt and Yennefer) are shown in their same clothing from The Witcher 3. I mean, I know the game was popular guys, but maybe a little creativity or imagination would be nice? I liked the armor Geralt starts the game with too, but it just seems lazy for it to be the only thing he wears in the entire comic. My point is, if you're looking at the cover thinking you'll see some imaginative, colorful and detailed art in this volume, guess again.
From art to the story...also a pretty big let down. Maybe I need to go through it one more time, but the story of Curse of Crows is meandering at best and more likely a completely unfocused mess. Guess how many times characters go swimming or take a bath in Curse of Crows. I bet you wouldn't guess eight - eight times! And for literally no reason. No connection (really) to the plot whatsoever. Also, who decided that it was "in character" for Geralt to bathe in a thong? Seriously no, just no. So many times throughout this story I kept thinking, "Why are they showing us this? Why are they telling us this? What's the point?" I still can't find a good answer to most of it.
So what if the overarching story is mediocre, at least it has the characters we know and love right? Well, yes and no. If you played through all of the Witcher 3, you might find that the characters as represented in Curse of Crows are 2D or maybe 2.5D copies. Geralt is gruff and stoic. Ciri is eager and brave, but a little brash. Yennefer is emotionally distant and manipulative. Ho hum, same old same old. Ciri gets angry because Geralt and Yen are treating her like a child and she's grown up blah blah blah. Yen gets passive aggressively angry at Geralt for not agreeing to her whims *yawn* More of the same, no new developments.
So in the end, I will agree with many other reviewers - if you are a Witcher fan, you should probably get this. As much as this volume is really nothing special, it is still set in a universe which many of us love. The other two comics were waaaaay better though, so if you haven't read those yet, start there. This one is the very definition of "meh."
