The Crow [Fiction has relaunched. Check the latest chapter and transition to that fiction to continue.]
Self-Published
Community Rating
Description
The Crow is a vigilante who flies through his city, enforcing justice for the masses and, most importantly, trying to get paid. Vigilantes don't make as much money as official heroes with the Heroes Union do, but they can gather enough to make do. And to Burton, it was worth the freedom of not having the Union control his actions.
The world is filled with all types of misery and all types of bad guys. But thankfully for Burton, the Heroes Union can take care of all that. But eventually, he touches on the corners of something big, and he'll have to decide what it means to be a vigilante. Are his powers a responsibility or a reward?
He isn't famous or well-known, most of his family despises him. He has more fingers than friends, and that's if you count both his dog and his cat.
So what does it mean to be a hero without the worship? What do you do when the world has done you wrong and you have no reason to help it?
He'll keep helping it of course. Sometimes its hard, sometimes it is easy, and maybe one day he will get all the praise and money.
But he doesn't have it now.
Author's Note:
It is something that's been bouncing around my head for a bit, a story where I try to make a power system for superheroes and fix all the things I hated about superhero stories. Like how do you hide your secret identity when you bleed all over the pavement. How do you get paid and why aren't you getting paid? If a supervillain kills multiple people, wouldn't the government want to put them down? The Joker is literally a domestic terrorist, how is he still alive?
It is my attempt at an antidote to superheroes without removing all the things that makes them great. Secret identities, moral paragons, and all other tropes can be found here. But I try to make it as real as I can, even if we have caped crusaders who are somewhat confused about where the underwear goes.
Information
- Status
- Hiatus
- Year
- 2025
- Author
- Malaklein
Tags
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.8/ 5.0
- Followers
- 549
- Views
- 2,053
Chapters(1 total)
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Community Reviews(10)
- dragongod2134Royal Road★★★★★ 5.0this has to be one of my favorite superhero story's that have ever been written despite the fact that there is only 12 chapters. the reason that I love this story is partly because of the great worldbuilding but it is mostly because the author didn't make technology overpowered. instead tech in this story has all of the clear limits that it has in real life, that being cost, the fact that it takes a lot of people to build something new, and most importantly the technology in this story follows the f**king rules of physics. one of my biggest problems with the superhero genre is the fact that technology is overpowered, take marvels iron man for example he built a suit of armor that makes him equal to a literal god out of normal materials and in total probably cost less than a million dollars, I mean at that point just give the army super armor and they will be able to conquer the universe. thank you for making a realistic tech-based superhero.
Now on to the rest of the review, the grammar is decent there are some spelling mistakes, but they are hardly noticeable, the characters are entirely believable and well written and while it is too early to really see the plot it is shaping up to be a very interesting investigative type of story - drandreasRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Well written original world. Loss of action. Superpowers. Lots of mystery and cliffhangers. Reminds me a bit of scooby doo lol. The MC is a tinker an average one but does well enough and has a trusty sidekick talking intelligent dog best friend. This story is setup to be an epic series. I’m looking forward to many more books to come.
- C-DogRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0The Crow is a well thought out and finely written story with great character writing, but goes best with its world building of a super hero society / Super hero universe.
Really enjoying reading it so far, so I hope the author keeps their consistent upload schedule as it's become one my top favorite reads. - JuronRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0It is extreemly rare to find a Novel where ralism is something the Author is god at but in this case there is no major plothole i could detekt.
the caracters are belivalble and everything that happens has a clear causation.
it is also realy rare to find a likable but flawed Protagonist.
Im not a big fan of superhero storys but you get my third favorite ever since my rough 7 Jears on Royal road.
Plase excuse the grammer, im not a native Speaker - LotbynameRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0Review at chapter 16
This is excellent, good super hero world building with thought put to the obvious problems. Characters interesting and main walks the antihero line with getting malevolent. It's got a talking dog (again with the problems of that considered). I want the evil xs to get their cumuppances a lot.
I would like more back ground on the family disfunction buts it's early in the story and for some reason I struggle to visualise the warehouse.
Definitely worth a try even if super hero's are aren't your favourite. - Sk1lz3rRoyal Road★★★★★ 5.0This story is great. It reminds me of the Tabloid fanfiction of Worm. It’s not about gang dynamics, hero’s v.s. villains or supers getting stronger. It’s about what it’s like for a regular Powered person. About the Superpower Ecosystem and the way things work. Very enjoyable read. I am also invested in seeing how Burt’s story continues.
- Van234Royal Road★★★★★ 5.0Really cool start. So the stoty is about thinker/tinker which is a great starting point for me already. The world seems realistic, and interactions while a bit antisocial feels real to me.
I am bit confused with prices but thats because i am trying to use real world for comparison and it is not clear yet how much everything costs.
The world building is good no infodumps, you are learning about the world basically only with what is relevant to MC. And right now I am interested what it will provide, some kind of conspiracy is stirring but we know too little yet.
Is you like this type of fiction i recommend you to try. But a fair dowside that author love worlbuilding, there is no real goal right now so it feels like nothing substantial really happening, ideally you read this when there is 50 chapters or more. - AspectsRoyal Road★★★★★ 4.5A lot of the superhero stories on RR tend to not feel grounded. They get into almost absurdism, as characters don't face real threats and crack jokes at moments that could have had weight quickly removing the stakes and my interest.
So far "The Crow" has largely avoided this. Burton has felt grounded and his goals and actions have weight to them, he isn't over powered he has to work for what he has and he has a variety of emotions.
There have been a few moments that have felt like they are leaning towards that absurdist angle but these have been side things not as directly tied to Burton.
Supporting cast is currently pretty small but have come across as their own distinct people.
The powers have been interesting with some unique ideas that are fun to read. - DenliRoyal Road★★★★★ 4.5I'm loving this so far. The story delivers what it promises, even though the cover art can be deceptive.
🔸We have a character who is not the typical hero archetype but at the same time, he isn't the cringe anto-hero that is "trying too hard". He just does what fits his moral compass while trying to secure some pay or benefits for it without crossing certain lines. The MC is smart in his own way without being the know-it-all genius.
🔸His smarts are something developmental, working really well in various areas but still catching up in others. Other characters are not 2 dimensional but possess a depth of their own and their own lives separate from the MC. It makes the world feel real. We haven't interacted with them too much but the ones we have seen are fleshed out well.
🔸Speaking of the world, it's really well done. The author has managed a pragmatic view on how governments and organizations would structure themselves to exist with heroes, villains, and the grey line in between. It's odd to say but refreshing to read a story where not everyone has the single-minded idea to "save the world" or "destroy it". Even villains that want to destroy the world are outliers and quickly put down.
🔸We can picture the world based on the descriptions of the areas the MC visits and perspectives of other characters.
🔸Grammar isn't bad though it could be improved, especially typos and misspelled words. I understand the author sometimes using their phone to post from work and appreciate the dedication 🙏. That said, the story could benefit from using a free resource like Grammarly to parse through and catch the minor errors. It doesn't take away from readability but could enhance the experience.
🔸The style is told from the perspective of the MC, enhancing our understanding of him albeit there are a few other POVs that help expand the worldview.
🔸The story doesn't shy away from the realistic depiction of how certain people would use newly found powers. But it avoids the grim dark, pessim - possumflavoredRoyal Road★★★★ 4.0Good grammar, good spelling, easy to read. MC has flaws but is still a decent guy. Interesting world building. But the powerscaling goes wonky...I think powerscaling is the word.
Towards the end of the first book, where the MC is still very small fry, we get to see that the toughest hero's are fighting galaxy devouring being and the heroes call them small fry. It makes it feel like nothing our hero just did mattered, and the powerscale is so far out there all I feel is apathy. I had been really enjoying the small scale and low stakes world we had been exploring as well. Oh, he also.has some chosen one BS going on as a hero that can see the future said he is pivitol and implied he must stay alive. So he killed a lot of tension for any future fights.
9 times out of 10 I would abandon a story at his point, but the authors good enough ill stick around for now. See he can somehow keep it interesting. If the review drops below 4 star you know it didn't.