Eric Draven was a normal man, a guitarist who played with his band at the local club. He had a girlfriend (Shelly) who he met one night while playing a song, they later made plans for marriage. Eric and Shelly rented a loft 16 stories up where they planned to spend many happy years together after being married. Unfortunately those plans were interrupted when the couple was brutally murdered, Eric was beaten then thrown out a large circular window, falling the 16 stories to his death, while he had a quick death Shelly was tortured and raped, dying several hours later. She kept asking about Eric fearing for his life rather than her own. The couple was then reunited in Limbo, the land of the dead. Eric was given a second chance, allowed to return to the land of the living and set things right, and avenge their murder. One year later he returned as THE CROW.