3 out of 5

Old Wounds is a crime tale lightly blended with costumed heroes – think more The Shadow than Spider-Man, though – that is written as though writer Russell Lissau hasn’t seen any movie produced after 1985 or so.  The plot beats are ridiculously predictable, literally to the extent that, by midway through the first issue, you can take one guess at where this is all going – at where every character will end up – and you’ll easily get it right.  And not that these same ideas haven’t existed prior to 1985, but that’s when my memory starts getting glutted with the type of flicks that would become straight-to-video affairs in the following generation, TV movies, cable premiers, that are by and large acceptable thrillers but cast with one minor star and a lot of also-rans, and following very safe story parameters.  Old Wounds tries to mix up the “someone from my past is out to get me” story by having that past be one where our lead would put on a domino mask and bust criminals’ noggins, but it’s all the same.

Two things make it okay to read:

1. Russell’s writing isn’t stellar, but it certainly keeps things shuffling along.  He has a lot of dialogue prompting – the kind of stuff that we let fly in text but would sound odd if spoken aloud: reminders of past events, saying names when not necessary – and unfortunately falls back upon the cardinal sin of the villain exposition dump in the last issue, including the god-awful “but what about THIS part of your plot that you have no reason to explain?” prompt.  Setting that text fart aside, he keeps most of the writing short and to the point, without unnecessary flourish, which is generally the inclination for these types of stories.
2. John Bivens art.  Bivens’ slightly odd-ball, sketchy characters are reminiscent of Guy Davis but he has his own loose touch to add, and has an uncanny sense of when to let his pencils get really sloppy and when to tighten them up, and it’s not always determined by action or close-ups.  Often, this flip-flopping seems determined by time constraints – the book will get sloppier in later issues – but Bevins seems to be making purposeful decisions per page and per panel, and it’s really lively and energetic.  His use of gray tones and ink effects (scratches, blends) are also glorious, enhancing the real-life vibe the script may not fully offer.

…And so if you had to choose two things to make your book better, and you chose great art and readable writing, that’s not a bad deal.  It’s an acceptable indie book, just not a terribly original one, and maybe not the world-building start that the “coming soon” promise of a second volume implies.