The bulk of The Curse, then, is devoted to our hero's gathering a group of largely indistinguishable gypsy allies (one of whom will betray the cause, of course) and fighting Brasov's vampire soldiers, though writer Mariotte does provide two good-sized flashbacks to remind us from whence Angel came. The first features our hero in his unrepentant vampire days, and, if nothing else, artist Messina provides us with a long-haired version of Angelus that isn't hampered by an unconvincing wig - so the scene has that going for it. The second pulls in many of the figures from the teleseries, but it doesn't really do much to the tale except give our protagonist a quick moment of regret for the lives he couldn't save. In perhaps the biggest stretch back to the teevee series, our hero improbably happens upon a poster featuring Buffy/Angel regular Cordy Chase from a commercial that was unaired in America but purportedly shown throughout Europe. The moment takes Angel aback - and it does the reader, too, since we never quite believe it.

Despite these overreaches, The Curse does a decent job capturing its narrating lead's self-flagellating personality. As a story, it'd probably fit snugly into the teleseries' first season, when Angel and company were still working to differentiate themselves from BtVS. Messina's art is strong during the action sequences, though occasionally with some of the more dialog-heavy moments, you can see the artist struggling to keep things fluid and interesting. In more than one talking panel, his foreground figures come off too expressionless, like something out of a low-budget horror flick. You can just see him crouching at the drawing table, itching to get back to the serious vampire dusting.

Marriote & Messina also collaborate on the second Angel graphic novel, Old Friends. Set in Los Angeles at some undefined moment after the teleseries' unresolved finale, Friends (as per its title) brings back many of the surviving supporting good guys - plus a few dead ones, too - along with a minor villain from the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart. The story opens with our hero in seclusion up in the mountains, presumably licking his wounds after the events in The Curse. He's lured back into the city by the urban monster slayer Gunn; who tells him that a familiar bleached blond vampire has been seen attacking women in the streets of L.A. Once Angel returns to his old stomping grounds, however, he quickly learns that the rampaging vamp is not his old friend and nemesis Spike - but rather the first of a series of evil doppelgangers that have seemingly been sent out into the city to attract and then kill the vampire and his former colleagues. As Lorne, the media-savvy demon, notes: "Ah, the old evil twin scenario. A classic."