It's like a lost episode of Angel, a storyline featuring Spike and a flashback to the 1940s when he was having a time in Los Angeles.

Old Wounds begins, as so many fifth-season Angel episodes did, at Wolfram & Hart, where a man has muscled his way past security using the lovely Fred Burkle as a shield. The man, a former cop, is still working on the long-unsolved Black Dahlia case, and he has reason to believe that the strangely young Spike was involved.

Angel and his usual crew are quick to believe any suspicions against Spike, but Fred is persuaded to help him sort out the details, and maybe clear his name. (Of course, don't expect the real truth involving Black Dahlia to surface here; that must remain, for now, a mystery.)

Writer Scott Tipton has a good handle on these characters, and Fernando Goni's art is quality stuff; although his postures are sometimes awkward and his heads don't always fit bodies exactly the way they should, he definitely has mastered the faces and expressions of Angel's cast.

Anyone still jonesing for the glory days of Buffy and Angel should enjoy this short trip down memory lane.