Review by Ian Keogh

Pay attention to the title before starting Ageless as it’s a heavy clue as to what’s going on when the opening chapter dots back and forth through time, every scenario featuring a gruesome murder with a sadistic killer responsible. In the present a couple meet, and it’s clear they have history. We eventually learn they’re immortals, or near enough, called Frey and St John, and they have also immortal enemies who’ve killed one of their friends.

What unfurls from there is a really grim piece of drama mixing horror with crime as the same people who used the Nazis have upgraded their approach to corporate manipulation via data gathering. It’s elusive drama, though. We see the atrocities, we’re told the about the manipulation, but Torun Grønbekk never greatly spells out the whys and wherefores. It seems to be the continuation of a conflict that’s been simmering for years, and there seems a presumption readers will know newly introduced characters. The cool woman and the hard as nails hitman are archetypes, but their overall motivation for anything seems unclear, much less that of the villains.

San Espina mixing two different styles of art makes for an awkward fusion. The pen and ink work has hints of Guy Davis without being as accomplished, while the painted panels don’t appear to have any great purpose other than being different, and are therefore intrusive. It seems at first that the art fails in telling the story clearly, but presuming Espina to be following a script, that’s more down to Grønbekk cutting between scenes.

This was relatively early in Grønbekk’s career, and is a case of running before walking as she’s unable to convey clearly enough what’s lucid in her head. We’re left with no idea of what’s going on or when or where it’s happening, and it makes Ageless a graphic novel to avoid.