A legendary hero who has fallen into self-destructive behavior is called on to return to save the people. It’s an old cliche of heroic fiction that gets another treatment in the first issue of Lucy Claire: Redemption. Writer/artist/letterer John Upchurch takes a spin with the old cliche in a world of humans and werewolves. In a new series, that’s going to need to show a bit more inventiveness if it’s going to distinguish itself beyond the visual impact of solidly decent artwork.

In a world where werewolves are a recurring problem, a group of woefully inexperienced, young defenders is in search of a champion. Legendary werewolf hunter Lucy Claire is bailed out of jail by one of the group in hopes that she might help them fend-off a returning werewolf threat. Those looking to defend themselves are disappointed. Haunted by memories of the past, she’s evidently out of shape and hungover. Though she’s far from interested in doing so, Lucy Claire is given a chance to prove herself when a pack of werewolves attack. She’ll have to deal with them while suffering the effects of the hangover. It’s never easy for a hero when duty calls.

The basic themes covered in Upchurch’s story lack any compelling originality. The world of the series doesn’t feel fully realized. A world plagued by periodic werewolf attacks needs to be given a bit more background to render the seriousness of the threat that the hero is up against. And then there’s the hero herself: she’s not given much of a chance to really show what he’ll drive her to become an alcoholic in the first place. 

Upchurch is a good artist. The hero looks cool. She doesn’t effectively look like a washed-up former legend, though. She looks more like an undergraduate, just a summer or two away from high school graduation. She’s supposed to be hungover this whole issue too. She doesn’t do a terribly convincing job of that either. Aside from vomiting into a potted plant on the 12th page, she doesn’t look that bad, which poses a problem for the look of a legendary werewolf hunter: she doesn’t have the look of someone who has been in a lot of fights with supernatural power. Granted: werewolves in the world of Redemption are vicious, vicious things when not in combat with Lucy. A werewolf hunter in this world is either a grand champion or werewolf chow—not a whole lot of time to collect cool-looking scars. They hit a victim, that very crime does, but Upchurch really isn’t showing any indicator that Lucy’s battle-hardened. There’s no sign of age or restless weariness about her. If she wasn’t shown in action, she wouldn’t even seem like an action hero. Thankfully, there’s a fight scene at issue’s end. Upchurch’s aggression is easily the strongest part of the whole first issue. The grizzly brutality of Lucy Claire’s tangle with the werewolves has great intensity. 

With decent art and solid delivery of a standard action plot, Redemption has a chance to do something fun. Lucy seems like she has the potential to be an interesting character. Future issues will give her and the world in which she lives the opportunity to start to distinguish themselves as something truly original. This first issue isn’t delivering anything terribly impressive, though.

Grade: C-