Advance Review: Exploring Life’s Whys In ‘The Six Fingers’ #1
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
This sister series to The One Hand tells the story of the same murder through the eyes of a killer who doesn’t know why he killed. The set up is interesting, though the story gets bogged down as it paints the picture of the murderer.
Overall
8/10Why do we do the things we do? Why are certain shapes familiar to us, regardless of our culture or upbringing? What motivates us to behave in certain ways? Why do we kill random strangers?
Our motivations behind those actions are a central theme in the first issue of The Six Fingers, a limited series from Image Comics. Like its companion series, The One Hand, this story deals with a mysterious murder, a cipher near it, and a bloody handprint calling card. But where The One Hand explores the killing from a police perspective, The Six Fingers probes the mystery of why the killer acted the way he did.
That – not the killer’s identity – is the real story in this series, which is written by Dan Watters. Archaeology student Johannes Vale is the murderer. He doesn’t know why he killed. He doesn’t even know who it was. He thought he was home working on a proposal for his professors.
Watters paints Johannes as a control freak, who tries to manage every aspect of his life, even if it means breaking the rules. He takes charge at the power plant where he works, even though it means endangering his life during toxic waste spills (which have left him growing the critical sixth finger on one hand). Johannes even tries to control his girlfriend’s breakup with him. That makes his loss of control and lack of memories of the murder all the more interesting. This premiere issue, though, is much more about introducing readers to Johannes. While reading The One Hand isn’t necessary, it does add some needed context to the tale. It’s also a better story, at least after the first issues.
Sumit Kumar does fine illustration work, with a style that is occasionally reminiscent of Sean Gordon Murphy. His depictions are considerably different than those of Laurence Campbell’s work in The One Hand, which is appropriate given that the two creative teams are telling opposite ends of the same story. While most of Kumar’s panels are primarily relegated to people, he is adept at drawing some cool cityscapes and other industrial settings.
For now, The Six Fingers is playing second fiddle to its sister series. With a lot of exposition about Johannes out of the way in this issue, though, Fingers has the potential to gain the upper hand.
The Six Fingers #1 will be available for purchase on February 21, 2024.
