Advance Review: ‘The One Hand’ #1 Breathes Life Into Police Procedurals
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
The first half of two complementary limited series about a killer who leaves a bloody handprint for his calling card may feel like an ordinary police procedural, yet it’s anything but. The issue’s taut script and chilling visuals provide a great start to what it sure to be an intriguing tale.
Overall
9/10Just when Detective Ari Nassar is out, he gets pulled back in.
Nassar is literally celebrating his retirement from the police force when he hears about a new murder. The MO fits the profile of the case that got away from him. It isn’t that Nassar failed to arrest anyone for those killings. Rather he arrested two guys years apart. The department claims the second was a copycat, but the public isn’t convinced and Nassar carries that stain with him.
If the story in The One Hand sounds like it has familiar elements, it’s because it does. It’s a police procedural with a tired and flawed crusader who will stop at nothing to get his man, in this case the One Hand Killer. Yet writer Ram V throws a number of new elements at readers. First, the story is set in the far future, though with few exceptions, you’d never know it. If anything, it looks and feels like a 1950’s Noir story.
But the most intriguing element to this story is that it is only a portion of the full picture. The One Hand is half of complementary limited series that Image Comics is launching in February. This one deals with Nassar’s quest to solve the case. The Six Fingers, which comes out two weeks later, focuses on the killer and why he did it. Taken by itself, The One Hand is a page-turner. If played right, when combined with its companion piece, it could introduce a new way of telling stories through comics and other media.
Artist Laurence Campbell delivers some great illustrations, in which he flawlessly captures the mood of the scene as well as his characters. There are several points in the book with little or no text, allowing Campbell to tell the story visually. And he continuously nails it. He also creates the killer’s cipher as well as his bloody handprint calling card, which leads to a major clue to the killer’s identity – and ties into The Six Fingers. (hint hint)
With Lee Loughridge’s colors, even the brightly lit settings are dark and shadowy. Loughridge leaves the bright colors for the superhero books. This is Noir through and through, in every sense of the word.
The One Hand gives us readers plenty to look forward to for the rest of its run. If the separate creative team on The Six Fingers can match or exceed this book’s quality, they will go together hand in glove – even if that hand has an extra digit.
The One Hand #1 will be available for purchase on February 7, 2024.
