The One Hand #1 was an absorbing read made richer thanks to its crossing over with The Six Fingers. One of the most compelling things about mysteries is how they draw you into the world and its rules. It seems the creative teams of both books are doubling down on that idea with new details, angles on events, and more across two character narratives. The One Hand #2 continues both stories this week as we follow detective Ari Nasser, who has abstained from retirement to finish the one big case he’s known for.
The One Hand #2 opens with a man on fire. Nasser is looking at the aftermath after a man was set on fire but did nothing to stop the assailants. The world is a dark and cruel place, writer Ram V reminds us, and as the characters opine, we can’t get out.
Something interesting about how this issue is plotted is how it doesn’t sugarcoat being a detective. Nasser has to sit around doing nothing most of the time, basically, and when he does get an edge on the case, it’s thanks to bumming a ride with another detective. He ends up using the lead to go from one location to another until he finds himself in a scene that appears in The Six Fingers #1. The cross pollination of both series is delightful, which will inspire folks to go back and look at past issues.
The detective is currently stumped.
Credit: Image
This issue begins to ramp up the drama around Nasser and the possibility he locked up a man for a crime he didn’t commit. Laurence Campbell draws Nasser’s facial expressions as almost forlorn, but not because he doubts who he locked up. No, it’s more that he is unnerved he hasn’t pinned down the case yet feels confident he can solve it. The most emotion he gives is at the art gallery when he sees a kind of totem to him. It’s a moment that seems to scream his reputation is so much on the line that it even appears in art, let alone in the news.
Campbell and Lee Loughridge do some incredible things with light and shadow. The issue is steeped in darkness, but when there is light, it’s beaming, creating blur effects. Meanwhile, the police office is antiseptic, cast in yellows and browns. The world outside the safe space is as complex as the mystery Nasser is trying to unravel. The book has an unwavering haunting feel, no matter the scene.
Letters by Aditya Bidikar have a hand-drawn quality that adds a rawness to the narrative. The placement is good and is quite easy to read. It’s also fun to see how he depicts a drunken man, with little bubbles conveying his lack of balance and clarity.
The One Hand is an innovative comic experience that’s cerebral and absorbing. It appeals to the carnal side of a nightmare in an intriguing mystery you’ll be dying to unravel.
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