The Six Fingers, alongside its companion series The One Hand, turning out to be the most compelling mystery of 2024, detailing a serial killer from two perspectives. One book shows us the detective on the case, while the other shows us the killer. Or are they a victim? In The Six Fingers #2, it becomes clearer that the killer’s motivations are quite complicated.
If The Six Fingers #2 does anything right—and to be clear, it does a lot right—it’s that the mystery only gets juicier and more interesting as it progresses. I say this because The Six Fingers #2 is an even stronger issue than the first as we start to understand the lead better and the complicated nature of the killing.
Writer Dan Watters and artist Sumit Kumar open on a scene we’ve already witnessed in The One Hand #1, only we now see it from Johanne’s perspective. As he looks on, bystanders give us new info on the previous murders and how the youth glorified them. Soon, he’s heading to the art installation, another main location of the series. In it, we learn more about the glorification of the murderer and the art that sprung from it. This issue goes a long way in showing how culture responded to the murders.
Not unlike our culture in the 80s.
Credit: Image
It’s not until the narrative dives into Johanne’s relationship with his father that we see he is a kind of victim, but what is unclear. Is it his own mind, or is it something supernatural? He wants answers as much as the detective, and in a great sequence, we see Johanne isn’t even aware of how he gets to the place. Something very weird is going on.
Juxtapose what we learn in this issue to The One Hand events, and we can see the detective is expecting to find some kind of mastermind evil killer, but it’s becoming clear Johanne isn’t that. In this way, Watters and Kumar define Johanne as a conflicted hero who needs to escape the murderous cycle.
The sci-fi nature of the future is a little more prominent in this issue. That goes without saying with Johanne’s job, the mutation he suffers, and some well-placed tech. Kumar and color artist Lee Loughridge do some incredible things with double-page spreads and the evil stamp, a techno-organic hallway Johanne runs through, and generally a nice pop of color.
The Six Fingers is turning out to be a cross between The Fugitive and Memento. Like both of this film classics, The Six Fingers is incredibly entertaining as we try to make sense of a larger mystery.
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