Following The One Hand #3, Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar reveal the other side of this week’s larger mystery in The Six Fingers #3. This week’s focus is on the killer, Johannes, and what he’s going through. Why is he killing random people, and does it have some connection to a mystical totem? He’s an archeologist, after all. In this third chapter, the science fiction elements run quite strong.
The Six Fingers #3 opens with Johannes finding out the last serial killer who committed the crimes he’s now committing has been stabbed. This places the beginning of this issue around the midpoint of The One Hand #3. He hopes to figure out why he’s replicating the crimes, although he’s not necessarily frightened by it all. His complexity continues to ride both angles, making him easy to root for, but you’ll still be wary of him.
The biggest takeaway from this issue is the serial killer’s ability to enter walls and find impossible paths. These paths are lined with technological guts, so to speak, adding a sci-fi element to what is going on. It leads to a cliffhanger that opens up the possibilities of what is happening, which will surely set the reader’s imagination aflame.
His only dead giveaway.
Credit: Image
That science fiction element rears its head early when an android traffic guard. That’s a welcome sight since the sci-fi side of this story seems subverted, especially in The One Hand. We’ve seen incredible gore from the organic persuasion, and here we see a car drive into an android on purpose with a similar effect. It’s a bizarre scene revealing the traumatic nature of a humanoid android’s slow death even after its head has been amputated. One might think this amputation gives Johannes an idea for later…
Kumar’s art in this issue is absolutely fantastic. He uses a highly detailed style to capture the passageway guts, the android, and the vicious, gory scene in the end. There’s also a fascinating use of printed text as if by a typewriter, to convey Johannes’s communication with the thing that’s motivating him to kill.
Fans of the ongoing mystery will get a kick out of the typewritten letters. They force you to zero in on the words hidden in the blocks, slowing the story down and creating an unnerving effect. Add in the impossible abilities of Johannes, and the skies are the limit to what is going on here.
The Six Fingers #3 is an excellent blend of sci-fi and horror in a revealing chapter of an undeniably excellent mystery. This story is an ambitious, always compelling, mind-bending comic you can’t put down.
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