Johannes Vale has been unable to live normally after discovering his identity as the new One Hand Killer in Neo Novena. Haunted by a murder he does not remember committing, he has to retrace his previous night to discover why he committed such an act. As his dreams and nightmares blend with his real life, Johannes attempts to parse through reality to find the truth. The Six Fingers #2 by Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar has a man wrestle with forces outside of his control, and all the while, it twists his life away from him.

A key element established in the series is the notion of reality or how conditions or forces influence it we cannot see. Johannes does not know why he has been murdering people but aims to decipher what leads him to murder. The notion of a superficial understanding of his actions becomes moot since he firmly believes that a greater hand has led him to become the new One Hand Killer. Watters and Kumar do a fantastic job of presenting Johannes as an unreliable narrator, such as him staring at a tear in his wall before it immediately has him writing symbols after a murder. The walls of his reality begin to bend as he miraculously wakes up in alien locations despite having no memory of traveling there. I appreciate the team for not focusing on the physical motivation for his actions but on the more abstract reason why Johannes has become the new One Hand Killer. Aside from making the mystery more interesting, it allows the story to focus more on fears about the subconscious in the team’s depiction of psychological horror.

Similarly, the dream-like tone of the series provides a fascinating counterpoint to the analytic detective narrative of The One Hand. Considering Johannes’s background as an archeology student, he and Ari Nassar are investigators and examiners of human behavior through different lenses. The two differ since Ari’s job as a police detective forces him to think critically and logically, while Johannes demonstrates a penchant for looking outside the box for answers. Both are looking for answers inside of the darkness but for opposite reasons. Considering how the One Hand Killer leaves a series of symbols after a murder, Ari deciphers the wall for physical clues about the killer’s identity. Still, Johannes examines them to see what logically led him to it. And there might not be a logical reason as to what has been drawing him to murder.

Kumar’s art demonstrates how chaos and order are at war. Combined with Lee Loughridge’s colors and Aditya Bidikar’s lettering, the reader is effortlessly placed in Johannes’s headspace as he attempts to hold onto reality before it is quickly removed. It strongly connects the reader to his mental state and emotions as he tries to make sense of the darkness gradually surrounding him. Much like Johanness, the reader is at the whims of artistic talent as they challenge our notions of reality through their work.

The Six Fingers #2 stands as another powerful issue from Watters and Kumar that will have readers question what they know about Johannes. The light at the end of the tunnel slowly extinguishes while the darkness envelops the reader more. Eventually, the abyss can only look back at you.

Story: Dan Watters Art: Sumit Kumar
Color: Lee Loughridge Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Story: 8.7 Art: 8.7 Overall: 8.7 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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