Monday, September 19, 2011

The Sixth Gun: Book 1 - Cold Dead Fingers by Cullen Bunn

 During the Civil War, Confederate General Oleander Hume came into the possession of six guns.  One that strikes with the force of a cannon shell, one that spread the flames of Perdition, one that kills by spreading a flesh-rotting disease, one that can call up the spirits of the men and women it has shot down and one that grants eternal youth and the ability to heal even a fatal wound.  The sixth gun was the most powerful, and the one that Hume kept for himself, shows things that have happened and things that will come.  Hume was killed, but couldn't really die.  Now his wife, who holds the fifth gun, has brought him back and Hume will do whatever necessary to find his gun and bring destruction to the world.

The story is really about Drake Sinclair, who is also looking for the sixth gun.  He used to work for Hume, but turned down the offer to take one of the guns, which is how Missy, Hume's wife, ended up with one.  Drake is less interested in keeping the gun away from Hume then the fact that supposedly the gun will lead him to treasure.  Too bad for him that the "treasure" of Hume's is nothing anyone else wants.

The gun was being kept in possession of a preacher, who is killed by the Pinkertons who had been hired by Missy to find it.  It falls into possession of the preacher's step-daughter, Becky, who Drake finds and takes with him, of course not telling her the whole story of what's going on.

Cold Dead Fingers was certainly exciting and action packed.  It felt very traditionally comic booky, if you know what I mean.  The art was glossy and looked like a superhero comic, and it was laid out in traditional panels.  The pictures could be fairly gory, showing people getting shot and flesh-rotting diseases melting the skin off their bones.

By the end of the first volume, most of Hume's followers are dead, Hume is stuck back in his coffin, and Drake holds four of the six guns.  Becky still has the sixth one.  The fifth one is still in the possession of Missy, who ran off with her Pinkertons, and will no doubt try to raise her husband again.

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