WOTN Review: Stranger Things: Six #1 (Dark Horse)

A New Prequel Is Found in Stranger Things: Six #1

Stranger Things has been jumping on board the novel and graphic novel train lately. So far, there are two novels out (soon to be three), and now there’s a second graphic novel series in progress.

Stranger Things: Six is another prequel series. It obviously follows subject Six, one of the patients before Eleven’s time. If you’ve ever wondered about the studies or subjects leading up to this point, then this series is worth checking out.

Remember, this series is somewhat constrained, thanks to the timing of the series. It can only show us Six and the other subjects – there won’t be anything quite as dramatic as what El and her friends faced. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be fascinating.

Writing

Stranger Things: Six #1 introduces us to one of the characters we’ve only been able to guess about before. We’re talking about subject number Six, of course. If Six was still alive during the time of Eleven, we haven’t seen any evidence of it. And frankly, I wouldn’t put it past Hawkin’s lab to have her removed, should she have become a problem. Or when the other test subjects started doing better.

Jody Housier introduced us to Francine. Unlike El, she didn’t grow up in the lab. That holds with what we’ve already been told about these characters – they were pulled into the project later. These patients had a life before our nefarious ‘scientist’ got his hands on them.

It’s hard not to feel bad for Francine – Six, that is. Her origin story gave us an in-depth look at her life. Both the good and the bad. She’s a person to us now. So obviously, we can’t help but wonder where she ended up. Here’s hoping this miniseries will cover that.

The writing for this series felt similar in many ways. It reminded me of the earlier prequel novel – Suspicious Minds. And it had many elements from Stranger Things that we’d also be expecting. Since it is the first prequel graphic novel, I won’t say it feels formulaic. But I think a second series would be at risk of being called that.

Art

You can tell immediately that Stranger Things: Six #1 is set in the 1970s and 80s. After all, it is a rather distinct style and decade to pull from. It does help establish the feel of the series, though, which is good.

This series looks more or less exactly the way I expected. It fits in well with the Netflix series…but it still feels like its own series, in a way. Perhaps that’s due to the slightly less-than-realistic way the characters are designed.

There were three artists working on this project. Edger Salazar provided the lines, while Keith Champagne did the inking. And finally, Marissa Louise did the coloring.

Conclusion

Stranger Things: Six #1 was an interesting read, though I still maintain it’d be best for fans who want to learn more about the test subjects. I’ve been curious about what else they could tell us about the world of Stranger Things, and thus have been devouring everything they put out.

This issue did a brilliant job of setting up Francine’s journey and struggles. I’m worried about where the story will end for her, but that proves that at least part of me is emotionally invested in the story. And that’s a good thing.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.

Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks | Quirky Cat’s Comics | The Book Review Crew | Monkeys Fighting Robots | Storygraph | Bookhype | Bookstagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Reedsy