Posted in: Comics, Image, Review | Tagged: ales jot, Danijel Zezelj, days of hate, drama, image comics, Jordie Bellaire, political

Days of Hate #3 Review: When Muddling the Narrative is a Great Idea

Amanda and her partner continue their trip across the countryside while Freeman's interrogation of Xing becomes more intense. The country is still looking for Amanda, and Xing may just be able to give it to them.

Days of Hate #3 muddles the already foggy narrative with a reminder that no one is perfect, and everyone has their hang-ups.

This goes beyond the obviously ambiguous action of bombing a restaurant that happened to be a hotbed of white supremacists. Xing and Amanda give their contrasting views of their relationship to their respective conversational partners. Amanda conveys that her time with Xing was near ideal with a story. Xing contrasts this by telling Freeman of Amanda's perpetual martyrdom and tendency to escape blame for every wrongdoing, and her version ends with Amanda throwing a cup of tea at the wall for the crime of Xing not drinking it.

Xing's version rings truer, and that's a more personal and visceral flaw to put on a de facto protagonist of a politically-charged story like this.

Another notable moment is the speech Freeman gives at the end about the complicity of liberals in their own suffering due to a mixture of contentedness and a misunderstanding of what the U.S. was and is. It gives the other side of the dichotomy of the vaguely implied viewpoint of the comic. It muddies the waters further, and it lands well.

In short, Days of Hate #3 opts to further explore our protagonists while still loading the book with tension and uncomfortable political allegory, and it works like a charm.

Danijel Zezelj's artwork is once more bleak and loaded with shadow. However, certain shots of the countryside which Amanda and her partner travels are quite beautiful. Expression is often depicted through framing and shading, and it fits this unnerving world well. Jordie Bellaire's color art is made up of highly contrasting light and dark colors with the occasional exploration of the in-between. This too fits Days of Hate well, and it builds a wonderfully oppressive atmosphere.

The third installment of Days of Hate continues to give you the picture of its ugly, complex, pseudo-apocalyptic world. The characters are often cruel, their actions are questionable, and their motives are muddy. This is a viscerally compelling book, and Ales Kot and company have created something darkly beautiful with it. This one gets a strong recommendation. Give it a read.

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