Days Of Hate #4 Review

A Family Affair

Written by Ales Kot
Drawn by Danijel Zezelj
Colored by Jordie Bellaire
Published by Image
Release Date: 25 April 2018
Reviewed by: Andrew McAvoy



I've enjoyed this book up to this point. The overall sense that I get from it is one of a very stylish book. I love the covers, I love the art in the main, and there is a really smooth feel to the narrative that seems to flow so serenely from scene to scene, panel to panel. Let's see how things develop in issue 4.

 This is a dark book on a number of levels. Firstly although set only a few short years into the future it seems that there has been a real acceleration towards a discretely dystopian society. In terms of plot it makes you work a lot (in a good way) keeping you in the dark as to the wider picture of how the characters fit within the culture in the book.

It is very dark in color, I sometimes find it quite hard to figure out exactly what is going on in certain panels. I'm not sure whether this is a result of the inking or not, it is definitely a feature of the coloring which selects a pallet that mostly looks awesome, but sometimes looks very dark on the page. I read on a screen with a backlight and I have to confess that I found it hard to work out some of the panels at first. It also appears at times like the art is peering out from beneath a grainy smog. That sounds harsh, and I stress that it is not all pages, but it is a factor that I found detracted from my enjoyment of parts of the book (it was also a feature of issue 2).

That said, the story really is driving. I am invested in the characters, particularly Huan, who in this issue finds her family brought in to the government's questioning of her former life with Amanda. There is a (not so) implied threat towards her family and she is now being pressed for concrete details. Meanwhile Amanda and her partner are still on the road, and things are about to go down. This is a detailed, dense and rewarding story and there is a solid narrative drive.

Bits and pieces

While the art style matches the tone of the narrative, I feel that Bellaire's colors can take me out of the story at times. I do like her work on this book, but as with issue 2 aspects of the palette choices just come on very strong. Aside form that one minor point, this was a pretty enjoyable issue.

7.2/10