Days Of Hate #6 Review

End of Act One

Written by Ales Kot
Drawn by Danijel Zezelj
Colored by Jordie Bellaire
Published by Image
Release Date: 20 June 2018


This issue of Days of Hate sees the official end of Act One of this series. So it is officially time to take stock of progress to date, what's went well, what's not so good, and what the general sense of the title is based on that opening arc. Let's dip in and find out.

Well this issue does move the story on a little bit, but this series seems to have gotten stuck along the way. At the start it felt like there was fluid motion to the present depicted in the book. In recent issues though it seems to have gotten bogged down in the past, both in terms of flashbacks and in terms of references and discussions based upon the past. This, I feel, bogs down the action and slows down the electric feel that this book had in the first couple of issues. Not to come down all "script doctor" but there are beautiful flashback elements of this issue that I think take you out of the contemporary setting and which may have been better served put in an earlier issue, even in an entire flashback issue.

Then there's the art. I have been quite effusive in my praise for the art in this series, and it is good. I am however just at my wits end with the sheer level to which shadow, silhouette, and dark block inks are used in conjunction with dark, muddy, somber tones. It continually makes it difficult to tell what is going on and it takes what may be a good effect in limited use, and completely saturates its deployment. In addition in this book we get an entire page using a 9 panel layout, with just block colors and text used in them. Now, I just think that's a little casual with the art responsibilities on a book that people are forking out money for.

Bits and pieces

I'm starting to feel a little let down by this book. I don't think the writing has any kind of kinetic energy to it in this issue, and it seems to have taken what seemed like quite an original and dangerous plot idea and devolved it into a kind of simplified version of the Handmaid's Tale only without that book's ability to hold you firmly in its chilly grip. Likewise the art and colors are just starting to strain my eyesight at this point. It pains me to criticize Bellaire as normally I'm a big fan of her work. Anyway, we travel in hope that things get switched around a bit in the next Act.

5.9/10