Gearing Up For A Big Finale In Days Of Hate #10
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Xing and Amanda discuss what is to come, and Xing is beginning to have second thoughts about their plans. Regardless, she presses on, building a pipe bomb in her apartment. Meanwhile, Amanda and Arvid discuss their odds of survival, and Arvid fears that the end is near. Amanda tells Arvid that she will take him some place special, drugs him, and drives him to his home.
Days of Hate #10 gears up for the final act of this political drama. The plans of Amanda, Arvid, and Xing are coming to fruition, but none of them are eager to do what they have been building towards.
I find myself now realizing that I’m not 100% sure if Xing was on Amanda’s side this entire time or planning some degree of double-cross for a while. Ales Kot works hard to keep things only as specific as need be, and this has left a lot of the dialogue frustratingly vague. What happens here isn’t necessarily a double-cross, but it does leave me wondering what Xing’s intentions have been.
Regardless, a major event happens in the closing pages of this comic, and left me in shock. It’s not that it I didn’t see it coming; it was built up to pretty darn well. However, it’s horrific event nonetheless, and it left me eager to see where the final two issues lead.
Danijel Zezelj continues to provide beautifully grim artwork to the title. Admittedly, his style has added to that sense of vagary in the series, but it’s always jived well with the tone and Kot’s narrative. Here, that hint of vagueness actually serves the more emotional scenes very well. It adds a dreamlike quality to contrast a world all too real and brutal. The big finale is left a degree removed from being outright shown too, and it makes the scene even more powerful. Jordie Bellaire’s color work is heavy and imposing, and that leaves the comic feeling even more ominous and unnerving.
Days of Hate #10 leaves the reader hanging after another major atrocity befalls one of its characters and the remaining gear up for their big event–whatever it will turn out to be. Kot, Zezelj, and Bellaire provide something quite compelling here, and I look forward to seeing how it will all end. This one earns a recommendation. Give it a read.
Days of Hate #10 comes to us from writer Ales Kot, artist and cover artist Danijel Zezelj, color artist Jordie Bellaire, and letterer Aditya Bidikar.
