Days of Hate: Act Two
Aleš Kot, writer; Danijel Žeželj, drawing; Jordie Bellaire, colors; Aditya Bidikar, letters; Tom Muller, design
Image Comics, 2019
The publisher's blurb for this just says "Endgame," while the back cover has the description "The finale of a dystopian tragedy." Admirably pithy, but I still think the endgame narrative is worth discussing. This second and final installment picks up the story seven weeks later. Freeman is still sleeping with Huian, while arranging to have her parents deported at the same time (to pressure her into giving up Amanda's location). Amanda and her partner Arvid are in an abandoned building in Pittsburgh, waiting for something.
As they move on, Arvid's family is arrested. There's a palpable sense of the government watching everyone, which is reinforced by a wall of video monitors we see Freeman use to spy on Huian. She plants a bomb in his briefcase, then regrets it and tries to warn him...but not before it explodes, killing his wife and child. He visits her in jail, intent on killing her. But she had previously told him about evidence she had hidden proving his infidelity with her, which would ruin his clean "family man" image--so he commits suicide instead. The plan had been an assassination at a gala, but our last view of Amanda is her approaching a police precinct headquarters, fully armed.
Arvid returns home to check out his house. When he asks a neighbor for information, she reveals that she has been hiding his son, who was outside when the raid occurred. He had no idea, and this is clearly the closest thing to a silver lining this story has to offer. Hearing his pessimistic thoughts about the state of the world, she asks why he ever had a child. He replies, "Because despite everything...I can't stop believing a better world is possible." A surprisingly upbeat ending (relatively) to what is otherwise a bleak tale indeed. But beautifully told.
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