Maceo and Mezzy reach a seriously sad crossroads in BOOM! Studios Once Upon A Time At The End of the World #10, written by Jason Aaron, with art by Leila Del Duca and Nick Dragotta.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World #10 Review:
That’s it for Maceo and Mezzy. Though the post-apocalyptic survivors tried to make it work, their whole world has fallen down, and so has their relationship. Sad!
Host Alex Zalben noted that this issue “feels like the end,” as the two former lovers realize that the monsters they’ve been tracking down are, in fact, each other. And now that the series is being more explicit about using the apocalypse as a metaphor for the arc of a relationship, “it makes it that much more layered and textured… The art is beautiful. The writing is very pointed. And I love those Nick Dragotta flash-forward sequences.”
Justin Tyler agreed, adding the book “gets into so much nuance and detail that without ever being, like, ‘See, look what we did here.’ It’s very much just telling the story… It felt like we were building toward a final moment here… But there’s more to say, there’s more that happens in relationships.”
Hopeless romantic Pete LePage was “hopeful that we’re not going to get a sad, depressing ending because we rolled with this couple for a very long time, we’ve been through a lot with them.” However, he lauded the book for the “perfectly executed moment” where Maceo and Mezzy gave at each other with a literal chasm between them. “I’m sad they don’t recognize each other and are strangers in each other’s lives… It’s awful to see. So I’m hoping with maybe one more issue, or a number of issues left they can turn this around, but it does not look good for them.”
Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World #10 Official Synopsis:
In the final issue of THE RISE AND FALL OF GOLGONOOZA, Maceo and Mezzy inflict emotional damage on each other in ways even the wasteland couldn’t dream of, and the threads of their relationship continue to tear. The community is dissolving and breaking, just like Maceo’s machines, and he and Mezzy are poised to be the final remaining members. If it comes to that, can they salvage what’s there, or will they even want to cross the chasm between them?
