Advance Review (NSFW): ‘Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World’ #6
by Tom Smithyman
There’s no delicate way to put this, so let’s just get it out: Once Upon a Time at the End of the World #6 contains a lot of sex.
There’s sex in the beginning. Sex in the middle. Sex at the end. There’s vaginal sex. Oral sex. Sex talk. Straight sex. Gay sex. Couples’ sex. Threesomes. Foursomes. And lots and lots of talking about sex.
And as you might expect, there’s nudity. Lots of it. You can’t really blame the two main characters Maceo and Mezzy. They are young and in love, and it’s the end of the world, so there’s not much else to do.
The pair are supposed to be looking for a lost oasis promised them at the end of the last story arc. But, to be honest, all they’re really doing in this issue – which takes place years after we initially met the teens – is hooking up.
That doesn’t necessarily make it a good chapter in the overall story, but it does make it a memorable one. If nothing else writer Jason Aaron is trying to show his readers that the once-innocent Maceo is now obsessed with carnal pleasures. If only Aaron had chosen a more thoughtful approach instead of showing readers all the different places in the dystopian wasteland for the teens to swap bodily fluids. A little sex is fine. A whole book devoted to it tips the scales to the prurient.
That leaves primary artist Leila del Duca to draw lots of coitus. She varies things up enough to keep it interesting – in the off-chance readers lose interest. Del Duca keeps it about as tasteful as possible while still leaving no question about what the pair (or in one case, the quad) are doing. She does have a couple tastefully memorable pages, including one where the two bodies melt into one another during sex. It’s a powerful scene that explains their continued attraction better than mere words ever could. Kudos to some great color work there from Tamra Bonvillain.
Let’s call this issue a dalliance – literally – with the expectation that while sex may play a role in the ongoing story, it won’t be all about the act. Otherwise, this title may need to be moved to bookstores’ adult sections.
Once Upon a Time at the End of the World #6 will be available for purchase on Wednesday.
Overview
This post-apocalyptic story kicks off its second story arc with more sex than can be fit into a porno. What happened to the story of two young people trying to find an oasis in the wasteland? It’s there somewhere, underneath quarts of bodily fluids.
