Advance Review: Love Is A Battlefield In ‘Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World’ #10

Imagine not being able to recognize the one you love. Worse still, imagine that you can only see the one you love as your worst enemy – as a monster bent on destroying you and all you’ve created.

That exploration of love, loss, and the fine love between love and hate has been one of the central themes through the run of Once Upon a Time at the End of the World. With this final issue in the middle story arc, we see the results of that distrust and animosity as the city of Golgonooza falls.

Writer Jason Aaron clearly has something to say about the nature of love, though we will likely need to wait until the final book to know exactly what that is. Until then, he’s emphasizing that those we love the most are the one most capable of hurting us in the end. He approaches that tale in an interesting way, with Maceo and Mezzy constantly mistaking each other for a monster trying to destroy what they have built.

Although the pair are the only two characters in this chapter, it moves briskly. It’s a constant back and forth with Maceo mistaking Mezzy for the beast and vice versa. All the while, they are searching for each other, but unable to recognize their lover. When they finally find each other, a chasm – both literal and metaphorical – stands between them.

Leila del Duca handles the majority of the artwork (with Nick Dragotta illustrating a few flash-forward scenes meant to set up the final book). Del Duca’s illustrations have never looked better. Both characters are well drawn and articulated – even when they are depicted as monsters.

Mezzy and Maceo spent the first arc getting to know each other and falling in love in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. In this second book, they built – and then lost – a paradise in the harsh environment. Will the last book bring them back together or drive them even further apart?

Once Upon a Time at the End of the World #10 will be available for purchase on October 25, 2023.