Advance Review: Strong Writing Dominates `Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World’ #3

From Marvel’s Thor and War of the Realms to his take on Star Wars and his own creator owned titles like Southern Bastards and Scalped, Jason Aaron knows what it takes to be successful when writing comic books.

His newest foray, Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World, continues its strong run in its third installment. What’s truly impressive, though, is that Aaron’s writing in the series is continuing to improve. The post-apocalyptic story of love and survival has become downright poetic in this third issue.

In it, Aaron relates the tale of Maceo and Mezzy, two survivors who couldn’t be different. Mezzy is the tough-as-nails, street-smart fighter who is shocked when she realizes her friend has made her laugh. Maceo is annoyingly optimistic and teaches Maceo the value of dancing and looking at different sides of the problems they face together.

While these is plenty of dialogue between the pair, Aaron wisely uses a narrator to set the tone, pointing out the little lies the two tell each other, for example. It’s a small, but beautiful element that makes the story come alive.

With his sweeping splash pages and double-page spreads, Alexandre Tefenkgi’s artwork helps to tell the story in ways that words could not accomplish. Tefenkgi illustrates a dead Earth – complete with burnt plains and oceans of abandoned vehicles – with this pair as two of the few survivors. Fellow artist Nick Dragotta’s handiwork can be seen at the end of the book, setting up what looks to be a terrifying next chapter for Mezzy and Maceo.

Despite his vast experience, it would not be a stretch to call this some of Aaron’s best writing. It makes waiting a month for the next chapter all that much more difficult – and rewarding.

Once Upon A Time At The End Of The World #3 will be available for purchase tomorrow.