Once Upon a Time at the End of the World #4

Once Upon a Time at the End of the World

by Jason Aaron, Alexandre Tefenkgi (Artist)

The Apocalympics begin, but it isn’t fun and games–the Wasteland Rangers won’t let Maceo, a rival suitor for Mezzy, go without competing to the death!
The stakes are high as Mezzy’s close connection with The Rangers’ Chieftess is revealed and Maceo seems out of his league.
But there’s more than one way to save someone…

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics

31 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 22, 2023

About the author

Jason Aaron grew up in a small town in Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase books from spinner racks, some of which he still owns today.

Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.

In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.

Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.

In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.

In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.

After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.

Reviews

[Scott Fogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting Gorrier

They started getting gory now and more Graphic. They've tortured Maceo and went found out a lot of the details about the wasteland Rangers and Mezzy.

Loved the list of Ranger merit badges!

[Erin]

Lots of torture. But the flashback to Mezzy's past includes the Rangers' opinion on the way the world ended, and it's funny.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

#4 – The Wild the Woke and the Wasteland Rangers – “Her name was Jennie Suzanne. A fully-badged Beta Scout in the Wasteland Rangers.” Sad and tragic backstory.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wasteland Rangers tracked down Maceo and are hoping to lure Mezzy back into the fold by torturing Maceo. Loudly. They've also revealed Maceo's tower was destroyed; the only way for him is forward.