Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Roberto Meli
Colorist: Chiara Di Francia
Letterer: Mattia Gentili
Cover Artists: Roberto Meli; Romina Moranelli; Fernando Proietti; Brent McKee
Publisher: Ablaze
Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 7, 2023
Vera's reports of natural gas deposits on Mars bolstered a society teetering on the brink of collapse. The Easy Beef Corporation funded a mission to send a human to Mars. There was only one problem: they couldn't send the resources to keep the astronaut alive indefinitely. So they sent Roy, a man with an imminent expiration date, to stake their claim. Unfortunately for Earth, Vera lied. Somehow, the rover attained sentience and craved communication with others. So, the Easy Beef Corporation will fund the infrastructure for natural gas extraction and an intrasolar delivery system. Human society will still collapse when it consumes its remaining natural resources.
Cancer won’t kill Roy. Nor will he live to see the Easy Beef Corporation land on Mars and watch other companies and nations battle over its nonexistent resources. He’ll consume his remaining oxygen today and die. How will Roy spend his last day on Mars? Let's put on our spacesuits, take a giant leap into Traveling To Mars #10, and find out!
Story
What would you eat for your last meal? How about steak? Sounds great, right? Thick, juicy, and imitation meat. Still, it tastes great, so who cares?
How about afterward? One final moment of entertainment? Roy watches the Kangaroo Kid movie again. Leopold and Albert sit beside Roy. Their optical sensors glow while watching. The robots rock on their wheels at the movie’s climax. So, the man who devoted his life to animals made his robot companions happy one final time, thanks to Hollywood's CGI magicians.
Now it's time for one last walk. Roy likens hiking around Mars to tramping through Arizona in a beekeeping outfit, but it's what he came here for, right? Isn't that the grand dream: exploring an alien planet? Yet Roy's thoughts remain tethered to Earth.
In earlier issues, we glimpsed Roy's courtship with Candace. We saw them marry and survive the storm that destroyed their town. In Traveling To Mars #10, Mark Russell returns us to Eufaula, Alabama, in the year of our Lord, 2024.
Roy and Candace live in a FEMA trailer. Thanks to his job at the pet store, he's filled their trailer with animals. Candace wants to start their family. Roy wants to wait to have children. Hey, aren't animals family? The choices he makes define their relationship. Candace argues that life will try to curtail your potential, but he can't embrace bigger dreams. Ultimately, Roy achieves his career goal, but at too great a cost.
Mark Russell forges a link between Roy and Vera in Traveling To Mars #10. Life consigned the rover to the scrap heap, just as it threw Roy's marriage onto the rocks. Both seek meaning and purpose in their lives. Like Roy, Vera cared for others and became a leader. As with Candace, the rover's journey will continue, while Roy's will end.
Art
Roberto Meli begins and ends Traveling To Mars #10 with Roy confronting Vera and the other surviving rovers. He divides the remainder of the tale between life on Earth and Roy's final morning in the shuttle. Roy looks charmingly ridiculous in his cowboy hat as he sits at a table and eats his fake steak with one hand. Meli portrays the purposelessness of his mission and life in one glimpse of the town Roy left behind. He also shows us a final sketch from Roy's notebook, as the lone Human on Mars commits his thoughts on the meaning of life to paper.
Under the glowing starfield, Roy sleeps in his illuminated shuttle. Sunrise fills the sky with red. Light streams through the shuttle windows. Like Leopold and Albert, Chiara Di Francia paints the shuttle interior in blue and orange. Highlights and shadows convey individuality to wall tiles and interior furnishings. I don't know its origin, as I've not followed this series since its inception, but a child's handprint-turkey drawing on yellow paper sparks the most vibrant color in Roy's present.
Mattia Gentili relates Roy's reminiscences with uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons. The yellow/orange narrative boxes—which match the faded color schemes of life back on Earth—feature small lowercase handprinted font. Gentili fills tan paper strips with tiny lowercase handprinted font in Traveling To Mars #10. The coloring of the tiny lettering seems faded, closer to brown than black. A solitary sound effect announces something unexpected that brings a sense of completeness to Roy's final day.
Thanks to Ablaze Publishing and Arancia Studio for providing this copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Bittersweet and satisfying, Traveling To Mars #10 delivers a poignant reminder to live our lives to the fullest, cherish those closest to us, and nourish others' beliefs and values.
Rating 9/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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