Sam Kieth's THE MAXX #19

“Be good, or I’ll send you to bed without your rotting, guilt-ridden psychic metaphors!”

One issue before an era ends, and Secrets. Are. Revealed. Julie recalls Gone’s conversations w/her parents, lectures Gone gave after studying Aboriginal culture in Australia and unexpectedly buying into their faith.

Gone postulates that our reality is a “waking dream,” while the Outback is the truth. This idea’s been teased before (even stated as outright truth in the card set) and this is maybe its final reference in the book. Could be its ultimate resolution: Gone, the zealot, believes this but it’s not necessarily so.

But…why is the Outback Gone visited in Australia, and the one Julie’s mom glimpsed, the same as Julie’s, when we know each individual’s Outback is different?

We then go back to rebellious teen Julie’s purchase of that red car, the one she’ll be driving when encountering her rapist…and three weeks later, an unemployed plumber named Dave. Triggered at the sight of another strange man flagging her down, Julie hits Dave with her car. The incident revives memories of the dying rabbit she once found on the side of the road. Realizing what she’s done, Julie checks on Dave in the nearby alley.

Coincidentally, Gone’s accidentally left a portal to the Outback in this alley. A broken lamp that looks uncannily like the Maxx’s mask is knocked into the Outback, and when Gone nudges it back, it returns with a touch of Outback energy. Julie covers Dave’s body, placing that lampshade on his head. (Huh?)

Thus, Dave became the Maxx. Maxx’s return in HERO COMICS 2014 had Kieth rendering Maxx as a guy wearing a lampshade, making me wonder if, retroactively, that’s how Dave “really” looked.

This isn’t a perfect origin sequence (it tosses away the lore Loebs had been building around Maxx’s mask) but it answers a decent number of questions and kinda-sorta fits w/most of the hints regarding Julie’s past. Kieth has an excuse to work in more kid drawings, and it’s nice to see Julie’s parents again.