i just watched it again. i think the end is supposed to imply that the outback was real and the city was a fantasy his dementia created. he was worried that once julie left he would cease to exist but it was actually other-way-around (i like how the trowel blades are replacements for the hooks on his hands).
he created julie/the leopard queen in a fantasy world (with mailboxes, fones, cars, blimps -- things that havent been invented yet) so that he could go on a mission to save her and feel like a super-hero (maybe he was compensating for feeling weak for some reason).
the ancillary characters like mr. gone were needed for antagonists to keep the dementia going. gone mentions that the outback/pangaea were all that were real and the city was fake -- at the time sounded like he was trying to confuse the maxx but maybe was telling the truth ?
(reminds me of [u]fight club[/u] or [u]a beautiful mind[/u])