Locust was originally solicited as an 8-issue mini-series, but for one reason or the other, it was split into two 4-issue minis instead. Ballad of Men picks up where the previous mini-series left off, following Max through the past and the present.
In the past, Max escaped Ford with Stella in tow, and we see him try to care for this little girl as they gradually escape New York City and travel into the wilderness. They camp out and he makes her pancakes, and Stella generally enjoys the whole experience. It's telling about what her life in Ford's hands was like that camping out in the winter and having someone make pancakes for her counts as a spectacular experience. Except Ford has never stopped hunting them, and eventually catches up.
In the present, Max and a young prisoner/devotee of Ford's he rescued for information on how to get into Ford's base end up captured by a different group of heavily-armed, unhappy people. Ford killed some of theirs, and while Max had nothing to do with it, he did happen to take a laptop belonging to one of the victims, which makes him suspect. But Ford, having already devolved into religious lunacy by the time he recaptured Stella, is making his grand statement, and there's no time for any other concerns.
Nieto keeps the colors dim and murky again, but it serves the story. For three-plus issues, any time we see light, it's a bad thing. It's the headlights of Ford's trucks as he catches up with Max and Stella. It's New York City, on fire because of Max's lunacy, driving the locusts out to swarm the humans who fled to survive. It's torches in some creepy underground ritual altar in Ford's new base, where he thinks he's going to make things right with God by killing Stella.
Only in the last few pages does he switch to a soft blue, as Max and Stella sail towards Iceland. It's still a washed-out hue, because this is no great, cheerful triumph. They haven't truly escaped whatever's come over the world, but they each found someone to care for and to be cared for them. The ending's also a bit of a role reversal from Rosi's Red Leaves, in that the child changes rather than the adult, but still retains some part of themselves, at least for now.
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