Review:
It has been 20 years since publication started on the Brian K. Vaughan series "Y: The Last Man". It was a stunning and masterful series, one of the most engrossing and absorbing comics-based ongoing series I have ever read.
In honor of the 20th anniversary, let's reread the series and do reviews of the original 10 graphic novels in the coming weeks. The series originally ran in monthly format, and every few months a TPB collection would also be released, holding 6 or so issues. Other collections have since been released, usually with more pages and collecting more issues, all the way up to a complete-set omnibus. But since the story arcs matched so well with the original collections, those are the ones we will review.
Starting with Y: The Last Man volume 1, Unmanned. This collection includes the first five issues of the series. This is the debut introducing the main and secondary characters and setting the tone for the whole series. Revisiting it 20 years later, it is still every bit as stunning as I remember. And in this era of Covid and Trumpism, the themes resonate in a new and interesting way compared to 2002.
Yorick Brown, our titular Last Man, is an unimpressive representative of the male gender, when we first meet him. He is more interested in magic, and especially in being an escape-artist, than in holding down a regular job. He is in love with Beth, his girlfriend who is currently halfway around the world in Australia, and the long-distance relationship has some strains in it.
His mother, a congresswoman in Washington DC and his sister Hero also make appearances, setting up all the important women in his pre-plague life.
Once the plague wipes out every male on the planet, other women come into his life, ones who will play major roles in future issues. The well-trained and lethal Agent 355 of the shadowy Culper Ring; Dr Alison Mann who is about to give birth to her own clone; Colonel Tse'elon, a hard-nosed member of the Israeli military.
Each of these women intersects with the story soon enough, but in the first chapter their introduction is handled almost as "slice-of-life" sequences, giving us glimpses into a variety of ways that the sudden death of all males on Earth affects politics, military, medical care and more.
The brilliant pacing of the first chapter draws us in. We know something very bad is coming - it's in the title of the series and in the very first panel. But then we jump back in time and inch forward. One scene takes place 29 minutes ago, the next in another part of the world, with other women and men, 24 minutes ago, and so on. It's a master-class in building tension and anticipation.
The rest of the chapters of this collection ease up on the edge-of-the-seat tension of the opening chapter, but they are every bit as gripping. They offer the first tastes of the imaginative takes on what modern American life would look like if all males suddenly died.
How will the hundreds of millions of corpses be collected and disposed of? Meet the garbage-truck-driving woman who briefly captures Yorick.
What will political leadership look like? Nearly two decades before a woman was elected Vice President, Agent 355 must find and protect the highest-ranking surviving member of the government, while the wives of elected but now deceased congressmen make a move for power. Leading to one of the funniest lines in the book, wherever you stand on the political spectrum: "But who the hell is shooting at us, mom? Terrorists?" "Worse... Republicans."
And we meet the Amazons, a violent anti-men group who celebrate the gendercide.
The tension and pace may slow in these chapters but the unfolding of the plot remains spot-on. By the end of "Unmanned" all the key pieces are in place. Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann have teamed up to work together, even if their goal is not clear yet. Hero has joined the Amazons. Rumors of a sole surviving male are circulating, drawing attention of foreign militaries.
It's a gripping and exciting first volume in its own right, and sets us up for an incredible ride in the issues to come.
This book still holds up incredibly well, 20 years on. I give it an enthusiastic 5 capes.
Description:
Y: THE LAST MAN, winner of three Eisner Awards and one of the most critically acclaimed, best-selling comic books series of the last decade, is that rare example of a page-turner that is at once humorous, socially relevant and endlessly surprising.
Written by Brian K. Vaughan (LOST, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD, EX MACHINA) and with art by Pia Guerra, this is the saga of Yorick Brown—the only human survivor of a planet-wide plague that instantly kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome. Accompanied by a mysterious government agent, a brilliant young geneticist and his pet monkey, Ampersand, Yorick travels the world in search of his lost love and the answer to why he's the last man on earth.
Collects: Y THE LAST MAN #1-5
Authors: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan
Published By: Vertigo
Published When: Jan. 2 2003
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN-10: 1563899809
ISBN-13: 978-1563899805
Language: English
Pages: 128 pages
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