Review:
Will Yorick and Beth reunite at last? What's the origin story for Agent 355? How did Ampersand come by his plague-defying health? What happens when a naked Yorick gets splashed on the front page of a tabloid?
Brian K. Vaughan's absorbing and terrifying tale of Y: The Last Man continues in this 7th collection, with several shorter stories. Unfortunately they all suffer from overly contrived scenarios and melodrama, leaving this one of the weaker collections of the series.
The lead story sees Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann finally land in Australia! Yorick can begin in earnest his quest for his near-fiancée Beth. Except it is just a 24-hour refueling layover for the submarine that is transporting them. A very limited and fast search.
That passion, even anger, is what gets him off the boat. But with the passing of years since they last spoke, the trail has gone very cold. Still, he and 355 unearth more tantalizing clues, pointing them yet again to a location halfway around the world.
But they are also the hunted, this time by a tabloid hack journalist, out to find proof of a surviving male. And she will go to great lengths to get and then publish the story.
In this main story arc of the collection, author Brian K. Vaughan again displays great skill in pacing, relationships and ratcheting up tension. Yet this plotline leaves us less enthused than some of the others. Dr. Mann seems unusually gullible, 355 extra bloodthirsty, Yorick both headstrong and foolish. Which I guess is consistent with his character after all.
And the shooting of Yorick's mother feels gratuitous and unnecessary for the larger trajectory of this tale.
In a world of women, Pia Guerra has drawn lots of curves, lots of shapes and sizes, many hourglass figures, and strong female characters. Here for the first time, the story demands not just the occasional womanly breast or butt but full frontal male nudity. Guerra handles this and other artistic challenges with the usual skill and decorum. And the flashbacks and jumps between the past and present in the back stories is superbly handled, sepia-toned nostalgia, humorous or serious tones perfectly balanced throughout.
The three single-issue tales in this collection have their moments, but all suffer from excessively contrived or outlandish plot elements. Perhaps in the greater context of the genocidal plague one can hardly imagine an excessively contrived plot twist, yet these stories have many.
First we return to the "Other Beth," following immediately on Yorick's failure to make progress locating his primary Beth in Australia. Hero, fulfilling her brother's request, delivers a note to Beth, only to discover that she is 8 months pregnant. It's a sweet story, with some deeper manipulation on the part of Yorick. But the motorcycle-riding nuns seeking the next immaculate conception swirl into this mix a strong dose of the sour and strange.
Strangeness also frames 355's back story. Hers is a powerful narrative, of loss and trauma, recovery, trust and betrayal. And it is well-told and stunningly drawn - a superb back-story for approximately 20 pages. But the ridiculous cannibal trope that frames it, while tangentially tying into a key moment of 355's past, still feels excessive and unnecessarily silly.
The collection ends with Ampersand's origin story. This humorous tale is a good finale for the collection, and leaves us dangling about what will come of this monkey, whose own escape-artist skills have wreaked such havoc in the lives of so many humans.
This is another enjoyable set of stories, although ones that suffer in comparison to the long run of amazing tales we've witnessed to date. The eye-rolling silliness of the cannibals and nuns lead me to only score this a still-respectable 3.5 capes out of 5.
Description:
In addition to catching up on the adventures of Yorick's monkey Ampersand (whose body holds the key to stopping the male-killing plague) and telling the origin of Agent 355, PAPER DOLLS chronicles Yorick and 355's search for Yorick's fiancée Beth in Australia—a search that yields a large dose of unwanted publicity for the Last Man, and deadly consequences for those he cares for! Collects issues #37-42 of the runaway hit Vertigo series by Brian K. Vaughan (EX-MACHINA, ASTONISHING X-MEN, RUNAWAYS) and Pia Guerra.
Collects: Y: The Last Man issues #37-42
Authors: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Pia Guerra (Illustrator), Jose Marzan
Published By: Vertigo
Published When: May 1 2006
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN-13: 9781401210090
Language: English
Pages: 144 pages
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