Review:
2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the start of Y: The Last Man, a stunning and ground-breaking science fiction comic series with nary a cape-wearing super-powered hero or villain to be found. Instead, it contained classical allusions, contemporary pop culture references, depths of character and relationship dramas, and plenty of action sequences, all framed in a speculative fiction world of what might happen, both locally and globally, if all the men (save one) died suddenly.
This re-reading and series of reviews wanted to explore how well the series aged, as it turned 20. After two decades, including such an earth-shaking event as a global pandemic, would this seem prescient? laughable? naive? My first time through, I found the conclusion and the explanation of the plague causing the gendercide to match Yorick's own assessment: "vaguely unsatisfying". Maybe it is the influence of already knowing the ending, but this 20th Anniversary rereading felt more, well, satisfying overall.
In this final volume, all roads converge on Paris, France. Yorick and 355; all the many Beths; Alter and her squad of soldiers. And amazingly, against all odds and after 5 years and tens of thousands of miles, Yorick and Beth Deville are reunited at last! Their reunion sex is great! Their ensuing pillow-talk not so much. They've passed each other, philosophically, and his desperate search for his beloved turns sour as they debate the power and meaning of the very dreams that have sustained them both. This sequence is a long, uninterrupted dialog, yet in the hands of master storyteller Brian K. Vaughan and his Master of Visuals Pia Guerra, these pages are gripping, beautiful, intense and intimate.
Competing for biggest emotional wallop are the multiple goodbyes. Especially touching is 355 melting away as the reunion with Beth approaches. When they both realize their love, Yorick and 355 seem on the verge of crafting a new direction and a new life, which the final confrontation with Alter brings to a shocking end. A scene that is breath-taking in its clean simplicity. After all the previous miraculous survivals, this seems too easy, too quick, almost out of character. Until we reach Yorick's heart-breaking resignation: "Enough" he says and walks away.
The series ends with an Epilogue set 60 years in the future. It is a more promising and hopeful future. The women of the world have rebuilt society, technological progress has spiked, society has flourished. My original impression of the Epilogue, on first reading some years ago, dismissed it as an anticlimactic letdown - after so much drama and high adventure, its sleepy pace seemed out of character for the rest of the series. I must revise that opinion on rereading it as part of this 20th anniversary review. It exchanges edge-of-your-seat drama, conflict and tension for calm conversation and exposition, interwoven with beautiful and heart-rending flashbacks into the post-Paris lives of our beloved characters. The death of Ampersand is especially moving. And the final sequence, of octogenarian Yorick's escape from his family's loving confinement is, in retrospect, a perfect cap to an amazing series.
In sum, 20 years later, the assumptions of how much of the world would fall apart minus the men is balanced by the portraits of resiliency, strength and creativity of the women. More than survivors, they become architects of the next great civilization.
This daring, moving, ultimately satisfying finale, with its simple layouts that perfectly frame visually the mood and offer subtle illustrations and metaphors to work hand-in-hand with the narrative, earns another 5 capes.
Read all 10 reviews of Y: The Last Man here: Volume 1 Unmanned; Volume 2 Cycles; Volume 3 One Small Step; Volume 4 Safeword; Volume 5 Ring of Truth; Volume 6 Girl on Girl; Volume 7 Paper Dolls; Volume 8 Kimono Dragons; Volume 9 Motherland; Volume 10 Whys and Wherefores.
Description:
Featured in THE NEW YORK TIMES and on NPR, Y: THE LAST MAN is the gripping saga of Yorick Brown, an unemployed and unmotivated slacker who discovers he is the only male left in the world after a plague of unknown origin instantly kills every mammal with a Y chromosome. Accompanied by his mischievous monkey, Ampersand, and the mysterious Agent 355, Yorick embarks on a transcontinental journey to find his long-lost girlfriend and discover why he is the last man on earth.
Yorick Brown's long journey through an Earth populated only by women comes to a dramatic, unexpected conclusion in this final volume. Collects issues #55-60 of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's award-winning Vertigo series.
Collects: issues #55-60
Authors: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan
Published By: Vertigo
Published When: July 1 2008
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN: 9781401218133
Pages: 168 pages
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