| Title | : | Y The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1563899809 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781563899805 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 130 |
| Publication | : | First published January 2, 2003 |
But why are he and his faithful companion, the often testy male monkey Ampersand, still alive? He sets out to find the answer (and his girlfriend), while running from angry female Republicans (now running the government), Amazon wannabes that include his own sister (seemingly brainwashed), and other threats.
Y The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned Reviews
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In typical comic book male-centric fashion, this series wonders what life would be like if all men died spontaneously...except for one.
I suppose if we're trying to put ourselves in the head of an early-nineties comic book reading teen, this might feel innovative. Unfortunately, I find that innovative in the world of comics is pretty much Iron Age for the rest of literature. How does Vaughan manage to make a series with gender issues at its center so bizarrely sexist?
Example: In a world where all men are dead except for one, and the death of that one man will mean the end of humanity, VIOLENT CULTS OF FEMINISTS SPRING UP TO TRY AND HUNT DOWN MEN AND MALE SYMPATHIZERS. What is the motive here? There sure isn't one written into the plot, other than the one speech about social inequality between the sexes--and how the only way to escape this inequality is to KILL ALL MEN.
Characterwise, I was exceptionally not impressed. Even the main character has vague motivations. As for the women, pretty much none of them function as anything but placeholders: the token love interest, the sister who has gone astray, the protective mother. IN A WORLD WHERE ONLY ONE MAN SURVIVED...apparently the world still revolves around that man.
And here's where the cultural rant starts...
This is a symptom of thinking that is still prevalent in most of popular culture, although not to as great an extent in literature. F'rinstance, lets talk about movies: movies are a great medium for making political statements. Statements about social injustices, such as the way that women are objectified, sexualized, expected to live up to some bleached, shaved, makeup-smeared, surgically modified yet waifishly thin ideal that has been developed over centuries of patriarchal society...and how this objectification upon women is psychologically damaging--to men.
This poor guy above has been so mentally warped by Hollywood and advertising that he's incapable of developing a physical attraction to any of the normal girls he knows in real life. Let's take a moment to pitty him.
Okay, we done? Good. Fortunately, a blonde porn star moves in next door, and immediately falls for him, even though he's intensely dorky, because, you know, it's what's on the inside that counts. But, I'm not just cherry-picking films here. I could point to this one:
Another example of an attractive woman with a *cough cough* career who ends up with a loser whose only redeeming trait is that he's willing to "raise" the baby...if sleazy frat boys without jobs can be said to raise babies.
But surely this is a phenomenon in teen comedies?
Well, look at "romances."
Here's a fairly recent romantic comedy where a successful, relatively well-balanced woman who is portrayed as HORRIBLY DESPARATE for being interested in a neighbor....meanwhile, the character played by Gerard Butler mudwrestles with models on television, and has no interest in anything but one-night stands, yet this is understandable because of his childhood. This is a ROMANCE. Aren't these supposed to be geared more towards female audiences? It really bothers me that I'm more bothered by this film than any women I know.
End rant.
Okay, BUT, regardless of how inadequately this comic deals with gender issues, it at least TRIES to grapple with them, and it does a better job than any of the movies mentioned above. Perhaps by the end of the series, the author's portrayals of gender issues will become more interesting and sophisticated. This was an entertaining comic, and I plan on continuing it for at least a little longer...but I'll admit that I'm highly confused by the acclaim it has gotten. -
Ok so maybe it's just me but I found this series to be incredibly chauvinist. I know I'm gonna get flamed for it, so many ppl rave about it. I APPRECIATED IT but the premise and execution and what the women were doing, boy oh boy.
I'm gonna shut up and not review this. Check box'd. -
So there's this thing that happens in post-apocalypse stories that I need to talk to you about.
You know how in a zombiepocalypse story we occassionally receive hints that it might be better for the women to stay safe so they can make babies? Usually it's only hints, and the male characters don't seem to want to offend the post-feminist sensibilities of the women, so instead the women tote guns and put their wombs at risk of becoming a zombie-buffet. But everyone gets along-ish, and there are usually plenty of women and men, so it doesn't seem like fertility is the most important concern.
Or you get the big, bad group of fascist men trying to turn some poor girl into a "breeder" for the new human race, but she tends to rise up, spank their patriarchal asses, escape with her girl power intact, and hook up with some nice guy with whom she's fought for survival.
And in the bleakest of apocalypses there's no hope anyway, so who gives a shit about procreation? Everyone's dead or dying, cannibalism is running rampant, society has failed, and humans are doomed to extinction. The best the survivors can do is keep hiking down some road to whatever is further down the road with the world as nothing but the road.
But I've totally fucking had it now that I've read
Y: The Last Man. This book really pisses me off to no end.
I'm fine with the Amazonian self-mutilators (I can buy an angry, post-apocalyptic group of violent women). I am willing to suspend my disbelief that Yorick and his monkey make it through the manpocalypse as the only surviving Y chromosomes. I'll yawn and tolerate the Yankee setting of yet another apocalypse. I'll cringe but cope with yet another bad ass, dreadlocked, African-American woman who's the most capable and violent person around. I'll even believe that spindly little Yorick can pass as a woman as long as he has his gas mask on.
But what I won't believe, what I won't buy, where I won't suspend by disbelief, where I am not fine is with the idea that Yorick would ever, EVER, be allowed to wander around the winter of homo sapienism with one body guard, risking his testicles for some stupid, pointless, selfish, idiotic search for the love of his life and his sister. His sperm, and Ampersand's, would be the most important substances known to womankind (not because he is a man but because of sheer practicality). He would be protected whether he liked it or not. He would be imprisoned. His sperm would be used to impregnate. It would be used to find an immunity for future boys. It would be used for the survival of homo sapiens. Period.
I heard this book was really great -- a must read graphic novel. At best it is okay ... if you look past the idiocy of Yorick's wanderings, his insufferable smarminess, that stupid fucking monkey, and the poorest characterizations of women you're ever likely to see. Why two stars then? Because it isn't quite as bad as the
Luna Brothers'
Girls -- though it is damn close. -
Yorick Brown, AKA 'Y' appears to be the only male left alive on Earth after a 'Y-chromosome carrier killing' plague sweeps the world! Technically there's another male though, Ampersand his pet monkey. As the world hastily tries to reorganise itself Y and Ampersand set out to solve the mystery, and to Y, just as important find his girlfriend, who was in Australia when the plague struck.
Another Brian K. Vaughan masterclass speculative fiction jam, which is a truly innovative and gripping concept that truly hits the ground running. 9 out of 12.
2017 read -
Well, I get why everyone LOOOVES this book but some of it just rubbed me the wrong way. Like I don't understand why the entire world just stops functioning completely. Are there no female engineers or scientists or electricians in the entirety of the world?
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I discovered this series randomly while looking through graphic novels on Hoopla. I had never heard of it before but recognized the author. The premise sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go.
I am glad I did! The story has been great so far! Every page had me interested in finding out what happens next. Also, of all the "apocalyptic" scenarios I have seen, this is the most creative by far.
I am looking forward to volume 2!
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Yorick Brown is that guy who can't hold down a job. Plays with magic..and he is the last man on earth. Something has killed off everything male on the planet. He and his pet monkey are all that's left.
Now gangs of women called the Amazons, a bunch of Republicans and his brainwashed sister Hero are all wanting a piece of Yorick.
Either to kill him or mate him. He just wants to find his fiance in Australia.
This was a fun book. I thought it was going to go very political but quickly became a fun book.
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Notes: Grade and review pending re-read. Collective review for volumes 1-2 can be found here:
Y: The Last Man - The Deluxe Edition Book One.
*The name of this book is Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned, not, as Goodreads insists, "Unmanned." This is due to their myopic policy that a comic book with both a volume number and subtitle shall be listed here only by the subtitle. Every comic book reader with more than a passing interest knows this is fundamentally incorrect. Refer to this book as "Unmanned," and next to no one will have a clue what you're talking about. Those miniscule few, who might, would naturally ask, "Oh, you mean Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1?" -
This book is such a neat concept, but there's 4 things I'm stuck on.
1. it's a book about a world run by women after all the men die, yet it's still told from the POV of a man because conveniently !!!! one survives. I think I would have loved this more if we were given a story of a world with just all women, because heaven knows we could survive without that one man.
2. This book was way, way, way, way more political than I was expecting it to be. The mother of the MC works in Washington so a lot of this concerned the government and what to do once a bunch of the male politicians died, and that was cool for a few pages, but got old really fast? I'm sure this will get more interesting throughout the next books, but it was a bit repetitive.
3. I feel like this just feeds the negative image and stereotype of radical feminists. One main antagonist in this book is a group of women called the Amazons who burn sperm banks and basically celebrate the end of men, which I think is farfetched and a bit inappropriate. Even if some women did this, I don't think they would play as major of a role as they did in this book, and I think this misleading depiction could rub off wrong on readers and make feminism seem more militant than it actually is.
4. One of the first things I thought of when I started this was the topic of trans men and how they would be treated and/or react to this situation. I think it would have been awesome to spotlight a trans man navigating this new world. However, this book handled it so poorly. The one mention of a trans man is to tell the reader that he was murdered by the Amazons because they didn't think any men should continue to live. Additionally, a slur (tr*nny) was used to address this person, AND he was misgendered and called a "she" whenever his death was described.
This book was written/set in 2002, so I anticipate some of those flaws and the political incorrectness may derive from its outdatedness, but I still couldn't get over those few things.
But other than that, I had a great time reading it. The art is nice. It's funny. It's easy to follow, and one of the only graphic novels i've read in a while that I'm eager to find the sequels to immediately. -
"In the summer of 2002, a plague of unknown origin destroyed every last sperm, fetus, and fully developed mammal with a Y chromosome..."
an interesting premise and a solid start... looking forward to the rest of the series...
Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned is about the only man ("The Last Man") to survive a mysterious plague that wipes out every other male of all the species on the planet ("every mammal with a Y chromosome). -
I haven’t read a comic book since I was a child, saving my measly allowance for Archie and his friends. Once I discovered my mother’s Harold Robbins novels, I never went back to comics…until now.
A number of my Goodreads friends enjoy graphic novels (as they are called now), so I became curious and asked my friend
Kemper for a recommendation. Y: The Last Man was perfect for me to start with. I love post-apocalyptic stories and wanted some light, easy reading between school books.
A plague that destroys the world’s male population, except a young man and his monkey. Amazons who want to rid the world of the last vestige of male oppression. A model who disposes of corpses. A mysterious agent who knits. Republicans with guns. Humorous dialogue, great illustrations, fun characters and a fast-paced story made me gobble this up in one sitting.
Looking forward to more! -
The story started out so well: fast-paced, intriguing..I can see it's a dude comic, the main character ends up being the last man left on a planet full of allll kinds of women! No matter what kind of an ugly twat you might wanna be, some woman will want you. Yessss!
I see half-naked blonde, beachy-style woman, some ex-models running around, army women, special op women, scientist women. That's ookayyy with me. It is a dude comic, after all, no?
Then came this:
Yorick (main char): I'm not afraid of the world...I'm fraid of a world without you. I mean it, Beth. I really feel lost when we're apart.
Beth: I know. I've missed you too, Yorick. I was just thinking about the time we were on the roof in the rain...
Yorick: But it's not just that! I mean, of course I miss that, but...You're my best friend, Beth. You're brilliant and funny and your favorite movie is Miller's Crossing. I didn't even know there were women like you.
Later the main char (hereafter referred to as: Twat) says to his mother:
Twat: But I don't want to sit here and be a...a "stud" for however many anonymous women you expect me to inseminate. Not when the girl I love is out there. (He blankly stares through the window)
No, man! NO! Don't do this to me!
So much for the dude-comic. Ok.
So, next we see Twat encounter a woman that seems to be picking up dead bodies and driving them in a garbage truck in order to exchange them for canned food. I won't even go there, but what I wish to point out is the following: remember Jill from Resident Evil 3? I was always pissed that she's fighting infectious zombies half-naked, when her priority is to shield herself from their bites at any cost? I'd armor up! Now, this tschik seems to do the same. She's an ex-super model, trying to lift the male dead bodies (of 80-100kg each) and toss 'em into the garbage truck. There is no way she can do this alone without getting in heavy body contact with half- or nearly rotten dead bodies. Did I mention that it is also nighttime?
Moving on! What appears next seems to be the development of Twat's character, where we see that he's not only a gentle lover, but also momma's boy:
And anyway, what could POSSIBLY be worst than the dreadful terrorists that seem to be aiming straight (and only) at America?!
[pause for more drama]
Okay. Leave that be [I won't even go into the topic where the women in power state how the dead men's Constitution doesn't apply anymore, because it is their constitution and that it's time for something NEW! Fuckyea!].
So, we come to the main problem. It's manpocalypse and the President decides that the last left man on earth (being as they're apparently too late to grab hold of the sperm bank/s) is being sent on a journey with a: "Godspeed to you both and whatever you do...don't fuck this up"
[image error] -
What if all the men, except one young man and his male monkey pet, were wiped out all over the world and nobody knew why exactly? That's the setup for volume one of this series that takes a look at gender issues and progressive science versus a natural order of things. I like that the explanation for the plague is not known and there are several possibilities.
There's a fair amount of mischievous style humor in the first volume. For instance, women commemorate the dead man at an obvious phallic symbol a la The Washington Monument. Extremists women take on the role of the ancient Amazons and tear off one breast and take to believing Mother Earth meant to eradicate the males. Hardcore GOPs may take offense when Republican wives of dead senators show up with guns, arguing they should have a voice in the new government.
The main character, Yorick, is a putz and sometimes clueless but believable enough even though some might argue he is a passive character. The super model turned corpse collector who just got her implants is an obvious jab at how the fashion industry and of course female looks are intertwined with male desires. Overall, I'd say this is a very good start but if you're the nitpicking type you may not enjoy it as much because everything hasn't been explained.
A good starting read, by the way, for people new to comics/graphic novels.
The series has received 5 prestigious Eisner Awards. Hollywood has been trying to make this into a movie since 2007. Some say this series saved Vertigo Comics from financial problems.
CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: B plus; STORY/PLOTTING: B plus to A minus; ARTWORK: B plus; THEMES: B to B plus; WHEN READ: early January 2012; OVERALL GRADE: B plus. -
Y: The Last Man has a great premise -- all males (of every species) suddenly die -- except one. The story focuses on the lone male survivor and is an unraveling of why / how he survived the mysterious scourge.
It helps that the last man standing is humorous and likable like so many of Brian K. Vaughan's characters. Also that he has this noble desire to make it to the other side of the world to reunite with his girlfriend (and repopulate the world). The story is essentially about all the things getting in his way.
I wish this installment had a little more of a closing to it, but either way, I still want to read more. -
Ask a comic-book geek what the greatest graphic novel of all time was, and at least 9 out of 10 will tell you it's "Watchmen". And there's no denying Watchmen deserves the accolades it gets, as it quite effectively reinvented the graphic novel genre. However, if you asked THIS comic-book geek what the greatest graphic novel of all time was, and I would instantly tell you it's "Y The Last Man"!
The book starts out with an intriguing premise...a mysterious plague instantly kills off every man on the planet...except for one young man named Yorick Brown. Now, as all the women around the world start to rebuild a society without any men, Yorick goes on a quest to try to learn exactly why he survived the plague. A tale of such epic proportions would have been too much for many writers, but Brian K. Vaughan not only takes the story to its fullest potential, he manages to somehow exceed even that! And the rich, detailed artwork by Pia Guerra is exactly the icing this cake needs.
There are so many layers to this story, it's impossible to really touch on everything in one review. Yorick is a fascinating and likeable protagonist. and his quest to learn the truth about himself and the plague is very exciting, but that's really just one out of many elements that makes this such a fun read. Oftentimes, the ladies who were left behind after all the men died are the ones who steal the show. Brian K. Vaughan works in social commentary on many different issues, including sexism, partisan politics, xenophobia, religion and fanaticism. A lesser writer would have come off as preachy, but Vaughan makes everything flow so naturally that you never feel like you're being lectured. Rather than making his point through ham-fisted techniques, Vaughan simply gives you a cerebral, thought-provoking story and trusts that you'll be able to read all the subtext yourself.
Another thing that is so amazing about this story is how real it feels. Sure, a plague killing off all the men and none of the women is pretty over-the-top, but the characters themselves are so deep and fleshed-out, they make the story feel completely genuine. As the women cope with losing all the men in their lives, there are a lot of emotions that play out...enough that I had tears in my eyes more than once while reading the series! This is no cheesy popcorn movie that focuses solely on the action, we watch the characters as they fall in love, lose loved ones, become consumed with rage, and struggle to survive. And every bit of emotion that the characters feel is presented so strongly, the reader feels them as well.
Anyone who thinks comic books are immature has never read this powerful, Shakespearean story. I highly recommend you read this first volume of one of the greatest stories ever told. No matter what your literary preference is, I guarantee this book has something in it you'll love! -
Wow! I knew this was going to be good, but I'm actually blown away. I need Volume 2!!
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If you are a woman,
You might have to sleep with me
Since I'm the Last Man on Earth
And there ain't nothing wrong with me
Loudon Wainwright III
Meet Yorick, an unemployed English major with moderate-to-poor computer skills. He lives on ramen noodles. And, oh yeah, his hobby is magic.
You probably wouldn't sleep with him if he was the...well, nevermind.
There he is, ladies - The Last Man on Earth.
The dating pool has just gotten a little smaller thanks to a mysterious plague that has wiped out all males, cute puppies and kittens included, on the planet. All except for the above mentioned guy and the male helper monkey he's fostering.
Yeah. It takes a little getting used to...
So what are the gals up to? Surprisingly, they're not laying in a supply of batteries, or rejoicing in that toilet seat thing being forever solved...like I would be. No. Everyone seems to have an agenda, and there are a lot of kick-ass broads out there. So much for Peace on Earth with the women in charge. There are power struggles aplenty.
This volume does a great job of setting up the series. I liked the old-fashioned comic book look of it, and the attention to detail.
Alas, as poor Yorick and his bodyguard, Agent 355 (she really needs a nickname), set out to find the cause of the plague and a possible cure, we're left with many questions that HAD BETTER be answered in the next volumes, not the least of which is, will Yorick be able to remain faithful to his sweetie when he kind of needs to repopulate the human race?
I know a good man is hard to find, but this is ridiculous. -
so - while i realize that the premise of this book is supposed to be stunning in overturning the stereotypical assumption that women without men will create a feminist/lesbian utopia, a la Herland, by proposing that left to their own devices, women would act like a bunch of goomba guys, arm themselves and create civil war, strife, and general mayhem, can any of us really image a scenario in which large groups of women, left without men for extended periods of time, would NOT 1) hug a lot 2) lick each others pussies 3) feel weird but talk it out and 4) begin building some sort of egalitarian communal society from the ruins, which, despite its passive-aggressive penal code and lack of vertical monuments, would still probably feed, clothe and manage the resources of the planet less recklessly than anything ever devised by men?
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In the summer of 2002, an unknown "plague" destroys every mammal with a Y chromosome, killing every male man and animal on Earth and thus eliminating 48% of the global population, or approximately 2.9 billion men. Man, the population of the Earth was small back then. Today, that would be 3.79 billion men, not even 20 years later. Yep, this is one seriously overpopulated planet.
In the aftermath of this "plague", one man, Yorick, and his male monkey Ampersand, who he has been hopelessly trying to train as a helper monkey, have both somehow survived, and now, with a cast of characters that includes the mysterious and secretive federal agent known as Agent 355 and Dr. Mann, a scientist who may hold the key to figuring out why Yorick and Ampersand were the only male survivors, the band of main characters trudge their way through a man-less apocalypse in search of answers.
I actually liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. It's definitely dated, using insulting language at times and portraying every woman as one with a supermodel figure, things like that, but generally the story is funny and thought-provoking, and the bumbling Yorick and troublemaking Ampersand grew on me as the story progressed. I can't say I'm terribly invested in them, and I'd be sadder if Ampersand died than the main protagonist Yorick, because Yorick is kind of an insensitive moron, but I'm interested in reading the next installment to see where things go from here.
On the negative side, there are the dated aspects I mentioned, but I also took issue with some of the details of the story. It's mentioned that it's about two months since the male extinction at the time most of the story in this book takes place, and so why are there already crazy bands of women known as "amazons", each having removed one breast to match their historical equals from Greek mythology, who are totally insane and bent on the destruction of men? Wouldn't it take a lot longer than two months for so many women to go insane and form such a large, murderous cult?
Another thing I didn't like were some of the possible suggestions put forward by the book to answer the two most important questions raised by the entire series:
1. Why did all the men die in the first place? A really lame suggestion is put forth by Dr. Mann that she caused this extinction-level event, by a personal choice she made that could never, ever affect anything other than her own fate, in reality
2. Why did only Yorick and Ampersand survive? Another bizarre and lame theory is put forth by Yorick that this is because of a ring he bought at a magic shop and carries around his neck? Somehow that "protected" him and, presumably because he's in his vicinity, Ampersand as well?
I really hope these are not the real answers to these questions, because that would be ridiculous and would imply that in a world otherwise completely grounded in reality, as the world of this story seems to be, that there is "magic" going on and this is really a closet fantasy series. That would be incredibly unfortunate, and if the above explanations for such important questions are realized as truths in later volumes, I will actually go back into GR and give every book I've read in this series one star.
Another thing I didn't like involved a detail of the male extinction. It happens for all males, man and animal, worldwide, at exactly the same time. How could that possibly happen? It seems like a real stretch of logic. And with the amazons, why are they trying to go after and kill Yorick? Don't they realize, as a female-obsessed group, that without him they will be the last group of women ever to walk the Earth, and that civilization as we know it would end? It seems really idiotic of them to try to kill him, given that simple fact. You'd think they would swallow their pride and leave him alone, for the greater good of humanity...but I guess it's better to be the last women on Earth than to ever have men walk the Earth again? Anyway...that logic makes no sense to me.
As far as Y: The Last Man goes, for now, I'm enjoying the ride, and Ampersand is pretty cute (I have a soft spot for small, furry animals), so I'm looking forward to the next entry in the series to see where things go and what truths are revealed, though for the reasons I stated above, it's a journey I'm looking forward to cautiously, and with tempered expectations.
Recommended! -
Stephen King says, “The best graphic novel I’ve ever read.” But do we know how many Mr. King has read?
It is certainly a very well-drawn book thanks to Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan, Jr. It has an inventive plot involving the collapse and death of every mammal with a “Y” chromosome with the possible exception of Yorick Brown, escape artist, and his monkey companion, Ampersand.
The story moves at a fast pace, even with its complex plot. The brutality of this brave, new world is sporadically relieved by humor that ranges from black to slapstick. Here is one example:
“Aw, I love your monkey! He’s sweet!”
“Yeah, well, so‘s the smell of burning flesh. Doesn’t mean it’s good.”
It is clear why King has put his stamp of approval on this. It tracks many of his themes starting with his iconic, The Stand. Don’t misunderstand me – this is a fresh book with a complex plot built from the premise up. We get some of Vaughan’s well-considered speculation on what the USA/world might be like without men. Further, we are led deep into the competing goals of the remaining humans and how many aspects of government, industry, life, etc., might not be functioning as intended. For example, I am looking forward to seeing how Vaughan decides to handle the growing lack of animal protein in the diet since all mammals face the same issue of no males to procreate. No eggs, no milk or other dairy products will be found after a short while. The devil might be in such details.
This is book one in a series of five. It’s easy to get on this train; I’m hoping the ride remains this interesting. 4.5* -
Solid start to a series. Last man, one male monkey, and a whole world of women.
Fortunately, he's not much of a dick. Good with cracking locks and cracking jokes. I think he's going to leave the cracking of heads to his friends. :)
What is UP with those Amazons? Such a shame that people are people no matter what the sex. ; ; -
I really... hated this. The gender essentialism and transphobia in this was pretty yucky. Besides, if women were suddenly in charge of everything, the last person I would want to be reading about is the lone straight dude trying to get to Australia to bang his girlfriend.
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I've read so much here and elsewhere about how brilliant this series is, and from the two books I've read, I'm afraid I can't agree. The concept (plague instantaneously kills all Y-chromosome mammals -- except a guy named Yorick and his pet capuchin monkey -- around the globe without warning) has tremendous promise. However, the execution in the two books I read (this one and Vol. 13) was pedestrian. Characterization, plot, and art were all two-dimensional. (By contrast, Judge Parker has more nuance in the latter category.)
By way of example, here's a bit of dialogue (all characters have the same or similar wise-cracking persona) from pp. 74-75 of this graphic novel [panels cut back and forth among disputants, mostly mid-shot seen from the POV of someone relatively tall]:
"Who the hell are you?"
"...I'm the President of the United States. And I say drop the goddamn weapons." ...
"Secretary Valentine, we... we thought you were dead."
"Don't listen to them, Margaret! The Democrats just shot Bill Woodring's wife!"
"After you murdered an innocent secret service agent!"
"You don't understand, we... we didn't have a choice. They've seized control of the White House." ...
"Madam President, Congress has only been doing exactly what the Founding Fathers intended."
"The Founding Fathers are dead! All of the men are dead! Their Constitution doesn't apply anymore!"
[C-U PRESIDENT'S FACE listening:] "It's time for something new."
In this universe, the ladies appear inclined to shoot first and ask questions later. Anarchy, violence, and hysteria reign. Each scene is a mini-melodrama. This is not an Alan Moore book (contrast "From Hell," which was about Jack the Ripper, and had both less page-to-page violence and substantially more nuance).
That said, this first book of the series really exists solely to accomplish 3 tasks: introduce the premise, the principal characters, and establish the quest-like framework for the story (here's this wicked world, now try getting cross-country). The first two are accomplished with the first 34 pages (the initiating comic in this compilation). The last waits on the penultimate page of the graphic novel.
There are a few artistic grace notes here, such as the birds-eye view of an urban Y-intersection on the last page after the leads have determined that they will have to hike from Boston to California (no, no city yet named), but for the most part, sophisticated readers seeking other than lightly-buttered popcorn will be disappointed. It should be interesting to see how the film version of this book stacks up against "Children of Men." I'm sure buzz will be high when it gets released, but personally, I'd wait on raves before plunking down my ten bucks. -
A sort of reversal of the film 'Children of Men', Y the Last Man is sometimes difficult to take seriously. The storytelling itself is not bad, though it sometimes falls into the faults of Lost, with endless, predictable hardship. It is an interesting concept, and Vaughan at least connects himself tangentially to the literary tradition, but these connections are often too flimsy or too coincidental in construction.
The worst crime of all may be that one keeps feeling that Yorick is standing in as an author surrogate; he is the last man on Earth, after all. Of course, anyone writing this story would have to come up against this challenge, but by not really addressing the character's sexual conflict, or his motivations in general, it can begin to feel like an escapist harem romp.
My Suggested Readings in Comics -
This is the first graphic novel I've read, so far. Because after this one..I'm hooked! Yorick is a young guy, wondering where is his place on this planet. He can't find a job, he loves magic and his girlfriend, Beth. She travelled to Australia, to be all smart and to gain some experiences in anthropology, so now Yorick is all alone, feeling like a loser, because he's not doing anything remotely as important as she and the rest of his friends do. He doesn't even want to go out of his apartment anymore. And just as he wants to ask Beth something important, everything changes. Something crazy happens, I won't write too much about it, so I don't ruin your joy of reading it (but you probably know already). It's a funny story and it kept me interested. It's a mixture of feminists, jokes about republicans, some overused jokes, hey, there's even a Macgyver joke in it! I missed these, since Chuck Norris is so popular to make fun of these days. I can't wait to finish reading other comics of this series.
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Good evening and welcome to another episode of Fem Lit! I’m you’re host Monica Geller, please join with me in welcoming tonight’s panel of distinguished guests. A woman who needs no introduction, an early champion of empowerment, Hester Prynne. Also joining us tonight, from Hertfordshire England, Elizabeth Bennet. Finally, please welcome – um, (looks at cards) Fred Garvin?
Fred: Thanks, Monica, always glad to be here.
Monica: Uh, ok, well. Um, let’s get started, tonight, ladies – and Fred – we’re having some fun with the 2011 Vertigo graphic novel “Unmanned” which collects the first six issues of the Y: The Last Man comics, by writer Brian K. Vaughn and a team of talented artists featuring Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr.
Elizabeth: I loved it! The art was amazing and Vaughn’s story, where a strange plague has killed all males, even animals, in the world was fantastic and provocative!
Hester: I’m always amazed at the level of technology we have nowadays, far afield from the 1600s.
Monica: Thanks, I agree, but I think the real significance here is that this story works as an allegory for a feminist struggle, and by demonstrating a world suddenly without men, the creators of this illustrated story explore and highlight the strengths and needs of women.
Fred: Hahahhaha, well, ladies, I think you’re forgetting the most important aspect of this graphic novel, that there is a last man on earth. And I think we all know where this is all headed.
[All look at Fred]
Monica: I’m afraid to ask a male prostitute, but where is this all headed, Fred?
Fred: The real protagonist here, Yorick, and I think that’s a nod to our pal Will Shakespeare, is the last man on the planet and will need to begin repopulating our Mother Earth.
[All look at Fred]
Elizabeth: I see some things have not changed.
Monica: Fred! That’s NOT what this is about! That’s an inside joke that the writer’s use as a comic relief after the devastation to the society, but what this IS about is women who have the courage and fortitude, and strength, and and and, power, to continue on with living and making this new world a better place!
Fred: If you say so, but I think we all know there is some business to be taken care of, am I right?
Hester; Mr. Garvin –
Fred: Fred, please. Fred Garvin, male prostitute.
Hester: Fine, Fred, what I see here is a gritty, violent world where women are forced to fend for themselves, and the creators of this wonderful story highlight the women who have survived. Yorick was a dead court jester from Hamlet, so by using this name and this reference to Shakespeare, Vaughn has used subtle humor to reveal this last man’s real importance and that is one of mocking jest.
Fred: He’s the last man, time to make some babies.
Elizabeth: Fred! Are you really so impertinent to not see that this is a METAPHOR! This is an exploration of a theme using artistic hyperbole.
Fred: I don’t know about a metaphor, but I do know what a bed is for! Am I right, ladies?
Monica: OK, that’s all the time I have, thanks for joining us for another … interesting episode of Fem Lit!
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This book is exactly what the title promises: A plague of some sort kills every mammal on earth with a Y chromosome, except, with no obvious reason for the exception, Yorick Brown and his capuchin monkey, Ampersand.
Chaos ensues as women (and transmen) have to take over running the world. This isn't presented as sexist oh-see-women-can't-handle-it, but as a warning parable about the unhealthy imbalance when entire fields are dominated by one gender.
It's a bit more violent than I would like, but it's Vertigo, so I knew what I was getting into. I don't entirely agree with the reactions and directions of the women in the book, but it's someone else's story, and I'm curious to see where he'll take it.
My biggest quibble with the story is that no way would Yorick have been given a monkey to train for disabled people when he has (a) no experience training animals, and (b) also no clue about what the eventual recipient of Ampersand might need. Also, weeks after the economy has fallen apart and production and trade of goods has come to a virtual halt, everyone in this book has great hair.
I'll definitely be continuing on for at least a few more volumes. -
Ok, so overall I thought this was very intriguing, and I definitely care enough about the story to want to read the next volume. However, I did have a few weird issues with some of the content and depiction of certain characters. Also, because this came out in 2002, there are some aspects of it that I find, for lack of a better term, politically incorrect, such as using the word 'retarded' as something negative. The characters are a bit one-note so far, but it is only the first issue. From what I've heard of this series, I have a lot of hope. And I am excited to see why things happened and get more backstory.
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This comic book series has received rave reviews for its rather satirical premise concerning the idea of the extinction of all mammals with the Y chromosome, and how the female population supposedly tries to deal with this global crisis. I've been intrigued by this series for four years now, but put off reading it even after I bought an actual copy about three years ago. It's a Vertigo title which immediately guarantees it's promising. Finally, I got to read the first volume Unmanned which collected the first five issues of the series, and as much as I wasn't completely invested yet in the story and characters, I have to agree that it's an interesting beginning.
Y: The Last Man was published in 2002 with ten volume all in all, and its official run ended by 2008. It had received and won nominations from Eisner Awards thrice. That being said, this first volume is not something I would personally consider an instant masterpiece which was okay. Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes wasn't so hot either at least until The Sound of Her Wings closing issue, but that series eventually did become one as the story went on. To compare it with the other graphic novels I reviewed since last month, it's still a good entry but not something as magnificently appealing like SAGA or Sex Criminals had proven to be, whose first volumes were immediately so stellar and engrossing.
I could even liken Y: The Last Man to Joe Hill's debut volume for Locke and Key which had all the proper elements of supernatural horror and drama and has definitely more potentials to sprout from. However, Y: The Last Man in its first volume Unmanned is off to a slow start with the build-up quite scattered among many placed and with different characters that hopefully will form a more cohesive ensemble once the plot progression settles in a more desirable and suspenseful pace. Hey, at least it wasn't The Wicked and Divine, a series I had so much hopes for but sorely let down in the end that I won't even bother posting a review about it. I also didn't bother picking up the second volume anymore because UGH.
But I digress. Illustrated by Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr., penciler and inker respectively, Y the Las Man was visually efficient enough to convey the dystopic landscape of a man-less existence where women are clamoring for survival, power and politics. The tone of the narrative definitely portrays a satirical approach which calls into question and discussion the topics of female empowerment and the radical extremists who pursue a more vicious goal to assert it. Since all the male mammals including humans got wiped out, these feminazis are inclined to believe that nature has taken its course and now it's time to go Amazonian in such a ridiculously chauvinistic way that DC's counterpart of the real Amazons where Wonder Woman hails from would be ashamed to be associated with these women.
I can't help but be reminded of that last season of Veronica Mars about said feminazis becoming the villains of that supposedly empowering show. No wonder it got pulled after that season because it was extremely negative in its portrayal of feminist activists. Y: The Last Man, I feel, has a real possibility of crossing that line, but seeing as this was only the first volume and that it did last for ten more, I think I'll assume that the writer and editors of Vertigo found a balance and compromise in how they handled the feminist side of thing for this story. Here are some of the notable pages about it:
The ongoing discourse about how feminists values and other pro-women movements have been portrayed for Y: The Last Man certainly invites critical arguments from everyone who has their own opinions about it, whether affirmative or cynical. I'd rather stay away from that and simply review and appreciate this as a work of fiction, no matter how politically heated it tends to become in the later issues. Protagonist Yorick and his monkey companion Amerstad are the only male left in the world (or at least as far as we know). Yorick's mother is a congresswoman who wanted him to take his role as mankind's last chance for procreation more seriously, but Yorick is more concerned to getting back to his girlfriend he had just proposed to over a long-distance phone call to Australia before all this extinction shit went down. It's contextually hilarious but also grim.
As far as first impressions go, I am lukewarm towards Yorick. I don't find him that interesting but he is the central character in an interesting situation. I certainly hope to get to know the other female characters who show a more promising depth but whose names I can't tell you on the spot because of how little time this volume spends presenting them and how thinly the entire storyline is spread across the five issues so far. I do hope I warm up to Yorick especially even if he's such a narrow-minded fool who is more concerned about seeing his girlfriend than discover why the hell has he survived the extinction? I'd be more excited to find that out if I was Yorick, but hey, that's only because I would rather solve a good mystery over any kind of romantic ties I may have.
Get the fuck out of here, you hopeless sap!
In a nutshell, Y: The Last Man shows promise. It has a puzzle that readers can solve and watch develop across its ten-volumed span, and the feminist angle is certainly worth the merit mentioning as well, but it's not the first graphic novel I will be picking up anytime soon once I finished my scheduled GNs for this year. That place still belongs to SAGA, I'm afraid.
RECOMMENDED: 7/10
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I first read this series as it was coming out in that quasi-mythical time before Goodreads. I recently scored the ten volumes for $5 apiece on shopgoodwill so I figured it was time for a re-read. I gather there was a streaming series that has already been cancelled. Anyway...
The core concept of the series is that every male lifeform on the planet is wiped out by means unknown except for Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand. Yorick's maybe fiancée Beth is on the other side of the world in Australia.
Pia Guerra's art isn't flashy but gets the job done. Saying it like that makes it sound like I don't like it. I do like it but there's nothing eye catching about it.
Brian K. Vaughan's writing is punchy. It's humorous at times but never descends to the level of so many quips that I want to slap the shit out of the characters. Yorick is capable but not nearly as capable as he thinks he is. Good thing Agent 355 is around to pull his ass out of the fire a couple times per issue.
I don't think I've spoiled much about this 20 year old comic. I will say that now that I'm 20 years older, I think Yorick is kind of a dumb ass for wanting to get to Australia in a world that is halfway down the crapper. Yeah, yeah, true love, blah blah blah, whatever. I also appreciate him getting into the damsel in distress role more than I did back in the day. Since I've forgotten the source of why all the men died and most of the wrinkles of the plot in the last 15 or so years, it's like an all new book.
This volume is one loaded baked potato. We'll see if the rest of the books have a pace like this. I remember it being more decompressed than this but who the hell knows after fifteen years.
Four out of five stars.
