Y: The Last Man is a 10-volume graphic novel collection about what would happen if an unexplained plague wiped out every male on earth, animals and human alike, in a heartbeat. The premise of this story is that two males were inexplicably spared: a young man named Yorick Brown, amateur escape artist and generally something of a loser, and a capuchin monkey. The primary plotline is concerned with how to keep Yorick alive long enough to figure out just why he survived and whether that information can be used to help repopulate the earth, all while Yorick tries to find his girlfriend and would-be fiance, who was on a sabbatical in the Australian Outback when the disaster struck.
In the process, Yorick and the people who help him encounter crazed "Amazons," who believe it is their duty to remove the last vestige of the male of the species from the planet, an out-of-control Israeli Defense Forces commander who wants Yorick for her own purposes, Yorick's mother, a Representative and one of the few members of the U.S. government left alive, Yorick's sister (with a few plot twists I won't reveal), and various others, some who try to aid him, many of whom try to kill him.
The science in this set of graphic novels frankly doesn't make much sense, so you have to turn your brain off, much as you have to do when you read Superman. Some of the depictions of life without men make sense; some less so. There are plot twists galore and *everyone* has secrets, some of which aren't revealed until the final volume.
I found the artwork in this series to be adequate but uninspiring. It reminded me a little of the old Curt Swan Superman and Legion of Super Heroes days. It's clean and uncluttered but this isn't artwork that's going to blow you away or that you'll want to show off to your friends. The real attraction to this series is the writing. To a certain extent, I think that's appropriate, as this doesn't have the grandeur and the scope of, say, the latest Avengers or Justice League space battle.
Book 6 of the series starts off with Yorick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann aboard a ship heading for Japan, where they believe Ampersand (Yorick's monkey and the only other male survivor of the plague) and his captor are headed. 355 and the doctor hire on to the ship but they smuggle Yorick aboard as cargo. Unfortunately, they are discovered; fortunately, the captain is sympathetic and agrees to let Yorick stay in her cabin. In the meantime, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann discover they have more in common than they thought (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
All is not well on board the Whale, though, as a mysterious eye-patched woman takes over the radio room and sends a message to what we find out is an Australian submarine. Before we can find out the consequences of that radio message, a seasick Yorick throws open the door of Dr. Mann's cabin, seeking a seasickness remedy. What he finds instead is a bit more than he bargained for.
After a case of mistaken identity and some action sequences, the woman with the eypatch is captured and placed in the brig. Dr. Mann sneaks in to talk to her, only to find out that things aren't quite what they seem. I won't spoil matters; suffice to say that it's not quite clear anymore just who the good guys really are.
In the meantime, Yorick is finding the captain to be very ... amenable. Sadly, before anything can come of it, the attacking submarine shows up. Both the sub and the ship have surprises up their sleeves and the battle is fierce, both on the ship and in the water. In the aftermath, our protagonists end up on the submarine, where we find out that the eyepatched woman is named Rose and that she has a thing for Dr. Mann.
With that news, we break away to Israel, where the rogue Israeli Defense Forces general is on trial by a military judge, who renders a guilty verdict. Unfortunately for the judge, the general has other ideas, and the means to carry them out. In another abrupt transition, we next look in on Yorick's girlfriend, Beth, in the Australian Outback. She's been drugged by a native Shaman and sent on a series of walkabouts - flashbacks and visions.
In reading this over, I realize that I'm skipping over a lot. There just isn't any easy way to summarize the changes the characters go through and how they interact with one another. The issue is about evenly split between the action sequences and the quieter moments. The writing remains consistent throughout and Vaughan still keeps us intrigued by where he's going with this and how he'll pull all of these pieces together in the end game.
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tracey ollier
argh! need to know what happens
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2013