Y: The Last Man: The Deluxe Edition, Book 5

Having read all five deluxe volumes within ten days, I'm reviewing this as a complete graphic novel. The plot is simple: an unknown cause killed all the males of Earth at the same moment, except for Yorrick and the capuchin monkey he's training as a service animal, named Ampersand. While the story is told mostly from Yorrick's pov, we also get the perspective of others, female characters with a reason to be interested in Yorrick, many of whom are in a position of power, including his mother, a cabinet member of the US government. All Yorrick wants is to reunite with his girlfriend who has been studying archeology in Australia. An immature young man at the story's start, Yorrick matures over the course of the story while retaining his show more irritating charm.

Reading this soon after reading Lauren Beukes' Afterland, which deals with the slow deaths of most males due to an unknown virus, I can't help comparing the two. Afterland is focused on a mother trying to protect her adolescent son by disguising him as a girl, is a small story in the midst of a devastating pandemic, that of a mother protecting her child from outside forces and a coming-of-age story for that child. It was good, but left me wanting more. In Y: The Last Man, Vaughan gives us more. The story is simple at its heart, yet complex in the telling, with a global scope that includes Australian pirate ships, Japanese scientists, Israeli spies, and a whole lot more. And unlike Afterland, we get answers regarding what killed the males and why.

And then there's the lovely art by Pia Guerra.

Y: The Last Man is a thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking read. show less

This review is for the entire run of Y: The Last Man, not any single installment.

In an instant all the men, in fact every mammal with a Y chromosome, all around the world are wiped out. Except for one man and his monkey (and yes, the inevitable Beatles joke does eventually get made). That man, Yorick Brown, and his helper capuchin in training, Ampersand, are taken under the protection of a spy/assassin member of a secret organization answerable only to the President of the USA and sent to meet an expert in (human) cloning to try and discover why Yorick survived and how to continue the human species. And incidentally for Yorick to re-unite with his fiancée, last known to be in Australia.

Of course most of the story is about the troubles show more of being the only remaining man alive in a world that just lost half its population while trying to travel from New York to Boston to California and eventually most of the rest of the world. How would women react? What sorts of communities would they re-build? The short answer is well and badly, communities of hate and communities of inclusion, all with very recognizable human motivations. There are neo-amazons who set out to destroy any vestige of maleness in the world. There are the ex-cons that were let out of prison (what if the female guards hadn't freed them?) who form a community based around shared pasts and a belief in reform, responsibility and independence. Fanatic nationalists, drug smugglers, post-male feminist activist acting troupes.

Throughout the entire run a variety of possible causes ranging from disease, to curses, to divine retribution, to gaia/evolution re-setting a balance are proposed. The thing they all have in common, aside from never being definitively set as "the" cause, is that every single one of them revolves around the incredible hubris that the actions of a single person caused this to happen. Right along side the obvious parallel of the hubris that a single man could "save" the entire human species.

The story is well told, beautifully illustrated, and plays with a whole range of human emotions and motivations in a fairly believable fashion. If it skims past a lot of the practical details and problems, it at least acknowledges them in passing. My biggest problem is that while any given installment contains some time references like "New York, 10 minutes ago" and "Washington D.C., now" the actual timeline of the entire series of chapters (issues? installments?) is not clearly laid out. And it doesn't help that two chapters might take place in immediate succession, or weeks or months apart. That probably worked fine for anyone reading each installment as it came out each month but if you're reading them in collected and straight through it becomes slightly annoying and distracting. show less

This is the 5th, and last, collected volume of one of the greatest illustrated series ever written "Y the Last Man," and I can't imagine a better ending. We rejoin Yorick, Agent 355, Ampersand, and Dr. Mann as they continue their quest to find Yorick's missing girlfriend and discover a way to preserve the human race. And along the way old friends rejoin the group as the final truth is revealed. Our characters have grown as we've traveled around the world with them and now we discover secrets to their past that have direct bearing on the present condition the world finds itself in. And the mysterious ninja that's been trailing the team? We find out who she is and who she works for. And Yorick may not be the last man left alive after show more all.

I really want to say more, but I don't want to spoil the ending because I'm not sure its one that anyone would have predicted. And its powerful. Just like in all good stories we have to say goodbye to some of the characters we've grown to know and love. The writing is at its absolute best in the series and Brian doesn't disappoint. He keeps us on the edge of seats constantly turning the page to find out what happens next. And in some places you can't help but be moved as he stirs powerful emotions as we witness what happens to our favorite characters. And Pia's artwork is as fantastic as it was in the beginning. Its a great last volume and an exciting epic conclusion to one of the most powerful stories ever told. show less

The series tried my patience and is dated, but the conclusion made the journey worth it.

Allison's father captures Yorick and crew, revealing himself as the cause of the gendercidal plague (although this still doesn't make sense to me). The team separates, with 355 and Yorick heading to Paris to find Yorick's fiancee, Beth. 355 says her goodbyes to Yorick and leaves him at the Arch de Triomphe, seconds before Beth shows up at long last. Yorick and Beth reconnect, but Yorick realizes at last that there is another he loves, who has walked beside him these past four years. He finds 355 and they talk of many things, and themselves, but Yorick faces a final loss and must fight Alter, who has finally found him. The last half of the book is an epilogue that jumps around, but mainly recapitulates the next 60 years. The epilogue show more took a re-read or so to process, but it is moving, original, and an apt finish to what has been a very rewarding serial graphic novel. show less

This last installment in the series wraps up the various storylines, we may or may not find out where the plague came from (or do we already know?), and we find out how Yorick does in the years following the plague and how the world goes on it its aftermath. I was a bit wary of this since I have read something else by the author that I didn't care for at all, but with recommendations coming at me from all directions, I thought I should at least give one a try and I wasn't disappointed at all. There is, of course, a multitude of things to be said about an all-women society depicted by a male author, but I'm going to leave that to those more interested in gender issues than me. The dystopian angle is what I really liked, particularly the show more issues of day-to-day living. There are a couple of things that irked me slightly, but it's absolutely a series that's worth reading. The "Deluxe" versions of these books include two of the collected volumes as well as the script for one of the issues. show less

Can I consider myself a real man when imaginary characters in a comic book make me cry? This series got better with every volume and it comes as no surprise when the characters grow on you and it's also predictable that it'll be sad to let them go in the end. But this ending? I was not prepared for this.
Good writing. Good art. Fantastic comic.