Today is Tuesday and of course, just like last Tuesday and the Tuesday before that, and so on and so forth, it’s time for a brand new Trade Tuesday! This thing comes out like clockwork! So, what book am I going to share with all of you wonderful people this week? How does Y: The Last Man Volume 1: Unmanned sound? This is one of those series that people have been telling me for years that I need to read. Is this comic book worth all the hype? Let’s find out.
As the title would suggest Y: The Last Man is a story about the last man on Earth. Yorick, despite the unusual name, is a pretty average guy. He’s a recent college graduate, a bit of a flake, has a girlfriend named Beth that he’s very much in love with, and is in need of a proper job. While he graduated with an English degree, he has a fondness for magic and escape tricks. He’s not bad at it either.
Then one day, while he’s on the phone with Beth, who’s in Australia, he decides to pop the question. Before she can answer, everything suddenly goes to Hell. Every man and animal with a Y chromosome suddenly gets horribly ill and immediately dies. It’s pretty nasty too, blood is coming out of everyone’s eyes and ears, and then they just fall over dead. The only two males left alive are Yorick and a monkey he had in his apartment that he had volunteered to take care of named, Ampersand.
Several months later, Yorick has made his way to Washington DC and finds his mother who’s been living in the White House since she’s one of the few remaining politicians alive. When he finds his mother he also meets a young woman and secret agent who only goes by Agent 355. The new President of the United States decides to assign Agent 355 as Yorick’s bodyguard and decides to send them to find a research scientist, Doctor Allison Mann, who is the top scientist in cloning. The plan is that Dr. Mann may be able to use Yorick to find a way to repopulate the human race.
What I like about this book is that you always hear people say that if women ruled the Earth, there wouldn’t be any sort of war or violence and this book completely goes against that. So, you have Yorick slowly making his way through the world and he wears this gasmask so that nobody realizes he’s a man. Every time he reveals himself to be a male he ends up either being kidnapped or almost getting killed. Also, with half the world’s population suddenly dying out for an unknown reason, everything goes to Hell. No electricity, barely any food, and almost no government. Okay, the last part doesn’t sound so bad. It’s cool to see a story that shows how horribly people will react in order to survive.
I think that Brian K. Vaughan has taken an idea that’s come across most people’s minds at some point or another and turned it into a pretty interesting story. This first volume has gotten me interested in this story, but I’m not completely sold on it. So far, I find Yorick a little too annoying as a main character. He’s also kind of dumb, maybe that’s supposed to be the charm of the character. I think I’m going to have to check out a little more of the series before I make up my mind about it. And you can do the same by going to your local comic shop, or why not just go over to Amazon and pick up a copy for yourself.
Ken Zeider
Ken@ComicImpact.com