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A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS In 2002, the world changes forever. Every man, every boy, every mammal with a Y chromosome everywhere on Earth suddenly collapses and dies. With the loss of nearly half the planet's population, the gears of society grind to a halt, and a world of women is left to pick up the pieces and try to keep civilization from collapsing entirely. The "gendercide," however, is not absolutely complete. For some unknown reason, one young man named Yorick Brown and his pet male monkey, Ampersand, are spared. Overnight, this anonymous twenty-something becomes the most important person on the planet - the key, it is hoped, to unlocking the secret of the mysterious sex-specific plague. For Yorick himself, the cause of the epidemic is less important than the fate of his beloved fiancée, Beth. Now, after nearly four years and countless grueling miles, the final answers are about to be revealed-and the truth may be more than any man could bear. In the conclusion to their acclaimed VERTIGO series Y: THE LAST MAN, writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Pia Guerra bring to vivid life the age-old speculation: What would really happen to the last man on Eart… (more)
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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.
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,
Of course most of the story is about the troubles 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.
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.