Read All the Comics!: Y The Last Man

Y: The Last Man 1-60

I blew through the entire run in two days. I own issues 1-20, 26-33, and 36. Borrowed the rest. There’s been an uncommon number of these series in my Vertigo collection - titles that I stopped buying after a while, but still want to know to know the endings for. DMZ, Unwritten, and Unfollow all fall into the same category. They’re all stories that are interesting enough to read once, but not to keep around for reread purposes. Libraries are so useful. I’ll get around to DMZ and Unwritten, but Unfollow and Y have justified my decision to halt my buying when I did.

I have lots of thoughts about Y. Braindumping commences now:

The four titles that I mentioned above share two things in common: strong elevator pitches and unsympathetic protagonists. The first gets me to buy it for a while and the second induces me to stop. Yorick is such an unlikable character. I’m all for making your lead a flawed character, that’s what keeps them from being boring. (Except for Rey in Star Wars. She’s perfect and I’m totally fine with her staying that way.)

Keep kicking all the ass in the galaxy. Fuck the haters.

Back to Yorick. Here are the notes I took while reading:

“What an idiot, always thinking about Austrailia” - This guy’s the only surviving male on the planet, he’s got a scientist who might be able to figure out what’s going on, and his only thought it to find his maybe fiancee? I’m all for true love, but he has got to get his priorities straight.

“What a judgey asshole.” - This was in reference to his automatic condemnation of the former prison inmates. The group that’s managed to come up with the most stable community he’s encountered since all the men died. But this also could have referred to any number of other incidents - Him catching 355 and Dr Mann, him learning that Beth was going to break up with him, etc. As a magician who must have had enormous stores of patience to master his craft, Yorick is surprisingly quick to make snap judgments. And they’re usually the wrong ones.

“Such an idiot...Number of times he runs out and gets in trouble. Hate him. Self-pitying asshole.” - And this come after the suicide prevention that Agent 711 performed on him. Can’t stand it.

“Staying behind for captain? Another pretty girl? Hate him.” - For someone who can’t shut up about finding Beth, he’s amazingly prone to doing stupid things for other attractive women.

I get that much of Y is about Yorick growing from an immature brat to someone with a little more focus and gravitas. But there’s not enough there to make me want to see him succeed in that journey.

Some other thoughts:

The cover of issue 40 is inspired. Kudos to Massimo Carnevale.

Flying monkeys and sperm. Bravo, Carnevale. Bravo.

Brian Vaughan makes excellent points about the asymmetric dominance of men in leadership positions around the world, as well as the inequality inherent in numerous other areas. Women as a collective gender have gotten the short end of the stick historically and presently, and everything should be done to rectify those injustices. But it still pisses me off to know that there are people out there who use that as a reason to hate on the male gender as a whole. Oppression by Men doesn’t mean that killing all of them is the solution. (Hate the Amazons in the book, is all. I know that’s the point, but still.)

There are an uncommonly high number of standoffs that end with someone getting accidentally shot. Followed by the shooter’s shocked reaction that someone got hurt. There’s something in there about gun responsibility, but I’m too tired to go looking for it. Don’t point guns at people.

Pia Guerra is an amazing artist. She’s perfect for this title. There’s something very Steve Dillon about her work - it isn’t flashy, and is great for showing normal people doing their everyday thing. But when asked to show those same people in really messed up situations, it’s just as equally capable of depicting those things as well.

Vaughan kills off 355. That alone is reason enough to not buy the series.