Y - The Last Man

A friend told me she was reading Y - The Last Man. She likes Life of Pi, so her tastes carry a lot of street-cred with me.

Took me one night to rustle up 41 issues of this DC/Vertigo comic. (I might teach you how one day, but not here.) And I've not been able to stop reading it.

Premise of the story: A plague has killed off every male on earth. Everything with a Y-chromosome just puked up blood and died. All at the same time. Like rapture, that took all the men and left the women behind.

All, save Yorick, the last man, and his chimp, Ampersand.

The story immediately reminded me of The White Plague, by Frank Herbert. (You know, the Dune guy? That movie with Sting? The giant phallus that plows through the desert planet of Arrakis and shitting out melange?)

In The White Plague, a bitter geneticist created a virus that killed women. Don't remember liking the story much, since I generally enjoy stories with a good protagonist. And one of the main character in the book is just a random dude who managed to crawl inside a decompression chamber with his girlfriend when news of the plague came out. But you've got to respect Herbert for writing about genetic terrors years before Koontz or Chricton did.

But the writers probably took more inspiration from Mary Shelley's The Last Man. (You know, the Frankenstein lady? The one that got no respect for writing sci-fi in a male dominated literary arena in the early 1800's.)


Anyways, Y...

Despite what the title of the graphic novel might suggest, this isn't some shounen shtick. Nor does the character wear leisure suits. The last man is an unsuccessful magician with a painful sense of humor.

Add a geneticist, a name-less agent from a secret government agency (like Agent 99, you know... but this one is agent 355), a post-holocaustal Mad Maxine world, and the adventure begins.

What's fun about the story is that it's unpredictable. And very well written. The dialogue is intelligent, and thoughtful. It's no coincidence that one character is an English lit major, one a theology major, and one a doctor. It allows the writer to go nuts, and let the dialogue communicate all the messages that the story has to tell.

Imagine a world without men... Asides from the extinction, it's almost utopian, when you think about a world without religious leaders, war-mongers, nuclear sub crew, etc. Architecture will certainly be more attractive. Yet, it's also sad that there'll be art such a world will fail to create, or maintain.

But men do not have a monopoly on stupidity. In a world of women, stupid shit can happen as well. A sobering reminder that it's people that makes people miserable.


Anyway, in just two nights, I've caught up with all 41 issues, and looking forward for more. The writers are good, and I trust that they'll be able to maintain the quality of their writing. They're matured enough that they didn't put in a gratuitious lesbian scene until issue 32... But I also wonder at the childishness of throwing in the random ninja into the story.

There are a lot of laugh out loud moments in the story. I particularly enjoy several of the more obscure pop culture references.


Yorick has a lighter with "FUCK COMMUNISM" engraved on it. That's the lighter John Wayne gave to Jesse Custer's father in Preacher.

Y's girlfriend dressed up in a hot magician's costume, and Y made a reference to Zatanna.


And I just love the dialogue.... My choice favourites:

"I told you, I'm not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with--"

"Are...are you crying? What'd I say? The ladies usually love my enlightened view of pronouns."

"I'm a reporter for the Monthly Visitor."
"A perfect name for that rag."

"My name's Toyota. Yeah, yeah, I know. 'Like the car?' You think that's what the Japanese said every time Harrison Ford came over to our country? I swear, you bigoted American men are all the same."

"Rose, anyone who finds my g-spot on the first try is allowed to call me Allison."


And:

"My dad says getting dumped was the closest thing he ever had to a bar mitzvah. He doesn't think he was even part of the human race until a girl broke his heart."