Y: The Last Man - A Rant
Heed the warning: SPOILERS.
I just finished Y: The Last Man. I have enjoyed reading this series very much. It's helped me to realize the validity of the graphic novel as a medium for telling stories. It was a delight. The characters were easy to love, and I wanted them to win. But the last two volumes pissed me off. Because until Vol. 9, the writing was absolutely wonderful. And after that, it's batshit fucking loco stupid.
The explanation for the plague that wiped out all mammals with Y chromosomes? A wacked-out genetic theory that, if an individual or small group should learn something vital to the evolution of its species, then that knowledge spontaneously manifests in the genetic code of every member of that species (dumbed down, but that's the gist). Someone successfully clones a human without use of the Y-chromosome? Well, shit, men aren't necessary, after all. Solution: every man on the planet dies. Instantaniously. So why does it cross the species barrier, if the experiment was only on human cloning? Don't know. They never explained that. But I'm sure it would've been a fucking riot.
And that's just Vol. 9. Vol. 10 kills off the most useful, and, for me, beloved, character. Agent 355. Shot in the head. She doesn't even get to go out fighting. And poor Ampersand's death was even stupider. More stupid. Whatever.
I knew it wouldn't be a fairy tale ending. I had a feeling it wouldn't even have been a happy one. I expected my favorite characters to die. After all, the series was awful good at that---introducing cool characters, only to kill them off in the next chapter.
But this. I don't know what the fuck happened.
EDIT
I've had a couple weeks to reflect. It's not as bad as all that.