Whys and Wherefores
Finally got my hands on the latest and last edition of Y: The Last Man and I have not raved on about this series enough and I feel I should because I've seen few people on LJ talk about it and it seems to have no fandom. It think it's been somewhat estabilished in this journal that I'll read anything Brian K Vaughn writes but this is his best work.
Basic plot is that there's been a massive gendercide with all mammals containing the Y chromosome dying horrifically all at once and for reasons unknown, and one guy, Yorick Brown, and his Monkey are left alive. I have to admit, it's not an initially promising premise. This is the one time I've seen it done right. Usually when there's a society of women, there has to be a man come along and prove to them that men are not all bad. But Y does it right, with women's views on the occurrence being as varied as they should be - with at the extremes some believing it’s a blessed purging of the Y chromosome and others killing themselves. It can be a little heavy handed at times when it comes to pointing out disparities between men and women in pre-gendercide (and thus current) society, but at other times uses them to be darkly funny. For example, Australia becomes the dominant world naval power, because it's one of the few countries that let women on its submarines.
But, more importantly, there's never a shortage of fascinating female characters. There has to be: Yorick's a bit rubbish and has a death wish. He needs 355 and Dr Mann to keep him from getting himself killed. 355 is the highlight of the series for me. A secret agent who is loathe to admit to herself or anyone else that she's human and who is tired of being a killer but does it anyway without complaint because it's her job, is completely oblivious to pop culture (to Yorick's eternal despair) and happens to have an enormous soft spot for Yorick and is knitting a scarf in her spare time. And she and Yorick develop the most wonderful relationship with trust and banter. And there's also Dr. Mann, Hero, Beth I, Beth II, Rose, Natalya and many many more.
It's gorgeous drawn by Pia Guerra (who is currently doing Doctor Who: The Forgotten) and the last few issues made me nearly cry for the ending being nearly prefect and beautiful and so very sad.
If you're going to read one comic book series in your life, I'd say go for this one.
Basic plot is that there's been a massive gendercide with all mammals containing the Y chromosome dying horrifically all at once and for reasons unknown, and one guy, Yorick Brown, and his Monkey are left alive. I have to admit, it's not an initially promising premise. This is the one time I've seen it done right. Usually when there's a society of women, there has to be a man come along and prove to them that men are not all bad. But Y does it right, with women's views on the occurrence being as varied as they should be - with at the extremes some believing it’s a blessed purging of the Y chromosome and others killing themselves. It can be a little heavy handed at times when it comes to pointing out disparities between men and women in pre-gendercide (and thus current) society, but at other times uses them to be darkly funny. For example, Australia becomes the dominant world naval power, because it's one of the few countries that let women on its submarines.
But, more importantly, there's never a shortage of fascinating female characters. There has to be: Yorick's a bit rubbish and has a death wish. He needs 355 and Dr Mann to keep him from getting himself killed. 355 is the highlight of the series for me. A secret agent who is loathe to admit to herself or anyone else that she's human and who is tired of being a killer but does it anyway without complaint because it's her job, is completely oblivious to pop culture (to Yorick's eternal despair) and happens to have an enormous soft spot for Yorick and is knitting a scarf in her spare time. And she and Yorick develop the most wonderful relationship with trust and banter. And there's also Dr. Mann, Hero, Beth I, Beth II, Rose, Natalya and many many more.
It's gorgeous drawn by Pia Guerra (who is currently doing Doctor Who: The Forgotten) and the last few issues made me nearly cry for the ending being nearly prefect and beautiful and so very sad.
If you're going to read one comic book series in your life, I'd say go for this one.