****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Y: The Last Man is a 10-volume graphic novel collection about what would happen if an unexplained plague wiped out every male on earth, animals and human alike, in a heartbeat. The premise of this story is that two males were inexplicably spared: a young man named Yorick Brown, amateur escape artist and generally something of a loser, and a capuchin monkey. The primary plotline is concerned with how to keep Yorick alive long enough to figure out just why he survived and whether that information can be used to help repopulate the earth, all while Yorick tries to find his girlfriend and would-be fiance, who was on a sabbatical in the Australian Outback when the disaster struck.In the process, Yorick and the people who help him encounter crazed "Amazons," who believe it is their duty to remove the last vestige of the male of the species from the planet, an out-of-control Israeli Defense Forces commander who wants Yorick for her own purposes, Yorick's mother, a Representative and one of the few members of the U.S. government left alive, Yorick's sister (with a few plot twists I won't reveal), and various others, some who try to aid him, many of whom try to kill him.The science in this set of graphic novels frankly doesn't make much sense, so you have to turn your brain off, much as you have to do when you read Superman. Some of the depictions of life without men make sense; some less so. There are plot twists galore and *everyone* has secrets, some of which aren't revealed until the final volume.I found the artwork in this series to be adequate but uninspiring. It reminded me a little of the old Curt Swan Superman and Legion of Super Heroes days. It's clean and uncluttered but this isn't artwork that's going to blow you away or that you'll want to show off to your friends. The real attraction to this series is the writing. To a certain extent, I think that's appropriate, as this doesn't have the grandeur and the scope of, say, the latest Avengers or Justice League space battle.The fourth volume opens with the trio of Yorick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann in the western states, heading for Denver, Colorado to try to get medical supplies for Yorick's monkey, Ampersand, who has picked up an infection after being injured in the previous issue by a mysterious ninja, whose motives we still don't know. After a brief encounter with a couple of local vigilantes, where Yorick once again exposes himself to needless risk, Agent 355 decides that he will not accompany them to Denver. Instead, she will leave him with a former colleague, Agent 711.After his friends leave, Yorick is drugged and subjected to psychological torture by Agent 711, for reasons that become clear later. In the process, we learn a lot more about Yorick, his childhood, and his relationship with his girlfriend, Beth. Yorick survives the process but in an ironic twist, well, you'll just have to read the book to learn that one. Suffice to say that that storyline is one strange but ultimately revealing ride.With the return of Agent 355, Dr. Mann, and a now healthy Ampersand, the four of them start out again. Their next encounter is with a vicious, anti-government, conspiracy theorist militia that is determined to block traffic on the Interstate, thereby cutting off the primary route between the eastern and western halves of the United States, including blocking food shipments. Dr. Mann, in a misguided attempt to try to win them passage, takes off on her own and tries to persuade the militia to let them pass if she gives them medical care. Her offer is rejected and the doctor is taken prisoner and badly beaten.Agent 355 makes a rescue attempt but is captured. In the meantime, Yorick is holed up with a mechanic who has befriended them and is now drinking with him. The two of them get surprised by a member of the militia, with consequences you'll have to read the book to see. Suffice to say that once again we learn more about Yorick and about his evolution, just as we do Mann and 355, who are imprisoned together. Finally, some of the secrets that were hinted at in the earlier novels, are starting to be revealed. The trio is reunited after sequences that are brutal and disturbing to both, in a reminder that, despite the flippant remarks and light humor in this series, this is a deadly serious time.The book ends abruptly with news about the astronaut who had landed in the earlier books and with Yorick's sister, Hero, making an encore performance.This volume, and the next few volumes, are where the author really hits his stride. There are some really disturbing sequences but they are believable and arise naturally out of the personalities of the characters, whom we really are getting to know and to care about. And the hopeful ending helps to offset the brutality of what took place previously. It's difficult to read this and to not be moved, the mark of good writing. This is the first volume I can honestly award five stars to and I highly recommend it.
