| Y: The Last Man - Unmanned |
| The high concept for the book, taken from the back cover of the trade, goes something like this: In the summer of 2002, a plague of unknown origin destroyed every last sperm, fetus, and fully developed mammal with a Y chromosome - with the apparent exception of one young man and his male pet. This "gendercide" instantaneously exterminated 48% of the global population, or approximately 2.9 billion men.
Yorick Brown is the last man on Earth and who Y: The Last Man is about. This first book is all setup essentially. The book begins recounting the moments before the mysterious plague hits and then goes about establishing our main characters and how a world where all the males are dead might function. It's all very interesting stuff. Writer Brian K. Vaughan has some great ideas and has really put some thought into what would happen to society if all males simply stopped living at the same time. The political, social, economic ramifications of a world instantly void of men - the ground work for exploring all those things are laid out in this first story arc. The series has earned gobs and gobs of praise and awards. It tops all sorts of people's "must read" lists. Along with Fables and The Losers, Y: The Last Man is being heralded as the next great book from DC/Vertigo - following in the steps of such standout series as Sandman, Preacher, and Transmetropolitan. Now I've read the first Fables collection and loved it. I've already picked up the second book and hope to get to it soon. I've been reading The Losers in the monthly format since it debuted and it is probably my favorite monthly comic right now. My expectations for Y were pretty high. I've only read extraordinary things about the book and I had been so impressed by the other two series from DC/Vertigo that Y is constantly grouped together with. So I was a little surprised that after finishing the book I felt so ho-hum about the whole thing. The premise is great. The ideas and situations Vaughan has conjured are fantastic. I just found the whole finished product rather lack luster. Thinking about it I believe it comes down to Pia Guerra's art and the lead character of Yorick. Guerra's art is great. Nice clean lines - very fresh and realistic. Not at all the style I would have expected for a book dealing with such an apocalyptic event. I guess I was expecting something a bit darker. More stylized. I think the choice of art style robbed some of the emotional punch of the book for me. And I just didn't like Yorick. He talks too much. He's a bit of an ass. If I can't find a reason to like or relate to the main character of a book, then I'm not going to want to continue reading about him. In fact, at the end of the book I really wasn't too interested in learning what happened next to Yorick. I was interested in exploring the world without men that Vaughan has created, but I don't want Yorick as my guide. I guess I'll be taking a pass on the rest of this series. That's okay, I still have The Losers and Fables |