Y: The Last Man (Vol. 1), by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan Jr. | Grishmapolitan: Y: The Last Man (Vol. 1), by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan Jr.

Saturday 18 October 2014

Y: The Last Man (Vol. 1), by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan Jr.


A global plague instantaneously wipes out every creature with a y-chromosome--except Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand. What happens when every single patriarchal society evaporates in a matter of seconds? Vaughan, Guerra, and Marzan present their ideas in a compelling, well-paced story that took me about an hour to finish. (It totally reads like a Gillian Flynn novel.)

Stephen King says it's the best graphic novel he's ever read. Can you resist?

Sailor Twain is still my favorite graphic novel of all time, but Y:TLM is a very, very good read. That's all I can say without giving away any spoilers, so... don't go on unless you've read it!


**SPOILERS AHEAD!**

Still here? Great!

The book implicitly and explicitly talks about gender issues. You've got literal facts on page 39, and lots of exposition about it between characters. In fact, I kept turning to Mr. and asking him if this book was written by a woman. I was surprised that it wasn't.

But it seems that many people thought it was anti-feminist.

While browsing this book's Goodreads page after finishing, I noticed that a lot of people felt that it was an extremely chauvinistic and/or an anti-feminist story. One of the most common reasons is best articulated in this review:
"In a world where all men are dead except for one, and the death of that one man will mean the end of humanity, VIOLENT CULTS OF FEMINISTS SPRING UP TO TRY AND HUNT DOWN MEN AND MALE SYMPATHIZERS. What is the motive here? There sure isn't one written into the plot, other than the one speech about social inequality between the sexes--and how the only way to escape this inequality is to KILL ALL MEN. " - Michael
But the Amazons are only a small percentage of everyone we see. I never got the impression that they represent an average woman, let alone all women. Sure, they become the main antagonists, but don't ignore sensible, good-hearted Agent 355. Don't ignore world-famous, intelligent Dr. Mann. Don't ignore the Secretary of Agriculture President working to keep the government from being taken over by radical fringe groups. Is it unreasonable to expect radical fringe groups to exist? Do they need a reasonable motive? Consider this: would you feel strange reading a story in which, say, all but one non-white people died, and the KKK went after the lone dark-skinned person?

The second most popular criticism was along the lines of this:
"I'm fine with the Amazonian self-mutilators (I can buy an angry, post-apocalyptic group of violent women). I am willing to suspend my disbelief that Yorick and his monkey make it through the manpocalypse as the only surviving Y chromosomes... But what I won't believe, what I won't buy, where I won't suspend by disbelief, where I am not fine is with the idea that Yorick would ever, EVER, be allowed to wander around the winter of homo sapienism with one body guard, risking his testicles for some stupid, pointless, selfish, idiotic search for the love of his life and his sister. His sperm, and Ampersand's, would be the most important substances known to womankind (not because he is a man but because of sheer practicality). He would be protected whether he liked it or not. He would be imprisoned. His sperm would be used to impregnate. It would be used to find an immunity for future boys. It would be used for the survival of homo sapiens. Period. " - Brad
Several reviewers said that the story itself is unrealistic because in a realistic story, Yorick would be enslaved and, um, harvested. But...


...they explain it...


Yorick isn't supposed to go looking for Beth. He's supposed to find Dr. Mann so they can find a vaccine for the mysterious plague, so that he can help repopulate the world. If there is no vaccine, who's to say that any male babies would survive? And when the White House is attacked, what's the first thing Mrs. Brown does to her son? She locks him up in a top-secret safety shelter.

Overall, my favorite part of the first volume is the relationship between Yorick and Hero.

And my second favorite part is Ampersand:


Have you read the series? What did you think? I'd love to read your thoughts below!

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