What would you do if you were the last man on Earth? Not only the last man, but the last living organism bearing the Y chromosome?

Comic Book Meet and Greet: What happens when you discover a new comic, only to realize that it’s been around for years? After scolding yourself, you share it with others in order to feel better about missing it the first time around. Welcome to the Comic Book Meet and Greet, a new feature here at GEN. When we discover a property it is our civic duty to share, you will find it here. These books may have been around for weeks, months or years, but they all warrant your time and attention.

Literary endorsements are nothing new. We’re used to seeing praise for prose plastered on book covers and jackets alike. Some of us ignore them, and others take them with a grain of salt. Still, every once in a while there is an endorsement or quote that you just can’t ignore. When Stephen Kings boldly states on the cover of a trade “The best graphic novel I’ve ever read,” it grabs your attention.

I have to agree with King. Although I have my favorite comic characters, series and universes, there is something about the epic scale and originality of this trade that grabs my attention and won’t let it go. This is, indisputably, one of the best trades I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Read on to find out why.

Y: The Last Man
Written: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan, JR.
Publisher: Vertigo
Series: Debuted 2002, Completed, 60 Issues Total

Story: What would you do if you were the last man on Earth? That’s the question that Yorick Brown – 22 years old, unemployed and an amateur escape artist – never expected he would have to answer seriously. But when all of his fellow men fall dead (along with every other male mammal on the planet) Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand suddenly find themselves playing a leading role in the fate of humanity itself.

So begins an extraordinary journey, with the two surviving bearers of the Y chromosome setting out to solve the mystery of the male-killing plague and attempting to preserve the future of mankind. But how can ne man save an entire species when his heart belongs to only one woman – and she’s on the other side of the globe?

My Thoughts: Think about it. No…stop and really think about it. What would you do if every bearer of the Y chromosome on the planet dropped dead at the same moment in time? (Sorry to the men of GEN, you wouldn’t be doing much thinking…)

We are talking about your fathers, uncles, brothers, sons, husbands and boyfriends. We are talking the young and the old, both human and animal. What would you do if half the planet’s population was wiped clean in a matter of seconds? That is the question Brian K. Vaughan tries to answer in Y: The Last Man.

In reality, we would all probably act differently. The opening pages of The Last Man illustrate the full spectrum of reactions perfectly. A mother shrieks as her sons die in her arms. A female cop puts a gun to her head and pulls the trigger after witnessing the irreversible carnage. A little girl tries to wake her single-parent father, now confused and utterly alone. A woman in the final weeks of her pregnancy panics as her unborn baby’s heartbeat stops reading on the ultrasound.

Again, pause to think. What would a “gendercide really mean to the world? I hadn’t even taken the time to consider the ramifications beyond the emotional till Vaughn threw them in my face. Some facts from the book:

• 495 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are now dead, as well as 99% of the world’s landowners.
• In the United States, 95% of commercial pilots (think about how many of those planes were in the air), truck drivers, and ship captains are dead.
• 92% of violent felons have received an instant death sentence.
• Worldwide 99% of all mechanics, electricians and construction workers have perished, although 51% of the agricultural labor force has survived.
• Only 14 nations – Spain and Germany for example – have allowed women to serve in ground combat units via the armed forces. None of the US’s female troops have seen combat.
• Australia, Norway and Sweden are the only countries with trained female submarine staff.
• Worldwide 85% of government representatives are dead, as well as all Catholic priests, Muslim Imams and Orthodox Jewish Rabbis.

The world is leaderless in many ways, and understandably terrified. Women must not only learn to deal with their survivor’s guilt and the sinking knowledge that mankind is doomed, but they must rebuild the world, both physically and in terms of ideals. In Y: The Last Man, it takes some time for the panic to die down. Especially for Yorick Brown, when he realizes by fluke or fate, that he is the last man alive. Out of fear, Yorick makes his way from New York to Washington DC – by foot, as all the roads are clogged with corpse-filled cars – in search of his mother, who is a high ranking government official.

When he finds his mother, the real chaos begins. Yorick, having proposed to his girlfriend on the phone the moment the plague struck, has fantastic delusions of traveling across the globe to begin repopulating the planet with his now fiancé. His mother, afraid he will do something careless, tries to help him grasp the importance of his role in the new world.

And it is a new world. Some women never recover from the incident. Others force themselves through the pain and try their best to restore order to society. Still others celebrate the demise of man. These women are known as the Daughters of the Amazon, and they believe that Mother Earth cleansed itself of man to rid the world of a plague. These women cut off a breast to symbolize their commitment, and to imitate the Amazons of lore. They are the bane of the lawless society, recruiting who they can and killing who they wish. They have even managed to recruit Hero Brown, Yorick’s sister – who joins in anger after losing her first true love. 

Ultimately, Representative Brown convinces Yorick to travel across the country in an attempt to facilitate cloning, and in doing so, increase the odds of repopulating the planet. Getting across the country is going to be a problem. Railways are now the only functional method of long-distance travel. Joined by Agent 335 – his new bodyguard – and Doctor Allison Mann – an expert geneticist – Yorick embarks on a journey to save mankind as we know it. Needless to say, when the Daughters of the Amazons get wind of a sole surviving male, their journey becomes even more difficult.

How is that for a story? I have yet to read more than the first 10 issues, and I am already thoroughly engrossed. The best part is that although the premise is dark and dreary, Vaughan manages to incorporate the youth and idealism of Yorick into the dialogue, which lightens the mood drastically. This is one of the first comics that I have picked up and instantly fell in love with, and as such, I recommend it to anyone. If you want to get your hands on the books, Amazon currently has the entire series in stock via 10 trades.

Add Y: The Last Man to your Holiday wishlist now, trust me, you won’t regret it.

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