Y: The Last Man Vol. 4 - Safeword

Y: The Last Man Vol. 4 - Safeword
By Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

My first time through Y: The Last Man, I was disappointed in this story arc. It seemed a needless distraction. A brief stall in the forward momentum the story had built over the course of the three previous volumes.

In re-reading it, my opinion hasn't changed much, expect that this time around I have a much greater appreciation for this volume's strong character development, and one aspect of this so-called "distraction" actually leads to a pretty significant character moment in the final installment of the series.

Volume 4 actually collects two short story arcs. The first deals with the world's last man, Yorick Brown, being captured by an S&M crazed woman, tortured to sexual frustration, insulted, and degraded. Only it's not what it seems. The second has our protagonists dealing with a small militia blocking supplies from reaching the west coast, with tragic results for all involved.

Neither does much to advance the core narrative. That might be a slight frustration, since we're eager to discover the causes of the plague that killed all men and to see if it can be reversed. However, both end up being vital to our understanding of who these people are, especially Yorick himself, whose devotion to a woman he hasn't seen in years (and who might not even been alive) seems selfish and short-sighted given the state of the world. The first story gets us inside his head, the second is a turning point for how he handles the insanity he faces in a world where every living male but him has died. These insights are pretty valuable in a grand scheme kind of way, even if they do interrupt the momentum of the overall story.

And they do.

Safeword is a lesser installment in a fantastic series. One that arguably can be skipped (though I wouldn't recommend it) despite what it delivers for the characters. Yet one that is still better than 90 percent of the comics out there.

And that's good.

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Y: The Last Man Vol. 3 - One Small Step

Y: The Last Man Vol. 3 - One Small Step
By Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

The awesome. There is so much of it!

So. Much. Awesome.

Like, all the dudes are dead and society as we know it is on the verge of collapse, women are doing their best to hold things together but there are crazy violent cults, rogue governments, and all sorts of Bad Stuff taking place, so it's all pretty horrible and stuff, right?

Then crazy and hilarious and sexy (and did I mention hilarious?) Russian woman is on the scene, and she says, hey, International Space Station, right? Two men are alive up there. They're on their way down. Men. Real men. And in a world where all the men have died but one, this is a Good Thing.

But these rogue Israeli agents don't like that. A living man, you see, would be a vital political and military resource. They can't be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, especially not a rival nation. So these men must be either taken into custody or destroyed.

Cue a race against time with guns and shootings and astronauts and funny Russian chicks and a really emotional ending.

First time I read Y: The Last Man, this ranked among my favorite arcs. It still does. It's the high point of the first half of the 60-issue, 10-volume series, bringing to fruition a few stories built up since the first issue while also spinning off new story arcs and new concerns for the people living in a post-man world. Great stuff. If you've read to this point and still aren't hooked, just bail out.

Also, hang your head in shame.

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Y: The Last Man Vol. 2 - Cycles

Y: The Last Man Vol. 2 - Cycles
By Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

So we've got Yorick Brown, the last living male on Earth (if you don't count his monkey, Ampersand). He's train-hopping across the country with "355," government secret agent tasked with protecting him, and Dr. Allison Mann, who has data in San Fransisco that might hold the key to why all males died and maybe, just maybe, to re-starting the human race.

Thing is, it wouldn't be much of a story if their travels were easy. And they're not. Being tailed by Israeli agents is pretty. Worse are the man-hating "Amazons," which include Yorick's sister, Hero. But first is an unexpected stop in Marrisville, Ohio, where a group of secretive women seem to have carved out a small utopia for themselves.

Even at this early juncture, writer Brian K. Vaughan walks a delicate tightrope by presenting stories that seem to meander away from the overall narrative -- finding the cause of the man-killing plague and some way to begin rebuilding the human race -- while also providing key milestones in both story and character development. The stop in Marrisville makes for a good drama, but how vital is it to the overall story?

Pretty damn vital, actually. Even aside from getting to know Yorick and his neuroses a little better, it marks a major turning point for his sister, Hero, and cements the Amazons into place as a bunch of cult crazies everyone despises.

Plus, you know, it's just a damn good story. The action doesn't stray into silly action movie territory, the drama is tense, the writing is smart and funny, and Pia Guerra's art is near perfect. The second in the brilliant trilogy of collections that open this series is a winner.

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Y: The Last Man Vol. 1 - Unmanned

Y: The Last Man Vol. 1 - Unmanned
By Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

I'll confess up front that I'm a little biased going into this post. First, I've already read Y: The Last Man in its entirety. I followed the series as it was first released in collected editions. Hung on every new chapter. Loved it.

So yeah, I'm going into this series of posts already a huge fan.

But a week or two ago when I sat down to reread Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's epic saga about a world in which all men die from a mysterious plague -- all but one, that is; wise-cracking, sexually dysfunctional escape artist Yorick Brown is the lone male on a planet full of females -- I figured it might be a kick to reassess my love for the story and see how well it holds together a little more than two years after it wrapped up.

So far, so good. So very, very good.

I forgot how rapidly Vaughn jumps into it. He wastes no time with needless buildup. On page one, BOOM, men are dying. Just a few pages in and half the population of the globe is dead. We meet Yorick, get to know what an unusual yet likable guy he is; see his wants, needs, and desires; then we're off and running. In no time at all we're seeing crumbling governments, post-apocalyptic anti-man cults, and glimpses of how life goes on without men in the picture. (How? Uneasily. But it does.) Yorick is out on the road trying (and failing) to keep his gender a secret. Conspiracies abound. Plot lines that take 50 or 60 issues to unwind are seeded. The crumbling pieces of a society in ruins struggle to put themselves back together.

It's heady stuff.

It's also terrifically fun and funny. Despite the rather grim and provocative subject matter, Vaughn takes a humorous and entertaining approach whenever possible, but without sacrificing the seriousness of the book's conceit. Even when the thematic material veers towards the heavy-handed, it's tempered with the kind of self-aware humor a story like this NEEDS if it's going to last. Maybe it was this ability to balance heavy themes, wild science fiction premises and sharp humor that lead to his being drafted as a writer for the television show Lost.

Bottom line is this: Y gets off to a rousing start, one so damn good that if you're not hooked with this first collection, you have no soul. Because damn, what a bloody brilliant ride this is.

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