Ben Harris-Roxas reviewed Y: the last man by Brian K. Vaughan
I only regret putting off reading this for too long
4 stars
A classic for a reason
Paperback, 128 pages
English language
Published Aug. 31, 2003 by Vertigo.
It's 2002, and a plague of unknown origin has killed all of the male mammals on Earth-all except an amateur escape artist named Yorick Brown and his surly helper monkey, Ampersand. As the last remaining &-chromosome carriers on the planet, Yorick and his pet hold the fate of humanity in their hands. To ensure the survival of the species, they've teamed up with a gun-toting government agent and the world's premier bioengineer to discover the secret behind the plague. But while they ride the rails across a radically transformed America, the man-hating Daughters of the Amazon are right behind them-and an unplanned stopover in the seemingly utopian town of Marrisville, Ohio may mean the end of the line for the Last Man.
A classic for a reason
While there is a bit of meta-humor that I think is a little out of tone, in generally the series is developing nicely and leaving behind a bit of the tropey bits from vol 1
Just picked up the 2nd book in the series and will start that. So far I am intrigued and enjoy the story. While it hasn't blown me away, its been solid storytelling so far.
I actually liked this volume better than the first one. From a story standpoint it's a little more interesting.
It still suffers from using too-common literary references. Some of them irked me a good deal, like seriously, come on, how does an English major not know what "crossing the Rubicon" means? The pop culture references also were a bit cutaneous: Anyone who has seen Back to the Future would have made the connection without an explicit mention.
I had a problem, too, with the excessive use of the adjective "fucking." Yeah, I get it, it's a post-apocalyptic dystopia/utopia (depending on your view...) and people are pissed off all the time. But are there people who really use it in almost every sentence?
A very enjoyable book this, interesting story with a decent storyline.
This was originally (I think I'm right in saying) a 10 part series. This book is the first 5 parts and ends on a suitable cliffhanger.
Recommended if you like Sci-Fi graphic novels.