Some odd years ago while perusing the library comic and graphic novels section, I stumbled across a comic series that I had no idea I would end up falling in love with. It was a post-apocalyptic series called Y: The Last Man. I’ve read other stories by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga anyone?) and can’t sing his praises enough. He’s done a variety of genre of stories, and so far, everything I’ve read of his has left a lasting impression. Y: The Last Man is no different. He is an amazing storyteller. The art by Pia Guerra is also flipping gorgeous.
We have stories on what would happen if the dead were reanimated and walking among the living (Walking Dead to name one such story . . . which had such great promise, but that’s another story that I may visit one day in the future)—how would life be, how would humanity survive and function? What of the human condition? We also have stories about other life forms coming to Earth and the fallout that would occur from such an experience. But what would happen if men became extinct, leaving only girls and women behind? What would the world look like and how would the women left behind make sense of what happened and how they should now move about in a world that men no longer inhabit? Would it be viewed as a Utopia? So many questions and more (I really could go on with questions).
Yet there was one human male survivor by the name of Yorick Brown along with pet Capuchin monkey, Ampersand, also a male. Even though the story centers around these two, we still get a look at how the woman are dealing with the aftermath of being the ones that survived. As some questions are answered, more rise up. A major one is why the plague that wiped out all male mammals with the Y chromosome (except for the aforementioned) came to be in the first place. There are a few possible explanations that are brought up in the story (such as the Rapture claiming men as punishment to women for the original sin (bible reference, by the way), which I thought was absurd), but ultimately is left for the reader to consider and decide which is the actual reason/explanation. What I think isn’t exactly the point of this post, but more to wax poetically (or so I like to think I am) about a story I love, as well as hopefully getting others to read this series if they had no idea of it previously. I love putting people on to great stories and hearing what they thought about it. Also, while I’m ramblin’ (Get it? Ramblin’? Is this mic on??) I’d like to mention how bad ass Agent 355 is, she is my favorite character in the series.
My longwinded point to my waxing poetic of Y: The Last Man, is that I see the series has finally been adapted to TV (FX to be specific)! This has been years in the making, and at one point in time it seemed as if it wouldn’t come to be. It was supposed to be made into a movie, but that fell through . . . however, given some of the people they were looking at to portray some of the characters at the time, I think it was for the best. I think this time around they chose a better cast, especially with Agent 355, who will be played by Ashley Romans. Diane Lane, I think will also be excellent as Yorick’s mother, Senator Jennifer Brown. I’m excitedly waiting for September so I can check the TV adaptation out. For those of you who have read the series, let’s talk about it! What did you think of the story, who were your favorite characters?
