One Small Step for Y — The Last Man

“Male! Heidi, hit him with the Decon spray!”

In the summer of 2002 a mysterious “plague” wiped out every last man, boy and unborn fetus with the Y chromosome within minutes, leaving a planet populated only by women and two male survivors: Yorick Brown and a monkey he was training called Ampersand.

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TITLE:

Y – THE LAST MAN: ONE SMALL STEP

WRITER:

by Brian K. Vaughan

ARTISTS:

by Pia Guerra (penciller and co-creator)
and Jose Marzan, Jr. (inker)

SERIES:

Y — The Last Man #3
Collects Y — The Last Man comics #11-17

PUBLISHER:

DC Comics/Vertigo Imprint

CHARACTERS:

Yorick Brown, Last man and escape artist.
Ampersand, Male Capuchin monkey.
Agent 355, Agent of the Culper Ring.
Dr. Allison Mann, An Asian geneticist.
Beth Deville, Yorick’s girlfriend stranded in Australia.
Hero Brown, Yorick’s sister.
Natalya Zamyatin, Russian Soyuz follower.
Dr. Ciba Weber, The female astronaut stranded on the space station.
Heather Hartle, A geneticist who still works at the Hot Suite with her twin.
Heidi Hartle, A geneticist who still works at the Hot Suite with her twin.
Jennifer Brown, Congresswoman and Yorick’s mom.
Lieutenant-General Tse’Elon (aka Alter), A military woman on a mission.

MATURITY:

Contains violence, mature situations and language.

GENRE:

Graphic Novel (collection), Adventure, Fantasy

DESCRIPTORS:

End of the World, Disasters, Gender Roles, Discrimination, Hate Crimes, Monkeys, Quests, Survivor’s Guilt, Rebuilding Civilization, Feminism, War, Male/Female Relationships, Duty.

SUMMARY:

Three astronauts (two men and one woman) stranded in the International Space Station decide to make a risky re-entry trip back to Earth — it’s risky because there is no mission control to monitor their progress and help them down. It’s a desperate move and they full know that the men may not survive if they do successfully land.

Meanwhile Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann encounter Natalya, a Russian woman who tells them about the astronaut’s return and where they will land. They reach the area which has an underground medical research facility only to have Yorick captured by Lieutenant-General Tse’Elon and her military team. Can Agent 355 negotiate Yorick’s release?

Then Ampersand escapes and joins a travelling theatrical troupe who are commissioned by a small town to put on a play. Yorick, in disguise, and 355 arrive in time to witness the play about about the last man on Earth.

APPEAL:

Vaughan and Guerra take their time with the pacing. Plot threads develop in a leisurely fashion. By the end of this collection, Yorick and Hero have become definite antagonists and now we begin to learn about Lieutenant-General Tse’Elon’s agenda. Agent 355 and Dr. Mann are revealing their true natures slowly.

The pacing is breezy, but we do get to stop and see the devastation and the way the women adapt. But the author is careful not to let it slow down too much.

The characterization is intriguing. Yorick is a young man who hasn’t come to terms with responsibility yet, he can’t even get or hold down a job, but he is ready to marry his girlfriend who recently relocated to Australia. He is brash, tactless, head-strong but caring and moral. As the last man on Earth he could take advantage of the situation and the women but that’s not his thing. He is quick to pick a fight and equally quick to employ his “escape artist” skills to get out of trouble or pick a pocket.

There are multiple storylines in this series. Yorick’s is the most important and commands the lion’s share of the space. 355’s and Dr. Mann’s are next in line, even after they merge with Yorick’s. Others have a ways to go, such as Hero’s storyline.

This story is an end-of-the-world kind of story. Sure only half of the populations vanishes, but it is a significant half — all the men. Vaughan and Guerra get to show us a new world struggling to rise out of the aftermath of the demise of the old one. However, unless something can be done, this may be a short lived world.

NOTES:

Brian K. Vaughan grew up in the Greater Cleveland area before moving away.