Y: The Last Man Vol, 1 Unmanned
Ratings161
Average rating4
Yikes, no thanks. I love [b:Saga, Vol. 1 15704307 Saga, Vol. 1 Brian K. Vaughan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486028947s/15704307.jpg 19113524] (a large part because of Staples art) but in this book there is not much of anything good. Vaughan has no idea how to write women, then goes on to write about women now running society. Like every thing falls in society falls apart without men? Fuck no. What makes that bit even worse is because our protagonist is a dumbass and we get nothing likable about him.
A superlative work; definitely in my Top Ten of any medium (books, movie, etc.) And it opened me up to all the possibilities of graphic novels.
In the near future, one day all the men mysteriously hemorrhage and die. Except one: an amateur escape artist named Yorick, together with his pet monkey, Ampersand. Journey with Yorick through the post-gendercide/post-male landscape, and marvel at the authors' unbelievably well-thought-out, incredibly clever, and often very touching vision of what such a world would look like. Naturally, lots of great commentary on gender. But, in addition, it has wonderful action and some of THE BEST dialogue I have ever read. When a one-eyed lady kills another, Yorick exclaims, “But you have no depth perception!”
Highly, highly, highly recommended.
Usually the trope that this series is centred around is quite tired and played out. But Vaughan has managed to treat it in a way that makes you think. Highly recommend.
Huh! If you've seen the TV series The Last Ship, you'll notice its plot closely mirrors that of this graphic novel. It's fitting that their titles are so similar—The Last Ship and The Last Man.
Solid beginning to the series. The first issue was a bit slow but it's really picked up steam the further I got in the volume. Very interested to see where this goes...
Besides the gross transphobia of lines like “my boyfriend was killed, he wasn't a real guy, ftm,” this is amazing
Well this was definitely an unhurried beginning to this series. Points go to the Y: The Last Man for having an intriguing premise. Without warning, all the males of the world are dead. Animal and man alike. The cause is unknown, the world is in turmoil, and revolution is on the horizon. Sounds fascinating, no? I definitely thought so. Especially because, as I'm sure you can surmise from the title, there is one man left. Yorick, our main character, finds himself in one hell of a predicament.
With all of that promising information, I really expected this series to immediately take off. The truth is, it really doesn't. This whole first volume read rather slowly. While I liked Yorick, and was fascinated by a world run by women, the story line seemed to be at a stand still. Yorick was consumed by his need to find his girlfriend, his mother only cared about keeping him safe, and the Amazons (a rebel group) were only barely introduced. Slow burn, indeed.
The fact is, this series does hold a lot of promise. I know I'll keep reading. The illustrations aren't anything to write home about, but I love Brian K. Vaughan's writing. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, and give the second volume a try. After all, the stage has been set. That means there's only good things coming around the bend, right?
So Yorick is kind of irritating. Always doing what he shouldn't be doing. If that's just being a dummy that sucks, but I'll concede that he might be just always believing that humanity is above all good, especially women. He doesn't seem to understand that both sexes can be cruel.
That being said, it's a good book. There's all kinds of interesting things happening, all kind of colorful characters both good & bad.
My full review on the entire series can be found on my blog at http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2013/01/y-last-man.html
Hmm. I spent an hour reading this last night. Here are my thoughts: the artwork is beyond gorgeous. I love it. There is a lot going on for a first volume, and I enjoyed that. The story just didn't ring true to me. The women acted just...weird. The Republican women-that I did not buy at all. I also was not a fan of Yorrick from the start. Is he the typical everyman? I don't know. I didn't dislike it enough to never read any more of the series, but I didn't like it enough to actively go out and seek the next volume. So, it is what it is.