This review is for the entire run of Y: The Last Man, not any single installment.

In an instant all the men, in fact every mammal with a Y chromosome, all around the world are wiped out. Except for one man and his monkey (and yes, the inevitable Beatles joke does eventually get made). That man, Yorick Brown, and his helper capuchin in training, Ampersand, are taken under the protection of a spy/assassin member of a secret organization answerable only to the President of the USA and sent to meet an expert in (human) cloning to try and discover why Yorick survived and how to continue the human species. And incidentally for Yorick to re-unite with his fiancée, last known to be in Australia.

Of course most of the story is about the troubles of being the only remaining man alive in a world that just lost half its population while trying to travel from New York to Boston to California and eventually most of the rest of the world. How would women react? What sorts of communities would they re-build? The short answer is well and badly, communities of hate and communities of inclusion, all with very recognizable human motivations. There are neo-amazons who set out to destroy any vestige of maleness in the world. There are the ex-cons that were let out of prison (what if the female guards hadn't freed them?) who form a community based around shared pasts and a belief in reform, responsibility and independence. Fanatic nationalists, drug smugglers, post-male feminist activist acting troupes.

Throughout the entire run a variety of possible causes ranging from disease, to curses, to divine retribution, to gaia/evolution re-setting a balance are proposed. The thing they all have in common, aside from never being definitively set as "the" cause, is that every single one of them revolves around the incredible hubris that the actions of a single person caused this to happen. Right along side the obvious parallel of the hubris that a single man could "save" the entire human species.

The story is well told, beautifully illustrated, and plays with a whole range of human emotions and motivations in a fairly believable fashion. If it skims past a lot of the practical details and problems, it at least acknowledges them in passing. My biggest problem is that while any given installment contains some time references like "New York, 10 minutes ago" and "Washington D.C., now" the actual timeline of the entire series of chapters (issues? installments?) is not clearly laid out. And it doesn't help that two chapters might take place in immediate succession, or weeks or months apart. That probably worked fine for anyone reading each installment as it came out each month but if you're reading them in collected and straight through it becomes slightly annoying and distracting. ( )

I know I'm behind on these, to the tune of 15 years or so, but Y : The Last Man falls into a specific category of requisition in my book hunting ethos. That category is the one where I only buy the next volume if I come across it used in a book store. If I bought every hardcover deluxe edition of every comic series that I want to read I would burn through my annual book budget in a month. Buying them half price only when they present themselves through sheer luck keeps things in check.

That's a long way of saying that I was so stoked when I found Volume 3 of YTLM used at my local bookstore for only $14 instead of the usual $30. This volume was great and funny and full of all kinds of sex. This one is definitely going on the high shelf for a while. Yorick makes it all the way California and has some good times and some not so good times. I'm glad that the supernatural cause of the gendercide plague gets pretty much ruled out. I would have been ok with that but I would have wanted a lot more explanation. The best part of the this whole series is how the different groups of women react to Yorick's existence. He inspires hope in some and murder in others. In fact, it's crazy how many people are constantly trying to kill Yorick.

I would love to know more how San Francisco was able to maintain order after the gendercide. Food production, electricity, and trains? Not that women wouldn't be able to handle those tasks, that's not what I mean. More that when you eliminate half the population regardless of gender, instantly, it's hard to just staff all those utilities. Not to mention all the post plague suicide rate skyrocketing. I guess you wouldn't have to worry about childcare as much anymore. So many questions. Anyway, there are two more to acquire before the story concludes. ( )

In a skirmish with Setauket Ring agents, Yorick loses his magic shop engagement ring and seemingly falls victim to the plague, but another twist in the tale takes him, 355, and Dr. Mann across the Pacific in order to recover Ampersand. I was a bit wary of this since I have read something else by the author that I didn't care for at all, but with recommendations coming at me from all directions, I thought I should at least give one a try and I wasn't disappointed at all. There is, of course, a multitude of things to be said about an all-women society depicted by a male author, but I'm going to leave that to those more interested in gender issues than me. The dystopian angle is what I really liked, particularly the issues of day-to-day living. There are a couple of things that irked me slightly, but it's absolutely a series I plan to continue. The "Deluxe" versions of these books include two of the collected volumes as well as the script for one of the issues. ( )

The story is really picking up and I'm halfway done with the series. Not going to lie, the reveal of why Dr. Mann thinks Yorick survived the disease was a let down. Maybe something else will develop? Also I do not like how Yorick keeps hooking up with a girl in every city. At least we finally saw Beth again. ( )