Customer Reviews

Y: The Last Man, Vol. 10: Whys and Wherefores

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There have been some great long series in comics, but Y: THE LAST MAN is unique in that all ten volumes making up the entire run tells a single story. The various books truly have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Other series may have a background arc that extends throughout the various books comprising their run, but Vaughan's masterpiece introduces a number of questions in the first volume that are developed in the ensuing nine volumes and answered only in the last. Will the human race survive the loss of all the males? Will Yorick be reunited with his finance? What do the Israelis tracking him have in mind? These and other stories are developed gradually over the course of the entire run.

The tone of the series as a whole tends to action drama laced with pop cultural references and humor. You laugh on one page, only to have something really horrid take place on the next. But none of the shocks of the first nine volumes comes anywhere near the shocks found in the final issues comprising Volume Ten. I won't go into details, but while all the main stories are completely wrapped up, they won't please every fan. While most of the news for the human race was positive, things did not turn out all that well for most of our heroes. Indeed, some of the arcs ended in utter tragedy. Though the story as a whole focuses on Yorick's constant joking about everything, the book's final events bring even his jokes to a halt. Some things are beyond wit. One event in particular is so shocking (you'll know it when you see it) and so unforeseen that it completely changes the nature of the entire series.

In a story like Y: THE LAST MAN it is absolutely essential that you end the whole thing well. This volume does precisely that. It cannot, of course, be read on its own. Anyone wanting to read the entire series needs to start with the first volume and move forward. FABLES 10 came out earlier this month. You might, with some difficulty, be able to start reading in that (wonderful) series with that volume, but Y: THE LAST MAN has to be read from beginning to end. Starting with this volume would be like beginning GREAT EXPECTATIONS with Chapter 25.

I want to single one character out for praise. I've been engaged in a project lately that involves looking at the major female heroes in various popular media, from TV to graphic novels to movies. The past ten to fifteen years (Buffy seems to be the tipping point) has seen an explosion of great female heroes. But incredibly very, very few of these have been women of color. Max in DARK ANGEL is racially indistinct but seems exotic, but she is close to the exception. Agent 355 in this series is easily one of the most compelling and truly heroic black characters around. The genre -- indeed, all genres -- need more characters like her. It isn't just young black females who need to see empowered characters like 355. Just as, I believe, that both men and women have their views of women subtly altered by popular female heroes like Buffy and Xena, so I think all of us have our views of race and gender affected by a character like 355. Sadly there are very few black female characters her equal. Storm in the X-Men is an exception as well as several characters in Octavia Butler's novels (especially the protagonist in the Earthseed novels). But there shouldn't be so few examples.

In a way, I'm truly saddened that this series has come to an end. For years we've been looking forward to the next issue and looking ahead to the distant future (which is now past) to find out how everything ends. I confess it didn't end like I had expected or even how I had hoped. But sometimes as readers we get the story we needed instead of wanted. In the end, it was a great read.

All in all, this is an astoundingly satisfying conclusion to what may be the best comic series of all time. As Hellboy once said, "What makes a man a man?... It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them." Brian K. Vaughan gave us a truly great ride with the first nine volumes of "Y: The Last Man," but how he chose to conclude this series and pay-off all the plot points is truly spectacular.

Vaughan's writing here reminded me of Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under") at his best, and that's saying a lot. Each page pops with references to past events, little nods to pop culture, and supremely earned character moments that we've been waiting for since the man-killing plague hit in the first issue. There are no sweeping gestures to erase the plague, no "everything is all okay" ending, just a coming together of all the plot threads that Vaughan has established in a realistic, bittersweet, and emotional ending. The care that Brian K. Vaughan took in writing this and the care that Pia Guerra took in penciling this is so obvious, as it's their goodbyes to the characters they've been on this journey with for sixty long months. It's a beautiful piece of writing, and definitely establishes "Y: The Last Man" as one of the comics to absolutely transcend its medium. Anyone can pick up this series off the shelf, knowing that it's a) accessible to anyone and b) that Vaughan stuck with this series to the end. And didn't shy away from truly ending it.

Reading this book was one of the best, most emotional experiences I've had with a piece of fiction. The only instances that come equal how I felt while going into this book and the feeling of finishing it was how I felt when the final episode of ANGEL aired and when I turned onto the final page of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Yorick's tale was a long one, and it wasn't always as smooth as it could have been, but it all comes together in this beautifully written and illustrated book. I'll sorely miss reading this series into the late hours of the night, but the way Vaughan ended Yorick's story, I can't help but be satisfied.

So bear with me as I say goodbye to these characters who I've come to know in reading this series. Goodbye Natalia. Goodbye all three Beths. Goodbye Hero. Goodbye Rose. Goodbye Alter. Goodbye Dr. Mann. Goodbye Agent 355. Goodbye Ampersand. And goodbye Yorick Brown.

Alas...

10/10 Classic.

The ending of this book legitimately put a damper on the whole series for me. I loved the story through the first nine volumes. However, the way that the author chose to end this one didn't sit right with me. I won't go into much detail about it (as to avoid spoiling the series for others) but were it not for this book, this series would've been perfect.

I've read a lot of comics and graphic novels, but there have only been a few that were so good that the emotional response was almost physical. The Y: The Last Man series is one of those books (Maus is one of the other books as is the 9/11 commemorative issue of Amazing Spider-Man). The story never took a clichéd turn and explored the man/woman/life dynamic in so many ways and on so many levels. I remember reading another person's comments that the series shouldn't end while I was one-third to midway through, and thinking "Yeah, I don't want to get to the end." Now that I've finished the story, I have to disagree (although I would certainly welcome a short re-visit a la Grendel Tales or the Sandman spin-offs). I think the story met an appropriate conclusion, but no Hollywood ending here. Get it. Read it.

i read the last trade with a bit of trepidation. i knew it's the last issues left to read and i was afraid all the journey will end badly and i will feel ripped off.
actually i knew it wont happen. i was just sad the journey was over for me with these characters.
and the ending? i really liked it.
the series definitely had its highs and lows but all in all, it was great.
it was EXCELLENT.
if you hadn't read it yet - you should start.

I used to think that Brian Vaughan was possibly one of the best comic book writers ever.
Now I know he IS the best.
Y has been an incredible ride, but often great journeys can make for disappointing endings. Not here. Everything that had been building in the previous 9 volumes pays off here. It's beautiful, sad, human, joyous and completely satisfying.
Pia Guerra's art never looked better. It started off very good and grew in beauty and subtly. She interacts with Mr. Vaughan's writing so flawlessly that words are often not necessary.
I love this series and I love this book. This is why I still read comics.

I was in between stories when I went to Free Comic Book Day and chose "Y: The Last Man #1". I wasn't exactly sure what I was in for until I finished that first 32 page beginning and then I had no choice, I was hooked, so I bought all 10 "Graphic Novels". The Series had already been out for awhile by the time I caught on, so there was no way to go backward and start from the beginning. Which actually worked out better than I anticipated, because now I own the entire series and I honestly believe that it should be made into a movie or mini-series. What an Awesome story, totally imaginative and thought provoking, completely entertaining, exceptionally well written and illustrated, and sexy as well as down and dirty. I can't say enough about this Story and the only advice I have is if you buy "Y: The Last Man"the first volume, you might as well buy them all...it will save you all kinds of waiting and you won't run the risk of the series selling out. If you miss even one book, you will miss a lot.

It's been five years since the strange trip that is Y: The Last Man began. Originally published as a comic-book series, the story has been collected into 10 trade paperback graphic novels, an easier way to read the epic in sizable chunks (without having to wait for the next issue to be published). With the release of Volume 10, Whys and Wherefores, we finally reach the conclusion, and yes, we get answers, whether we want them or not. Some of them are painful, some charmingly lovely, some poetic, and some just mundane--fitting for the kind of series this was.

Y: The Last Man began as a remarkably well envisioned story and it remained so until the end. I won't discuss the ending (no spoilers here), but I will say that it is the first graphic novel that ever made me cry. I give all credit to writer Brian K. Vaughan for remaining true to his story, rather than taking the easy route, throughout all ten volumes of this series. There were easier ways to resolve this story. He didn't take them. Instead, he kept his series true to its original spirit all along. I admire the integrity.

If you're new to this series, start with volume 1, Unmanned, which begins with the bizarre and unexplainable deaths of every single male on the planet. From human beings to beetles, birds to whales, every single Y chromosome has, in an instant, been wiped off the face of the earth, except for a 22-year-old man named Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand, which he has just acquired. How they survived "the plague"--as it comes to be called--is anyone's guess. More accurately, it's everyone's guess; all the women left in the world struggle to come up with some theory, some explanation for losing their sons, husbands, brothers, fathers, and friends in one fell swoop. In the aftermath of it all, with society left in shambles--no phones working, governments around the world scrambling to cope, roads and bridges left cluttered with remains--alternative conspiratorial and political factions arise. (One of the most interesting, the Amazon cult, views the plague as nature's plan, the wiping out of an unnecessary organism.)

Yorick's mother, a politician, is enlisted to help the new president, the former Secretary of Agriculture. When she learns that her son is still alive, she puts him under the protection of Agent 355, a fierce fighter and member of the elite and secretive Culper Ring. The two set out to find a woman named Dr. Mann, who may be humanity's last hope for survival, if she is able to perfect the science of cloning. Yorick, meanwhile, is only interested in finding his girlfriend, Beth, whom he was in the middle of proposing to (over the phone) when the plague struck. Beth is in the Australian Outback, cut off from all communication.

And there we have the beginnings of the classic pilgrimage story: A young man who will do anything to find the woman he loves, even while the world is falling apart around him. Their quest takes place over years, in the same amount of time that the series was being published, and we readers make the journey with them every step of the way, no matter how violent, sad, terrible, unexpected, funny, or shocking it is.

The truth is, why the men were wiped out was never all that essential to the series, as Vaughan wisely makes clear almost from the beginning. That's not to say that his story isn't focused on solving this mystery; it is and it does indeed get solved. But not far into Y: The Last Man, we realize we're far more interested in following Yorick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann on their journey than anything else. Vaughan's witty dialogue, in the face of his interesting take on a man-less society, lets us get to know these characters, as well as a broad supporting cast, little by little, like friends we are growing to like more and more. Saying goodbye to these friends after all the time you've spent with them will be difficult. But Vaughan ensures it will have the ring of truth to it.

-- John Hogan

I just finished the last book of Y: The Last Man and I found it really emotional. I think that Vaughn very wisely realizes that the true focus of an ending should be characters, not plot. In the end, we weren't reading Y: The Last Man for all these years because it was about the last man on earth, we were reading it because it was about a group of really compelling characters. The wonderful thing about how the series ends is that Vaughn finds a way to bring closure to the many interpersonal storylines - and he does so in ways that are often unexpected and yet still very compelling and satisfying. The last issue, in particular, was an emotional read and was, in my opinion, an ending that met all my expectations and then some.

*spoilers ahead*

If I think on it too long I can't help but feel just a little let down by the ending of this series. But, that said, doesn't mean that I'm altogether unhappy with the ending or that I think it should have been done differently.

All mysteries are not fully revealed. I have to think that perhaps that was intentional. We don't always get all the answers in life, right? Society and periods in history (some more than others) are messy and complicated and convoluted and full of holes that never get completely filled in and smoothed over. And just like in life, we don't always get the most reasonable, justifiable answers to those complex situations. So my feelings of let down are not so much with the writer and how things came together (or didn't) but just that things didn't turn out rosier.

My feelings about the explanation of the plague are mirrored by Yorick himself when he says, "As far as answers go, it was vaguely unsatisfying." To which Beth asks, "Is there any explanation that would have been satisfactory?" Yorick: "Um, aliens? I would have also accepted witchcraft or anything involving nanobots." I think that Vaughan is letting readers know here that he knows that the grand reveal really wasn't all that grand, that it wasn't a mistake or an oversight but it was meant to be that way. The series' strength is most definitely in it's characters. And character development is what Brian Vaughan seems to do really well.

My only real qualm is that Yorick's character wasn't more redemptive. He loses so much and goes through so much and manages to maintain his sense of humor and optimism through the entire series, right down to the very last chapter, but excluding the very last chapter. It's rather disheartening. But then again, a human reaction that feels true to life. It's an anti-fairytale conclusion. And a fairytale, this definitely is not