Y: The Last Man Vol. 3: One Small Step (Paperback)

~ (Author), Pia Guerra (Illustrator), Jose Marzan (Illustrator), Brian V. Vaughan (Author), Pia Guerra (Author), Jose Marzan (Author)
Key Phrases: Letterer Pamela Rambo, Inker Clem Robins, Colorist Zylonol

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this addictive follow-up to the brilliantly imagined Y: The Last Man, we're still in the near future and Yorick Brown and his monkey sidekick, Ampersand, are still the last two males on Earth. It's been some months since the mysterious plague that wiped out all male creatures. Since then, women have been picking up the pieces. A mysterious government agency, the Culper Ring, is trying to get Yorick across the country for scientific study without being discovered, which isn't as easy as it sounds, but at least the growing drag king subculture makes it possible for people who look like men to walk around without exciting too much comment. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike team is trying to capture Yorick for its own uses, and the U.S. president is colluding with them. Most suspenseful of all, a space station carrying two surviving male astronauts is about to crash down in a Kansas cornfield. The stakes are high, and Vaughan masterfully interweaves story lines: the astronauts' survival, the military operations, an enemy spy, the valiant scientists and an unexpected travelling drama troupe that offends an entire town when it puts on a play in which the world is saved by a lone surviving man. Meanwhile, is Yorick falling in love with his bodyguard? Guerra knows just what the story needs, backing up Vaughan's tale with killer artwork and a smorgasbord of female heroines who look terrific without the least suggestion of cheesecake. This book is complete and utter comic gold.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The last panel of Cycles [BKL N 15 03] revealed that, although Yorick Brown is the last man alive on Earth, two other live men are on a space station. Their return to terra firma would take some heat off Yorick, who, in the third Y: The Last Man collection, remains in the custody of secret U.S. agent 355 while Israeli commandos pursue him. He, 355, and cloning scientist Allison Mann head for the decontamination facility near which the astronauts intend to land. They are joined en route--near-fatally for 355-- by a Russian agent, who comes in handy when the Israelis show up and snatch Yorick. Only after negotiations, ammo exchanges, and Yorick's own heroics does 355 re-take him. This hunk of Yorick's odyssey ends with a surprise as nasty as the Cycles surprise was hopeful. A pendant featuring Yorick's pet monkey, Ampersand, and a peripatetic theatrical company fill out the volume; drawn by a different, slightly more polished artist than the main story's Pia Guerra, it is every bit as well written by Vaughan. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401202012
• ISBN-13: 978-1401202019
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,787 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #15 in

  Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Science Fiction

• This is item 3 in The Y: The Last Man Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No drop-off in quality from the first two volumes, April 22, 2004

By	Christopher Griffen "Commitment to mediocrity!" (Pleasanton, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"One Small Step," the third volume of Y: The Last Man loses no momentum from the previous two volumes, "Unmanned" and "Cycles." In fact, I'd say it picks up steam. Now that I've become accustomed to the characters, I care more about them and find their perilous adventures more gripping than ever.

"One Small Step" contains two stories, the primary one being the title story. Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann travel through Missouri to Kansas and seek to help two more potential male survivors of the plaque to arrive safely on Earth from orbit. All males of all species on Earth died in the plague, but it didn't extend to those males OFF the planet. The International Space Station houses two male and one female astronaut, all of whom are dangerously close to suffocating in the failing life support of the station. They have to evacuate the station and find out whether they can survive now that several months have gone by since the plague.

Thrown into the mix are the Israeli soldiers, led by their stoic Colonel, whose motives have been unclear until this story. Suffice it to say that old scores die hard.

Brian Vaughn builds the tension slowly with several events threatening to collide explosively. The violent colonel, an endangered Yorick, and the fate of the astronauts all hangs in the balance. I found myself flying through the climactic pages of this story, eager to find out what was going to happen.

You really have to read the first two volumes before you move on to this one. There's too much back story you'll miss. But it's worth the time. This is one of the best comics to come out in the past several years and is not to be missed!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Longer Book For The Same Price, But Series Slows, June 12, 2006

By	K. W. Schreiter (Conshohocken, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book collects issues 11 to 17 of the series, offering seven issues for the same price as the first two five-issue volumes. Unfortunately, the plot moves slower than before, including a guest-penciled two-issue 'Comedy and Tragedy' sidebar about a traveling theater troupe in a small Nebraska town. I'll hope for an improvement in the simulaneously purchased Book 4 before continuing with Book 5.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Continuing the saga of the new age Omega Man, April 29, 2006

By	N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

As One Small Step, the third collected volume of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's compulsively addictive series from Vertigo, opens up, we now know that Yorick may indeed be the last living male mammal on the planet, but there are two male astronauts in orbit, and they're ready to come back home. Everything that happens between all this sets the stage for the future as Yorick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann make try to make their way to them, but not before others cross their path with their own intentions. Despite the moments of lag here and there, One Small Step is still exceptional comic reading from the best ongoing series to come out of Vertigo since Garth Ennis' Preacher; and speaking of which, the in-joke in the beginning of this TPB will leave you having a good laugh.