Y: The Last Man

   Today I'm going to do a classic comic critique on one of my personal favorites: Y:The Last Man(henceforth to be referred to as YTLM). Set in the present day, YTLM focuses on a man in his 20s named Yorick Brown. Simply put, Yorick is the last man on earth. Due to reasons I won't spoil for the rest of you, every male creature on the planet died suddenly save for Yorick and his monkey ampersand(&). Y and & team up with 355, and agent of the Culper ring, a secret spy organization the reports directly to the president, and Dr. Mann, one of the planets leading biologists in order to protect and study Yorick. Yorick, not being content with living a secluded protected life, journeys to find his girlfriend Beth, who was in the Australian outback at the time of the event.

   YTLM is in my opinion one of the greatest comics of all time. The story and characterization are superb. All of the characters manage to always feel "real." They act realistically, and they are what propel the story, instead of the characters bending to serve the plot like what happens all too often in modern comics, televison, etc. The dialogue is interesting and always fitting to the characters, after a while, you could probably read just the bubbles and know who is saying what line. The story also takes place over 10 years and 60 issues, giving time for substantial character growth.

   The art, however, is..adequate. I'm not criticizing it at all, but it's simply nothing spectacular. It fills it's role perfectly, but this is simply not a graphics driven story. The most important function the art serves is showing us the post male world. I know many may thing the world would function alright without men, and yes, women are perfectly capable of running the show. But to simply remove all men in an instant, most politicians and CEOs in the blink of an eye, you can understand how the world breaks down. This is why YTLM excels as a comic not a novel. A novel would require descriptions and visualization of this altered world, whereas a comic can simply show you, panel to panel as the story progresses.

   So, in closing, read this comic. I give it my highest recommendation.

Background

   I figured that if you're going to get opinions from me, you should at least get some idea of my comics background. I started in about '06, with Civil War. Maybe not a great place to start, but an excellent way to get familiar with lot of characters at once. I suppose because of this beginning, my tastes lie primarily with Marvel, although I'm currently loving anything Green Lantern (read from Rebirth up through Blackest Night and current arcs) as well as some of the stellar elseworlds DC publishes, Red Son and the like. Vertigo also has published some of my favorite series: Watchmen, Sandman(the 2 whores of favorite series) as well as Preacher and Y:The Last Man. I also want to say Image, but in reality, it's just Robert Kirkman.