by Arcvert

On July 17th, 2002, a plague kills every mammal with a Y chromosome across the globe. Planes with male pilots fall out of the sky, governments headed by men are thrown into chaos and the reproductive future of the human race seems pretty bleak.

So opens Y: The Last Man, a graphic novel by American writer Brian K. Vaughn (Ex Machina and Lost) and Canadian artist Pia Guerra. The graphic novel runs at sixty issues (ten paperback volumes) and throughout its run the plot deals with the aftermath of the plague for individuals and entire nations. On a number of different levels, Y: The Last Man discusses gender, the concept of an epic and romantic quest, as well as being a deliciously nitty-gritty dystopian.

Yorick Brown--an escape artist--and his monkey, Ampersand are the only males to survive the plague. Unsurprisingly, this makes him a target for the remainder of the population. Some want him as a political tool, others want to have his children and one particular group of women, the Daughters of the Amazon, want him dead.

I really enjoyed Yorick as the audience's lens into this very changed world. He is not an impressive hero or a pinnacle of morality--instead, he is your average person who is understandably bewildered when thrust into an existence where he cannot even walk down the street without disguising himself. He is a character who sticks to his guns and pursues his one, perhaps selfish goal above all else in a way that reminds myself of how I would be tempted to act in a similar situation.

Beyond the central character, Y: The Last Man has an extensive cast of main and supporting characters that really serve to enrich the world that Vaughn and Guerra are giving their audience. At no point does it feel like the pages are following an insular and one character plot. In my opinion, even some of the least featured supporting characters receive excellent development and come off as full, complete individuals.

The charm is not only in the plot and narrative; Guerra's art is fantastic. Mirroring the same attention to detail in the characterization of Yorick and the rest of the cast, Guerra's art brings these characters to life with facial expressions and body language that seems to work fluidly frame to frame in a way that made me forget they were a series of still images.

For more information on Y: The Last Man, you can go to this link (http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=1736), where there also is the option to download and read the first issue. The film rights have been acquired to make a movie adaptation of this graphic novel, so go out and try reading it....You know what they say, the comic book is always better than the movie.