Seriously.
By Miles Baker
Years ago, long before MONDO hit the web, TV and Video Games editor Alexander Huls lent me the first two collections of Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. I’m not sure what exactly he said but I imagine it was something along the lines of, “Critics love this book. I love this book. Now it is your turn to love this book.”
And I didn’t. It was okay.
It had a neat concept and good art and some funny moments but it didn’t click right way. On one day in 2002 everything with a Y chromosome dies at the same moment, except escape artist Yorick Brown and his pet helper-money-in-training, Ampersand. A few months later Yorick meets 355, a secret government agent who becomes his bodyguard and the two try to find a cloning specialist named Dr. Alison Mann. The bulk of the story has been these three characters’ journey across America, and the world, without men. But I had problems — why was it so funny and so serious? Why was there a monkey? Why wasn’t there a blind man in red tights having sex with a ninja?
But I stuck with it, and then the fourth book came out, Safeword. It blew my mind. This book blew the lid off of Yorick — his fears, his morals, his sexual history — everything that had been there all along if you only looked close enough. I realized how good a writer Vaughan is, and waited anxiously for each following book to come out.But the wait is almost over — in a few more issues Y: The Last Man will be finished. The creators had always planned the series to run 60 issues, and it is actually going to be exactly 60 issues. Issue #56 and the second-last trade Motherland came out last week and this is your chance to jump on board. Go to your comic book store, buy all 9 collections and issues 55 and 56. You will not be sorry. You’ll only be sorry that you’ll have to wait another 6 months or so to read the conclusion.
I could not believe last issue’s conclusion. Vaughan has become king of the last page shocker. What is going to happen next? I don’t know, I have no clue, but it is fun to guess. It’s going to be big, and there are going to be deaths, and I’m going to probably cry. Please, let’s share the box of tissues.
