Ah, the age old isolationism scenario. Be it cast away on a lonely island, or the last human of a post-apocalyptic world, the ‘last man’ idea has been widely expounded on in literature and film.

With that being the case, I was ready to harshly criticize Y, The Last Man. It had to do something really special to impress me. If it rehashed Last Man on Earth, Planet of The Apes or Mad Max situations with mutated people or alternate futures, I would despise it. If it was too satirical, I would loathe it.

Instead, it did none of those things. I loved it! Y, the Last Man (his real name is Yorick) deals with the destruction of every male on earth through biological means (a weapon is hinted at). Only Yorick and his pet monkey seem to be the only males to have survived it.

What makes the book so good though, is that it not only deals with Yorick trying to figure out what is going on, but how the system would work and recover with nothing but women. It also accomplishes this without falling into chauvinistic characterizations or stereotypes. Rather, the whole spectrum of women’s personalities and emotions at the loss of all men on Earth are revealed, as well as the need and will to survive. Sure, chaos abounds, but not because women are in charge, only because there has been a major catastrophe.

Then there is the characterization of Yorick, the last man, himself. This book could easily fall into the brooding, dark anti-hero of many of this type of story or situation. Instead, writer Brian K. Vaughn takes a lot more realistic approach to the character. Yorick understands the situation, he acknowledges he may be humanity’s last chance to come back from the brink of extinction, but he also has hope. Hope to find his girlfriend, who was on the other side of the world, and hope to find other men. After all, if he could survive, surely someone else did also. His core personality doesn’t change, rather he changes to adapt to new situations.

Another one of the series great strengths is its extremely smart view and understanding of current social and political viewpoints. Biological warfare, unrest in the Middle East, current trends among women, women in politics, all are touched upon without falling into sermons or stereotypes. That’s a tricky thing to pull off, and it will be interesting to see how the series holds up several books down the line. The artwork by Pia Guerra is excellent for the material. It is nice, clean line art. It has a very ‘alternative, underground’ feel to the art, but that’s probably because it is not a superhero comic. This is just normal people dealing with abnormal situations. Every character has a unique feel and look, and the reader can easily distinguish the action that goes on.

I can’t find any fault with this book. The dialogue is spot on, people act like people would in these situations, the art is clean, and it’s a mature readers book that is actually mature without being profane for shock value sake. Highest recommendation!