10 Thoughts on... Y: The Last Man Vol. 1

Here we go with try number two of this “10 Thoughts on...” deal. Let's see if it comes out any better than my first shot at it...

Y: The Last Man, Book 1: Unmanned.. Collecting: Y: The Last Man #1-5

-This comic gets started with every single creature with a Y chromosome on the Earth suddenly vomiting up blood and dying... Well every creature with the exception of Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand.

-Throughout this trade, we get no real clues as to what caused the massive die-off, and Yorick himself, being an amateur illusionist, believes it was the ring he picked up from a magic shop that he was intending on proposing to his girlfriend with once she returned from Australia.

-The closest thing to a clue we have about what may have happened to the men is that a secret agent from the US Government, Agent 355, had gone to Jordan to spirit a woman out of the country due to some sort of ancient necklace the woman was wearing. The woman refuses to leave, explaining that her father had warned her that a catastrophe would occur if the amulet left Jordan. Some terrorists who wanted the amulet wind up killing the woman, and 355 kills the terrorists, taking the amulet with her. Soon after leaving Jordanian airspace, all the men perish.

-Two months after the death of all the men, Yorick(obviously very covered up) and Ampersand make their way to Washington DC in search of his mother, who was a congresswoman from Ohio. Yorick finds his mom, who is overjoyed that he survived, but wants Yorick to hide, since in the two months since the great die-off, several dangerous groups of women have popped up.Hi mom!


-Yorick's mother tricks him into entering a safe room hidden under the White House after an attack by a bunch of crazy Republicans. Since the majority of women left in the government were Democrats, the wives of the dead Republican Representatives decide that they deserved the jobs of their late husbands.It's funny 'cause it's true!


-Agent 355 winds up locating the Secretary of Agriculture and explains to her that with the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, etc. dead, she was now the acting president and had to head to Washington.

-355 and the new president show up at the White House just in time to see the crazy Republicans and the few female Representatives and secret service agents having a stand-off on the lawn. The new president(being a rare non-crazy Republican) manages to convince the crazy Republicans to leave for now, just as Yorick breaks out of the safe room and heads outside.

-Yorick wants to head to Australia to find his girlfriend, but the new president tasks 355 with escorting Yorick to Boston where there was a female geneticist who was extremely knowledgeable in the area of cloning and genetics, with the hope being the geneticist could clone/figure out why Yorick and his monkey were still alive.

-Yorick and 355 manage to locate the geneticist in Boston, Dr. Mann, but Mann is unable to do any experiments on Yorick because her lab was mysteriously burnt down. Mann explains she had a back-up lab in California, meaning the trio would have to sneak out to the west coast, keeping Yorick safe from harm during the trip.

-Besides all of that, we also learn that the new leading military force in the world is Israel, since they actually had female soldiers who had seen military action, something much of the rest of the world couldn't also lay claim to. The Israelis go about conquering several Middle Eastern nations around them as they begin to throw around their newfound world power status. Another pending threat is the Daughters of the Amazons, a bunch of women who had fallen into a cult that felt that all men deserved to die since men suck. These women have cut off one of their breasts like the mythical Amazons of old and have amongst their ranks Yorick's sister, Hero. Needless to say the rumors that one man had survived the great die-off was of great interest of them, since they felt it was their duty to rid Mother Earth of ALL men.

Score: 9 out of 10. This first trade was more intriguing than great to me. The story was extremely engaging, and the mystery of what happened to the men was great, even though it didn't take center stage during the second half of this trade. Yorick is an easy character to like, as are 355 and even Dr. Mann. They have their own distinctive personalities, and each bring something different to the table. Who knew a world run by women would be turn out so sucky?! I always figured all of the world's troubles stemmed from the men!