"Y" is none other than unemployed escape artist Yorick Brown (his father was a Shakespeare buff), and he's seemingly the only male human left alive...
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reviews
Jan 17, 2012
Michael
rated it: 
In typical comic book male-centric fashion, this series wonders what life would be like if all men died spontaneously...except for one.
I suppose if we're trying to put ourselves in the head of an early-nineties comic book reading teen, this might feel innovative. Unfortunately, I find that innovative in the world of comics is pretty much Iron Age for the rest of literature. How does Vaughan manage to make a series with gender issues at its center so bizarrely sexist?
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I suppose if we're trying to put ourselves in the head of an early-nineties comic book reading teen, this might feel innovative. Unfortunately, I find that innovative in the world of comics is pretty much Iron Age for the rest of literature. How does Vaughan manage to make a series with gender issues at its center so bizarrely sexist?
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36 comments
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(34 people liked it)
Jul 04, 2011
Nancy
rated it: 
I haven’t read a comic book since I was a child, saving my measly allowance for Archie and his friends. Once I discovered my mother’s Harold Robbins novels, I never went back to comics…until now.
A number of my Goodreads friends enjoy graphic novels (as they are called now), so I became curious and asked my friend Kemper for a recommendation. Y: The Last Man was perfect for me to start with. I love post-apocalyptic stories and wanted some light, easy reading between school books. More...
A number of my Goodreads friends enjoy graphic novels (as they are called now), so I became curious and asked my friend Kemper for a recommendation. Y: The Last Man was perfect for me to start with. I love post-apocalyptic stories and wanted some light, easy reading between school books. More...
20 comments
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(24 people liked it)
Feb 22, 2011
Bruce
rated it:
I've read so much here and elsewhere about how brilliant this series is, and from the two books I've read, I'm afraid I can't agree. The concept (plague instantaneously kills all Y-chromosome mammals -- except a guy named Yorick and his pet capuchin monkey -- around the globe without warning) has tremendous promise. However, the execution in the two books I read (this one and Vol. 13) was pedestrian. Characterization, plot, and art were all two-dimensional. (By contrast, Judge Parker has more
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0 comments
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(10 people liked it)
Aug 25, 2011
Keely
rated it: 
A sort of reversal of the film 'Children of Men', Y the Last Man is sometimes difficult to take seriously. The storytelling itself is not bad, though it sometimes falls into the faults of Lost, with endless, predictable hardship. It is an interesting concept, and Vaughan at least connects himself tangentially to the literary tradition, but these connections are often too flimsy or too coincidental in construction.
The worst crime of all may be that one keeps feeling that Yorick is sta More...
The worst crime of all may be that one keeps feeling that Yorick is sta More...
7 comments
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(9 people liked it)
Oct 11, 2011
Brandon
rated it:
All the men are dead.
Yorick Brown remains after a mysterious virus eliminates every last thing with a Y chromosome. While he’s expected to do his part in figuring out why he survived, he’s mainly concerned with finding his would-be fiancé in the outback of Australia.
This would be my first experience in reading a graphic novel where the main character isn’t flying/swinging/driving around in spandex. For my first foray into the non-superhero genre, I probably couldn’t h More...
Yorick Brown remains after a mysterious virus eliminates every last thing with a Y chromosome. While he’s expected to do his part in figuring out why he survived, he’s mainly concerned with finding his would-be fiancé in the outback of Australia.
This would be my first experience in reading a graphic novel where the main character isn’t flying/swinging/driving around in spandex. For my first foray into the non-superhero genre, I probably couldn’t h More...
0 comments
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(9 people liked it)
May 30, 2011
Jim
rated it:
This book is wayyy overrated. What if every man in the world save one suddenly died? The results may surprise you...if you've never read or seen this kind of thing before. If you have, it's more of the same -- a by-the-numbers, competent execution of a goofy premise. It's a good "entry-level" comic, but it's one that you'll be embarassed by a few years from now.
0 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Aug 16, 2008
Jackie "the Librarian"
rated it: 
An interesting variation on a familiar theme - a sudden plague kills MOST of the people on the planet. This time, it's all the males on the planet, leaving only women. Except for this one slacker kid named Yorick - and his pet monkey. Gotta have the annoying pet monkey, like Marcel on "Friends", or the whole premise falls apart.
As Yorick is no Einstein, just a regular guy, all he can think about is reuniting with his girlfriend. Who cares about why he is the sole survivor More...
As Yorick is no Einstein, just a regular guy, all he can think about is reuniting with his girlfriend. Who cares about why he is the sole survivor More...
5 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Jun 30, 2008
Jamie
rated it:
Now that I've finished the series (well, the first 9 books -- the 10th is unavailable to me), I'll write a bit about how I feel about the series as a whole.
I really wanted to hate this series. It is incredibly sexist in so many ways, and I started taking notes on some of the more ridiculous aspects of it so I would remember by the time I got around to writing this. My husband would find random pieces of paper scattered around the house and ask me what "factories stop working, no More...
I really wanted to hate this series. It is incredibly sexist in so many ways, and I started taking notes on some of the more ridiculous aspects of it so I would remember by the time I got around to writing this. My husband would find random pieces of paper scattered around the house and ask me what "factories stop working, no More...
0 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Dec 28, 2008
Erin
rated it:
so - while i realize that the premise of this book is supposed to be stunning in overturning the stereotypical assumption that women without men will create a feminist/lesbian utopia, a la Herland, by proposing that left to their own devices, women would act like a bunch of goomba guys, arm themselves and create civil war, strife, and general mayhem, can any of us really image a scenario in which large groups of women, left without men for extended periods of time, would NOT 1) hug a lot 2) lick
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0 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Jul 30, 2008
Seth
rated it:
[[note: this review covers the entire series of ten volumes]]
Imagine a world in which every creature possessing a Y chromosome has just died. In a single moment, the world's animal population has been reduced by roughly half. This is a world where most of the world's politicians, most of the world's scientists, most of the world's military, most of the world's pilots, most of the world's film-makers, and most of the world's businessmen are no longer with us. This is a world of chaos More...
Imagine a world in which every creature possessing a Y chromosome has just died. In a single moment, the world's animal population has been reduced by roughly half. This is a world where most of the world's politicians, most of the world's scientists, most of the world's military, most of the world's pilots, most of the world's film-makers, and most of the world's businessmen are no longer with us. This is a world of chaos More...
0 comments
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(6 people liked it)
May 23, 2008
George
rated it:
This graphic novel is about a plague that kills every man on Earth, minus one. Yorick has just graduated from college, and he’s wondering what to do with his life now that he’s all big and growed up. Before the plague hits, he’s in the process of digesting the fact that his English degree qualifies him to work at a bookstore (I majored in English, and speak from bitter experience). Yorick is proposing to his girlfriend over the phone when every man on Earth dies. Here are the possible causes of
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3 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Apr 04, 2007
Ryan
rated it:
This series would be great if every character didn't have precisely the same voice (which basically relies on the overuse of "fucking" (n.b.: yeah, I'd say "fucking" a lot too if I were dealing with death and chaos on that scale, but I felt like everyone kept saying it with the same frequency)), and if in every new community he visited Yorick didn't find the perfect girl for him who then dies, and if it did anything with stereotypes of women other than throw them out there fo
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 26, 2011
Brad
rated it:
So there's this thing that happens in post-apocalypse stories that I need to talk to you about.
You know how in a zombiepocalypse story we occassionally receive hints that it might be better for the women to stay safe so they can make babies? Usually it's only hints, and the male characters don't seem to want to offend the post-feminist sensibilities of the women, so instead the women tote guns and put their wombs at risk of becoming a zombie-buffet. But everyone gets along-ish, and More...
You know how in a zombiepocalypse story we occassionally receive hints that it might be better for the women to stay safe so they can make babies? Usually it's only hints, and the male characters don't seem to want to offend the post-feminist sensibilities of the women, so instead the women tote guns and put their wombs at risk of becoming a zombie-buffet. But everyone gets along-ish, and More...
18 comments
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(21 people liked it)
Jan 04, 2009
Izlinda
rated it:
A lot of my friends recommended this series to me. I finally gave in and read this issue while in Barnes & Noble today.
The premise, I think, is well-known to anybody who'd be reading my review. Something kills all males of all mammals (I'm unsure about other types of animals) except for Yorick and his male monkey Ampersand.
The story is rather intriguing. Of course we're all interested in knowing what caused the Y-carriers to drop dead. The structure of the graphic novel cau More...
The premise, I think, is well-known to anybody who'd be reading my review. Something kills all males of all mammals (I'm unsure about other types of animals) except for Yorick and his male monkey Ampersand.
The story is rather intriguing. Of course we're all interested in knowing what caused the Y-carriers to drop dead. The structure of the graphic novel cau More...
3 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 29, 2011
Federiken
rated it:
Esta relectura me pareció igual de placentera que la primera, pero mucho más rica. El hecho de saber de antemano por qué pasa lo que pasa -o algo así- y qué sucede entre los saltos cronológicos aparentemente caprichosos que se van dando a lo largo de la historia (que a su vez transcurre prácticamente en tiempo real) ayuda a recomponer el todo de una manera más prolija y analizable. Es como armar un rompecabezas gigante con piezas enormes, de distintos colores y texturas y, una vez que está compl
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 07, 2007
Eric
rated it:
How many times over the years have I endured the following statement?
(in whiny voice)
"Well, when women rule the world..."
"Y: The Last Man" poses such a scenario. A doctor impregnates herself with the clone of her own nephew who, when born, triggers a mysterious and instantaneous planetwide "gendercide" in which all mammals with a Y chromosome suddenly and disturbingly drop dead accompanied by some horrendous hemorhaging from all More...
(in whiny voice)
"Well, when women rule the world..."
"Y: The Last Man" poses such a scenario. A doctor impregnates herself with the clone of her own nephew who, when born, triggers a mysterious and instantaneous planetwide "gendercide" in which all mammals with a Y chromosome suddenly and disturbingly drop dead accompanied by some horrendous hemorhaging from all More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 05, 2008
Lindy Loo
rated it:
I'm not quite sure what to make of this graphic novel series. It's an interesting concept--all of the men on earth have, in a few swift seconds, been destroyed, except for one--and it was a quick read. But I can't quite pin down whether it's really quite so feminist as it seems to THINK it is, or whether it's smart enough to see that it sort of HAS to be in some ways (since there's only female characters in it, but for one) and so the feminism is just inadvertent. The fact that a) most of the
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 03, 2008
Damon
rated it:
Not being a comic book, pardon graphic novel, person I thought I would give this a shot as an article I was reading listed the ten must-read graphic novels. I found this to be engaging and a fun hour or so escape from my tredging through the Che Guevara biography (only 250 pages to go). Looking into the question of what the world would be like with no men is interesting and something I haven't come across in picture-free reading, so that part is definitely intriguing. I think I will pick up t
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Jan 08, 2012
Shannon
rated it:
What if all the men, except one young man and his male monkey pet, were wiped out all over the world and nobody knew why exactly? That's the setup for volume one of this series that takes a look at gender issues and progressive science versus a natural order of things. I like that the explanation for the plague is not known and there are several possibilities. There's a fair amount of mischievous style humor in the first volume. For instance, women commemorate the dead man at an obvious phallic
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Sep 07, 2011
Andrea
rated it:
In a matter of minutes, a strange plague sweeps across the globe eliminating any creature with a Y chromozone. All the males in the world are gone, all except for Yorick Brown and his pet monkey. Yorick's only thought is to try to reach his girlfriend in Australia, though that plan is quickly derailed by a litany of bigger problems, not the least of which is to keep his survival a secret.
In the aftermath of the death of the men, the women are left to pick up the pieces of society. Some More...
In the aftermath of the death of the men, the women are left to pick up the pieces of society. Some More...
Jul 10, 2011
Skye
rated it:
One July summer the supposedly impossible happens: every mammal, fetus and sperm...anything with a Y chromosome dies. Yorick Brown, an unemployed English Major of New York seems to be the anomaly along with his pet monkey Ampersand. On finding out he is the only male survivor all he wants to do is go to Australia to find his girlfriend Beth. Of course not everything is as easy as it sounds, after two months a group of women known as the Amazons go around defacing memorials to men claiming Mother
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Apr 11, 2011
Halik
rated it:
Fast paced speculative fiction. Y the last man starts when all the men in the world suddenly squirt blood from the various bodily orifices and slump to the ground. Stone dead. Of course, one man survives. As the title helpfully implies.
The story relies more on the compulsion of a crime novel and not too much on philosophical introspection a la 'Watchmen'. There are no monologues and intellectual back-and-forths on the deeper nature of the universe, power, life etc. At least not yet. S More...
The story relies more on the compulsion of a crime novel and not too much on philosophical introspection a la 'Watchmen'. There are no monologues and intellectual back-and-forths on the deeper nature of the universe, power, life etc. At least not yet. S More...
Apr 06, 2011
Terence
rated it:
I picked this up from the library today on a whim. My experience with graphic novels is fairly limited and really only began (first-hand) a few years ago, though I have always been intrigued by them on a certain level. This title stood out because it's often cited in lists outlining the best graphic novels of the past decade. And there was certainly a lot of praise lathered on the front and back covers. Yet after finishing it I question it's supposed placement in the comics pantheon and feel lik
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Jan 05, 2011
Adhitia
rated it:
Kebayang ngga sih kalo ketika dunia sedang damai2nya tiba2 diserang virus aneh yang bikin seluruh manusia berjenis kelamin PRIA meninggal. berlaku juga buat bayi yang masih dikandungan! serem banget kan pastinya.
Tapi anehnya hal ini ngga berlaku buat Yorick Brown, satu2nya manusia PRIA yang tersisa di bumi. Yorick yang akhirnya berhasil bertemu dengan ibu yang merupakan seorang pejabat negara, merencanakan beberapa langkah yang dipercaya akan menyelamatkan dunia dari kekacauan. Dengan bantu More...
Tapi anehnya hal ini ngga berlaku buat Yorick Brown, satu2nya manusia PRIA yang tersisa di bumi. Yorick yang akhirnya berhasil bertemu dengan ibu yang merupakan seorang pejabat negara, merencanakan beberapa langkah yang dipercaya akan menyelamatkan dunia dari kekacauan. Dengan bantu More...
Dec 12, 2010
Kokeshi
rated it:
An interesting premise - a plague destroys all the world's mammals with a Y chromosome.
I will judge this comic solely on this volume as I have yet to read the rest. I think this is a good story and definitely one that has potential. However, there is something missing. I thought it was very two dimensional with little depth in any of it
I felt that the characters were very weak. The lone male protagonist is nihilistic, weak, and irritating. It is hard to care about wha More...
I will judge this comic solely on this volume as I have yet to read the rest. I think this is a good story and definitely one that has potential. However, there is something missing. I thought it was very two dimensional with little depth in any of it
I felt that the characters were very weak. The lone male protagonist is nihilistic, weak, and irritating. It is hard to care about wha More...
Sep 25, 2010
Jessi
rated it:
First Line: "Something's wrong!"
Read alikes: Buffy (TV show and graphic novels)
I saw this title recommended on Seattle Public Library's blog Shelf Talk. I'm not consistently a graphic novel reader, although I pick one up every now and then. I often just read the text bubbles and forget to look at the artwork, which results in missing at least half of the story. I'm working on changing the way I "read" these and it helps when the book is so freakin' awesome. The More...
Read alikes: Buffy (TV show and graphic novels)
I saw this title recommended on Seattle Public Library's blog Shelf Talk. I'm not consistently a graphic novel reader, although I pick one up every now and then. I often just read the text bubbles and forget to look at the artwork, which results in missing at least half of the story. I'm working on changing the way I "read" these and it helps when the book is so freakin' awesome. The More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jul 05, 2010
Reed
rated it:
Having heard very good things about Y: The Last Man, and being on such a graphic novel kick, I decided to give volume 1 a look-see.
Not sure I should've bothered. Perhaps it's unfair to read this after having read the first four volumes of The Sandman, but Vaughan's Y just doesn't measure up. Not even close.
Y details the adventures of Yorick,literally the last man on Earth. A mysterious plague suddenly kills every mammal with a y-chromosome, other than Yorick and his mo More...
Not sure I should've bothered. Perhaps it's unfair to read this after having read the first four volumes of The Sandman, but Vaughan's Y just doesn't measure up. Not even close.
Y details the adventures of Yorick,literally the last man on Earth. A mysterious plague suddenly kills every mammal with a y-chromosome, other than Yorick and his mo More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 04, 2010
Giovanni
rated it:
DC/Vertigo Comics came up with a real winner here. The plot line is that in the summer of 2002 an unknown plague has destroyed everything with a mammal y chromosome, basic gendercide. 48% of the Earth’s population wiped out, 2.9 billion men. There is but one survivor, excuse me, one human male, a recent college graduate named Yorick, and he has a male monkey that also survives. The graphic novel is a great origin story for the franchise. The question is asked, “What would really happen to the la
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2 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 02, 2010
Lara
rated it:
Alright, the plot is really, really unique. I love stories like this, so I tend to be more critical. The premise, that a mysterious plague has wiped out all mammals with a Y chromosome (so, no more men) in the matter of a few seconds, clearly lends itself to good reading. I would have liked to see more of the fall-out of the wipe-out, however; things are hinted at as to what happened, but the interesting thing for me is seeing how society deals...and that was largely brushed over. The main chara
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Feb 08, 2010
Spencer
rated it:
I'm re-reading this series, and trying to go slow with it. You know, to savor the flavor. Well, it's proving to be just as delicious as the first time around, so the first volume went quickly. Matter of fact, it was a one-sitting fly-through.
A friend of mine tried to read this series, but got annoyed by her feminist reading. As she explained, she didn't like how most of the women were written, which is a considerable complaint given that this book is a) written by a man, and b) More...
A friend of mine tried to read this series, but got annoyed by her feminist reading. As she explained, she didn't like how most of the women were written, which is a considerable complaint given that this book is a) written by a man, and b) More...
