Book #25

Y: The Last Man - Cycles by Brian K Vaughn, Pia Guerra & José Marzán Jr

As Yorick Brown, the last man on Earth, begins to make his way across the country to California, he and his companions are forced to make an unscheduled stop in Marrisville, Ohio—a small town with a big secret.

Another round of fast-paced strange happenings, violence, and plot twists.

I still have a real issue with Yorick. I understand that he's being conveyed as a general 'everyman', but I genuinely dislike him. I hope his monkey and his magic tricks eventually come to something, because at the moment they seem like little nuances to give him some sort of a personality. He's dull and incredibly self-centred, and despite being described as 'liberal', makes a good few 'uber macho' comments about women, and the situation, which just didn't endear me to him in the slightest. Which brings me to my next point.

As an apparent feminist novel, it could not be more obvious this was written by a man. Phrases like, "You haven't seen us during our periods. All of our cycles are in synch, so once a month, this town turns into a bloody whirlpool of bitchiness," and "I didn't think pretty girls were into that kind of stuff," really grated. Not only that, but Yorick meets a young lady, hits her with a monologue of how in love he is with his girlfriend, then puts the moves on her anyway. Surely a woman developing such a fast fancy for Yorick is defining his self-importance and power even further? And slowly, but surely, more women seem to be falling in love with him. Why?! Where is the social point here? Not to mention the Amazons are far too 'man-hating'. Surely with only one man left in the world, that level of rage would be pretty superfluous? If they are supposed to be symbolising feminists, then feminists are being totally demonised and caricatured as insane here.

The plot itself is pretty gripping, and Guerra's artwork is flawless. She adds depth to the plot with her drawings, invoking suspense and panic all at the right time.

I really don't mean to slaughter this completely; I enjoyed reading it, and was just as gripped as I was with the first volume. Some of the above things I've mentioned just didn't sit well with me. However, I'm moving on to volume three, and third time's the charm, as they say.