Y: The Last Man, Vol. 10: Whys and Wherefores Author: Brian Vaughan | Language: English | ISBN:
140121813X | Format: PDF
Y: The Last Man, Vol. 10: Whys and Wherefores Description
From Booklist
Even the best things come to an end, it’s said; for example, with this book, the outstanding serial graphic novel Y: The Last Man. Five years after the sudden death of all male animals except callow but not stupid 21-year-old Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand, Yorick is finally reunited with Beth, the fiancée with whom he was talking when the dying started. And with the other Beth, who has borne his daughter in the interim (this is news to him). The reunifications don’t really work out, and Yorick decides he loves another—as it happens, too late. Then the story vaults forward 60 years and, in a long denouement strewn with flashbacks, affords glimpses of how all-but-completely-female society has progressed. A few other males have been cloned from Yorick (and Ampersand), and different DNA strands seem to be in the offing. Maybe one day one resulting male won’t be sterile. Meanwhile, Yorick is still alive. Maintaining its plain good looks, the epic ends with a satisfyingly capricious whimper. Or is it a laugh? --Ray Olson
- Paperback: 168 pages
- Publisher: Vertigo (July 1, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 140121813X
- ISBN-13: 978-1401218133
- Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
There have been some great long series in comics, but Y: THE LAST MAN is unique in that all ten volumes making up the entire run tells a single story. The various books truly have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Other series may have a background arc that extends throughout the various books comprising their run, but Vaughan's masterpiece introduces a number of questions in the first volume that are developed in the ensuing nine volumes and answered only in the last. Will the human race survive the loss of all the males? Will Yorick be reunited with his finance? What do the Israelis tracking him have in mind? These and other stories are developed gradually over the course of the entire run.
The tone of the series as a whole tends to action drama laced with pop cultural references and humor. You laugh on one page, only to have something really horrid take place on the next. But none of the shocks of the first nine volumes comes anywhere near the shocks found in the final issues comprising Volume Ten. I won't go into details, but while all the main stories are completely wrapped up, they won't please every fan. While most of the news for the human race was positive, things did not turn out all that well for most of our heroes. Indeed, some of the arcs ended in utter tragedy. Though the story as a whole focuses on Yorick's constant joking about everything, the book's final events bring even his jokes to a halt. Some things are beyond wit. One event in particular is so shocking (you'll know it when you see it) and so unforeseen that it completely changes the nature of the entire series.
In a story like Y: THE LAST MAN it is absolutely essential that you end the whole thing well. This volume does precisely that. It cannot, of course, be read on its own.
All in all, this is an astoundingly satisfying conclusion to what may be the best comic series of all time. As Hellboy once said, "What makes a man a man?... It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them." Brian K. Vaughan gave us a truly great ride with the first nine volumes of "Y: The Last Man," but how he chose to conclude this series and pay-off all the plot points is truly spectacular.
Vaughan's writing here reminded me of Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under") at his best, and that's saying a lot. Each page pops with references to past events, little nods to pop culture, and supremely earned character moments that we've been waiting for since the man-killing plague hit in the first issue. There are no sweeping gestures to erase the plague, no "everything is all okay" ending, just a coming together of all the plot threads that Vaughan has established in a realistic, bittersweet, and emotional ending. The care that Brian K. Vaughan took in writing this and the care that Pia Guerra took in penciling this is so obvious, as it's their goodbyes to the characters they've been on this journey with for sixty long months. It's a beautiful piece of writing, and definitely establishes "Y: The Last Man" as one of the comics to absolutely transcend its medium.
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