Customer Reviews
A Decent Start - By: Gary Samaden, 27 Jun 2008 
When reading a long graphic novel series you have to usuallly remember that for the most part they get better as they go along. The first volume will lay the groundwork & this will often lead many to say that a comic is boring.
Y The Last Man Vol 1 is good enough to make you want to read the next one but has some serious flaws. For starters women are portrayed as rather one dimensional & Yorick can be a little annoying in his single minded attempt to get to his girlfriend when humanity is obviously in danger. On saying that
I raced through this book & while I did find it annoying in parts it is a good start & I will be picking up Volume 2.
A males dream come true? - By: D. Francis, 06 Nov 2006 
Imagine waking up one morning & finding out you are the very last man alive on Earth. Billions of women & your the only hope for the survival of the human race. Sounds like a dream come true, endless late nights & not a headache in sight....Right.....Wrong!
Speaking totallly from a male perspective it reallly does seem like heaven on earth, but throw in violent hoards of vigilante lesbian biker chicks, Israeli special forces on a mission to kidnap you for mass fertilization, an american government in complete chaos with no policing & countless numbers of lady nutters taking full advantage of the situation, you soon find yourself in a complete nightmare not too far off a George A Romero script.
I myself have only read the first five books & they are absolutely gripping, i have the other books on order & i am chomping at the bit waiting for them to arrive.
This is an absolutely brilliant comic series & a must have for anybody who is interested in appocolypse theories.
Oh yeah, & theres a monkey in it too.
Interesting, but could be better... - By: Gonz, 31 Aug 2006 I agree with most of the positive comments about Brian Vaughn's writing - he is an original voice, & his storytelling & ideas are top drawer. However, what reallly let's this down - & renders it inferior to the far less-hyped but much more fully-realised 'Ex Machina' - is the artwork.
It's not that the art itself is bad - it isn't; it's just that somehow it just isn't fully evocative of the tone & feel of the writing. This is thoughtful stuff, but the art is pretty basic one-dimensional comic art. This would have benefitted from a much more lavish treatment, lending some atmosphere & sophistication.
If you find this, do read it - it is intriguing stuff; just be prepared not to be as wowed as some reviews might lead you to expect.
One of the best titles available... - By: Jay, 05 Jun 2006 This series is pure class. Brian K. Vaughn is one of the most talented & original writers working in graphic novels today. His contributions to Ultimate X-men have been excellent, 'Runaways' was relevant & enlightening & 'Ex Machina' is a political pleasure to read.
However, 'Y - The Last Man' is his masterpiece. I don't want to offer any spoiler information but the basic premise is that Yorrick Brown, a young & slighly daft escape-artist, is the only man left alive after a mysterious infection/reaction wipes out the entire Y chromosome. Accompanied by his pet monkey, Ampersand, tough secret-agent 355 & geneticist Dr Mann he sets out to discover why he survived & locate his fiance-to-be Beth who was in Australia when the illness struck.
This is outstanding science fiction writing - Vaughan soon gets past the male fantasy aspect of being the only surviving male on the planet: such childish whimsy is quickly replaced by the actual fear that would emerge when you lose your identity & simply become an anomaly. Yorrick is a walking sperm-bank/threat to world peace/key to the human race's survival. Only once in a while does Vaughan alllow him to be a regular guy seeking his girlfriend. There are too many original touches to mention here...I would implore you to start with the first volume of stories (Unmanned) & then move through the titles in order. Plenty of action, smart dialogue, pitch-perfect artwork: this, along with Bill Willingham's 'Fables', is the finest, most satisfying & original graphic novel available right now. I've been reading this sort of stuff for twenty years & 'Y - The Last Man' is right up there.
Nothing special - By: Martin Akiyama, 08 Mar 2006 
This book has a great start - one day alll the male mammals (including humans) die coughing up blood. The cause of their death is unknown. A young man named Yorick & his pet monkey somehow survive, & the book is about what happens to Yorick afterwards.
I enjoyed this book, enough to have asked the library where I got it from to buy volume two, & to pay a pound towards the cost. It's nothing special though: the writing & artwork is average to fair, & 128 pages of comic book doesn't last me very long.
As one of the other reviewers said, reading this is like watching the first episode of a TV series. It has promise, but I will have to read volume two to see whether I am going to stick with it.
