Great comic books can be more than just muscular men (or women) in capes punching their antagonist's in the face . Sure, those books are still awesome, but some of the best stories in comics aren't about super-powered beings. They're about people and their reactions to events. In 2002, a book by writer Brian K Vaughan and artist Pia Guerra launched at Vertigo which told the simple, yet insanely complex, story of a man and his monkey called Y: The Last Man.
Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand
Vertigo, a DC imprint (which everybody should check out), has always been known as the comic book company that tells more stories that veer away from the traditional cape books. Vertigo is for more mature audiences, many of their comics are mini-series. In the summer of 2002, Vertigo launched a new book, which would end up going down as one of the imprint's best series.
"Y The Last Man" is the story of a young man named Yorick Brown and his monkey Ampersand, both males in a world where every single male has died (sounds fun right?). That's right, every male on the planet, not just human males, has died in the world, and this story doesn't go the way you think it would. Yorick and Ampersand are off on a journey to find Yorick's fiance, Beth DeVille, in Australia, which is hard when you're the last of your kind and you end up on the run from Amazons, who think that God killed all the men on Earth for a reason.
What caused all the men in the world to die? Well, that's something that's explored throughout most of this series. It's always a question in the back of the reader's mind: Is it mystical? Is it biological? The world teeters between normalcy and chaos as some of the women left in the world try to go on with their lives, while others just go all "Mad Max."
The book is a lot more than that though. It's about fighting for the future of the human race, while some people try and destroy it. It's a brilliant mixture of sanity and craziness. The chaos popping up around these characters only adds to the excitement of the overall goal of fixing the planet.
Artist Pia Guerra worked on the majority of this series and her style became just as important as anything else (including the amazing writing). It's consistently beautiful, and something you find yourself looking forward to with every issue. It's fantastic storytelling through art, and it completely fits in with the Vertigo style many fans have become accustomed to, including yours truly.
"Y: The Last Man" isn't a comic you should read. It's a comic you have to to read (during your spare time that is). It's required reading for all fans of literature and great stories, that stands tall among giants like "Maus", "Watchmen", and "The Dark Knight Returns". It's a fabulous story about a man and his monkey in a world of women (who are also out to kill him). The art and writing are top notch, and will have you reading from the start to the ending. It's so good in fact, that FX is currently creating a show based on the story. So if your bored one day at your local Barnes and Nobles and tired of reading YA or bad teenage vampire drama, then "Y: The Last Man" might be the story for you.
