Y: The Last Man - Unmanned
Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, José Mará¡n, Jr.

There was a long hesitation before I was willing to buy this comic, the premise has immature male fantasy written all over: everything that’s bad about comics really. But, I was looking for something else, and so far I’m happy with my experimentation. This first volume has a very sci-fi feel. In particular, the conflict that establishes the characters and series is very much a sci-fi idea. In fact, it now appears that it’s a pretty direct derivation of Frank Herbert’s The White Plague, which D is currently reading.

In brief, every male mammal suddenly and catastrophically dies. All except for one guy. You can probably pick that up just from the title, though. Unlike the other comics I’ve been reading, this one is written and set quite recently: 2002. It does give it a more immediate, less abstract feeling.

I do have a criticism however. Yes, the sudden death of 50% (any 50%) of the population would be pretty devastating, but I doubt the social collapse would be quite as bad as depicted. Maybe I’m just disloyal to my gender, and there is the post-Katrina, New Orleans melt-down to consider.

Anyway, I’m starting to understand why heavy comic book readers make such a big deal about publishers. Just about every comic that has looked interesting enough to buy has been published by Vertigo, an imprint of D.C. Comics. I do now have one comic published by Marvel, I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes when I read it.

Oh, and the obvious, juvenile male fantasy has not played out. Fortunately. So I will be continuing with the series. At least for now.