Y: The Last Man, Vol. 9: Motherland
by Brian K. Vaughan
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Book Reviews of Y: The Last Man, Vol. 9: Motherland
Book Review: Losing Steam, But Hinting At Great Things To Come
Summary: 4 Stars
In case you're not familiar with Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man, the premise is that a catastrophic plague has wiped every man on the planet but one, Yorick Brown. For an inexplicable reason, Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand, were spared. Now Yorick desperately wants to traverse a planet in chaos as women work to establish order once more so that he can reunite with his girlfriend. He travels with Agent 355, who has been charged with protecting Yorick, and the scientist Allison Mann, who tirelessly works to determine what made Yorick and Ampersand different from anything else with the Y chromosome.
Motherland is the ninth volume in this graphic novel series. When Y first started, it was unlike anything else I'd ever read in comic books. Action-packed with a real sense of plot and purpose, Vaughan broke barriers with every installment. However, on this volume, I feel things are starting to drag out a bit. Still an enjoyable read, but it's definitely treading water compared to earlier volumes.
But, be that as it may, I have every faith in the world that Vaughan will regain steam as he comes to the conclusion of this series. It was understood from the get go that this was a finite title, and I really think it will be a joy to read from start to finish once it's concluded.
For those of you unfamiliar with Brian K. Vaughan, he is a master storyteller in the world of comic books, but he's also the guy they brought in to get the television show LOST back on track when it waned a bit last season. Did you notice a discernable improvement in LOST towards the end of last season? You can thank BKV for that.
Please realize that Y is not your mainstream comic book such as Superman or Batman. It is a comic book, yes, but it is more like the HBO of the comic book world. There is adult language at times and adult themes. However, if you've ever been interested in seeing sequential art at its best, give Y a try.
~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant
Book Review: The end is nigh
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm not ready for "Y: The Last Man" to come to an end, yet volume nine of the series, "Motherland," makes it pretty clear that conclusions are just around the corner.
Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's excellent Vertigo series has set Yorick, the last man, on a global mission of science and personal salvation. His constant companions are Ampersand, his pet monkey and the other surviving male; Dr. Allison Mann, a genetic scientist with many secrets; and Agent 355, a government bodyguard and assassin who keeps her secrets under lock and key. Also along for the ride is Rose, an Australian spy and Allison's lover, whose loyalties are still unclear.
More answers come to light in this book, as the apparent architect of the man-killing plague comes to light and Yorick discovers he isn't the last living man after all. Meanwhile, 355 mixes it up with a ninja, Allison starts bleeding and Rose makes an uncomfortable call home. In Paris, Yorick's missing girlfriend Beth may be waiting, while back in the United States Yorick's sister Hero, the mother of his child (a different Beth), a Russian agent and a former astronaut duke it out with modern Amazons. There is an unexpected parting of ways, a surprising death or two, a couple of emergency surgeries and some wild monkey sex. Portions of this book will keep you on the edge of your seat, while others will knock you back on your butt. And all of these threads seem to be converging, although it's still anyone's guess how things will turn out in the end.
I fear the next volume will be the last, so I am reluctant to read it -- but I hope it's published soon!
by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(n e t) editor
Book Review: The end is near
Summary: 5 Stars
Brian K. Vaughan's compulsively addictive series is wheeling to a close, and when reading Motherland, the ninth collected volume of the series, this becomes all the more apparent. Things come to a head as Yorick, his pet monkey Ampersand, Agent 355, Dr. Mann, and Rose search for Dr. Mann's kidnapped mother, and learn that Yorick indeed is not the last man on earth. More secrets of the plague that wiped out the men are revealed as everyone makes more shocking discoveries, and 355 and the ninja named Toyota face off in a fight that one of which won't walk away from. In the meantime, Yorick's girlfriend Beth awaits him in France, while his other Beth and sister Hero are on the run. There is also a one-shot devoted to the super-model turned garbage girl that Yorick had a run in with way back in the first volume, which is interesting as well. While it's clear that the series is headed towards a close, Vaughan doesn't rush through things and keeps the book well paced. Co-creator Pia Guerra offers the same brand of artwork that you'd come to expect by now, so take it or leave it. All in all though, Motherland is another excellent volume in the Y: The Last Man series, and here's hoping the end is as great as the whole.Book Review: Homecomming, going home.
Summary: 5 Stars
Y is the male chromosome.
Y is the Yorick Brown.
Y is the last man.
In this graphic novel series, we follow the adventure of Yorick, the last know man alive after a sudden plague wipes out the mass of male humanity - and all the male mammals except for Yorick's helper monkey-in-training, Ampersand.
I cannot give you an accounting of the individual books. After reading the initial book on a Tuesday, I had to go and get what I could to finish reading the series. I was able pick up all but the last volume. Having read through the next eight volumes, I sit and wait for the final volume to be sent to me. I can't wait.
I want to know just what caused the plague. I want to know if there's a cure. I want to know if our hero (not our Hero) finds his love. The narrative is compelling and I fell in and I need a resolution. I have to give credit to the collaborative team behind the creation and continuation of the series. I literally couldn't put the books down and I was at a loss when I had to stop with the story arc unfinished.
Read these books, they might not be deep, but they sure are entertaining.
Book Review: Pretty Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
Although the premise of the series continues to hit creative paydirt with it's intriguing view on dystopia and commentary on the adaptiveness of humanity, Vaughan continues to wield his pen like a sledgehammer when it comes to character development and dynamics. Although this is not a comic about superheroes, everybody talks like Batman. The twists are predictable, and I tire of reading page after page of exposition justifying the actions of each and every character in the book.
Then again, it would be easier to read about them if any of the characters were actually interesting. Instead, this story suffers from a breadth of characters who sole identifying features are the fact that 1) character is woman and 2) character has tragic past.
I held back on previous issues because I wanted to see the finale. Though there's one trade left, this book is where we "learn" what happened to all the men. It was pretty disappointing. And seeing Yorick satirize the comic itself in the concluding scene of the story was intolerable. It was as if Vaughan were in that train car, saying, "Yeah, I'm pretty tired of this predictable BS too."