Y Did I Wait So Long?

As most of you know, because I keep saying it, I won Spencer Carnage's Get Your Civil War On! Contest. Part of the spoils was the first three trades of Y: The Last Man. Now, I'm a regular reader of Ex Machina and Runaways, and I bought Doctor Strange: The Oath because of his work on the two regular series. That being said, for some reason, I didn't read Y: The Last Man. I think because by the time I heard of it, I figured it was too far along to catch up. I'm not a trade buyer, really. Only in the most extreme cases; Planetary and Fables I picked up but starting reading the series starting with the issues the trades left off on.

Anywhom, I've finally discovered this masterwork of socio-satire and I am thoroughly pleased. Brian K. Vaughan's pacing is incredible, especially the first issue where the world turns to crap in the span of a marriage proposal. And as far as misdirection goes, Vaughan has evidently studied well, because he provides many possible explanations for the plague while at the same time, telling nothing official during the first three storylines of the series.

Vaughan is remarkably brutal in this series (hell, every series, really), but Pia Guerra's artwork gives it a surreal quality. Guerra's art is unexaggerated, making the violence so real and unexpected. Like a murder in Oz. And one-boobed psycho feminists? Scary.

What I like the most is, of course, Yorick. As a man whose conversation is littered with sarcasm and pop culture references, I identify with Y a lot. And his reactions to the insanity around him are sometimes unpredictable, yet always in character.

I know it's a work of fiction, but it resonates with reality. Is masculinity the cause of all the world's problems? Of course not. People do terrible things to each other everyday, regardless of sex. But taking men out of the equation opens up a different perspective on the violence.

I'm angry now, though. I have to buy like ten more of these trades and maybe just buy the last storyline. Damn you, Carnage!