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Y: The Last Man #4

Y: The Last Man, Vol. 4: Safeword

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As the Last Man on Earth and his companions continue to head West, the story takes a detour into the psychological.

In the care of a fellow Culper Ring member, Yorick Brown is forced to confront his tremendous feelings of survivor guilt that lead him to constantly put his life in danger. Once on the road again, the group runs up against a literal roadblock in Arizona, where the female remains of the Sons of Arizona militia have cut the interstate to keep out any vestiges of the U.S. government.

141 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

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3695 people want to read

About the author

Brian K. Vaughan

1,022books13.9kfollowers
Brian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site

BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.

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5 stars
12,631 (45%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 702 reviews
Profile Image for Baba.
3,950 reviews1,408 followers
November 14, 2021
2017 read: Y, still in the care of Culper Ring Agent 355 continues heading West, as survivor guilt begins to take its toll on the last man. The last thing they need, is to run into Agent 777 and then ,the now all-female Sons of Arizona militia! It might be time for Agent 355 to really kick some ass! 9 out of 12 as Vaughan and co. continue with this very unpredictable journey, albeit the plotting sometimes feeling a tad contrived.
Profile Image for Anne.
4,604 reviews70.6k followers
October 3, 2021
There's some weird shit happening in this.
Weird. Shit. Indeed.

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At first, it looks like this ex-agent goes full-on fetish crazy, but if you read on a bit it makes sense.
Kind of. And it was still uncomfortable to read.
But hey! It all worked out, right?

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Dr. Mann gets herself into a pickle with some crazies called the Sons of Arizona when she tries to talk them into letting the group go through the pass that they've blocked off. 355 shows up in time to get an ass-whopping but ultimately saves the day.
And Yorick lies about . But I'm sure that won't come back to haunt him anytime soon. Did he learn nothing from his old dominatrix pal?

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Yorick's crazy-ass sister is hot on his trail, but whether she wants forgiveness or a chunk of his hide, I don't know yet.
What I do know is that she showed up just in time to Only time will tell.

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While this isn't the best story I've ever read, it is very easily digestible. And I'm really flying through these volumes. Still waiting for something to kick in and tell me this is an amazing story that's going to make it a favorite, though.

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This buddy read was made possible because of Alexander and the letter Y.
Profile Image for Matthew.
1,221 reviews10k followers
January 22, 2018
I thought that maybe this volume was taking the series in a direction that might have been a little too ridiculous for me to continue taking it seriously. However, the insanity of seeing a dominatrix appear on the pages is explained fairly enough that I felt I could give it a chance (however, it's definitely not what you expect - how is that for clickbait?)



Anyway . . . after getting past that bizarreness, the last part of this volume is insanely intense and possibly some of the best I have seen from this storyline. The mystery of what killed all the males on the planet except one man and one monkey continues to intrigue. The different ways that the survivors are depicted handling it is fascinating. I will continue to check out this series as long as it stays interesting (and not too ridiculous!)

Profile Image for Bradley.
Author听9 books4,722 followers
June 3, 2018
LOL forget what I said about the lack of a little sexual politicking in the previous volumes. This one makes up for a lot of THAT and it still manages to sweet and real and not a sleezefest.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Good writing. It's the only possible reason.

What a trip tho. Safeword had me guessing all the way and when they finally got to Arizona, I was charmed and horrified at the same time.

It's like no one will ever learn anything. And it doesn't matter what sex we are, either. All the good and the bad is always with us.

I'm finally hooked. True, it took four volumes to get this attached, but it is worth it. :)
Profile Image for Ethan.
322 reviews335 followers
March 4, 2022
There's a quote from Stephen King on the front or back of every book I've read so far in this series:

"The best graphic novel I've ever read."

Given that statement, and how terrible Y: The Last Man Vol. 4: Safeword is, one has to wonder if The King read the entire series.

The second half of this volume is a story arc called Widow's Pass, and the art and some of the characters went downhill pretty badly in this section. Yorick and 355 are suddenly drawn in most of the panels looking nothing like they did just pages before. They both look like they aged backwards ten years and are in their late-teens or early-twenties. In some panels it's dramatic and they look even younger, with 355 looking like she's thirteen or fourteen. Crazy, bizarre facial expressions are also drawn on them, almost comically like they've gone mad or something; it reminded me of the kinds of faces Joker would make in a Batman comic. And 355 is frequently making a very angry face, which makes no sense either.

Also in this story arc Dr. Mann is suddenly a compete a** hole, screaming at everyone, upending tables in enormous hissy fits, and constantly having a pissed off look on her face? This after she had been pretty mild-tempered for the entire series up to this point. Yorick has changed as well, and seems to suddenly be ten times stupider than he was just pages before. It just doesn't make any sense, and it's unbelievably noticeable that things are not right in this volume, whatever the reason may be. Maybe the artists had a deadline and had to draw the entire last fifty pages in a weekend or something, I don't know, but it was pretty disappointing. The story in Widow's Pass is also rather ridiculous, and is a pretty big step down from the quality of the stories in previous volumes, or even the earlier story arc contained in this same volume.

If this was the first volume of Y: The Last Man, I would definitely DNF this series. However, based on the strength of the volumes prior to this one, I'll keep reading on, though my enthusiasm for this series has taken a pretty massive hit because of this volume. I'm not sure when I'll get back into this series. I went from being addicted to feeling like if I read the next volume six months from now that would be okay. A sad turn of events, to be sure.
Profile Image for Brandon.
994 reviews250 followers
December 17, 2012
As Yorick, 355 and Dr. Mann continue on their trip to California, Vol. 4 has the most character development and immediate danger yet! Vaughn totally takes it in a completely chaotic direction; to quote one of my favorite hockey play-by-play men, Bob Cole,

Yorick really steps it up in this collection and begins to realize that he's destined for much greater than he can grasp. I mean, it takes an awful lot for him to come to that conclusion (and it's in the craziest way possible) but it happens nonetheless.

We're also thrust into a movement involving a rouge militant group The Sons Of Arizona; a collection of women sworn to protect the state of Arizona. Blaming the US government for the plague, they withdrew from the union (in their own minds, mind you) and pledged to protect the state from any outsiders. Playing an integral part in several character changes, The Sons of Arizona are ruthless in their treatment of 355 and Dr. Mann which leads to an event that changes Yorick forever.
Profile Image for Irena.
403 reviews92 followers
September 23, 2012
Alright! Another four stars for The Last Man! :)

I still claim that the story is really interesting, fast-paced, the art is still brilliant (this time no examples, though). We also see some character development of Dr. Mann (she's gay and she cloned herself), 355 (aaand she keeps a diary) and Yorick (the development process into an idiot is complete for him now, alright).

However, if you thought this review will lack bitching, unlike the first three, you're very, very wrong. WROOOONG.

At the very beginning, Hero manages to go all brat-mode by wishing that the two of them (dad and Yorick) die of AIDS because Y got thumbs up for offering to go see grandaddy-o first.



Moving on, we have some unforgettable dumbass scenes with Yorick (which is nihil novi sub sole, but still.. :D)


Yorick: We breastless Amazons ache for the sweet embrace of mother oblivion.

Even in the villain-land it ain't easy: we still some sort of Texas ranger chicks, riding horses and shooting with bayonets or what the heck that weaponry is, with this ridiculous way of checking whether random travellers are the Amazons: show your breasts so we see do you lack one!

At this point I could hear my own boobies discussing the option of mutilating just for shits and giggles.

If we look to the left we can observe Yorick's transformation into level 2 idiot:

I've never read such a rich set of such unfun jokes. Lyk..evur.


Penis. Cut it off.


So this 711 goes all kinbaku domina on Yorick where she tortures some confessions out of him, among them being the aftermath of his first sexual experience which might be an indicator of why he survived the man-extinction, but I didn't want to think of his semen any longer, I don't give a fuck why they were all killed if I have to involve his sperm in my analysis.


Ewidy, ew.

The other day, ma babe asked what happened with pregnant women bearing male offsprings? I'm glad it was addressed in this volume. Woulda been a massive hole in the story if it wasn't so thumbs up for that.

We finally meet a woman who chooses practicality over her good looks desert->skinhead, quite a likeable character. Dad influenced her to be a car mechanic.


aye, my dad taught me first how to solder stuff

If you have missed Yorick being all dumb, here you can see him having another one of his episodes. If you've read this far, you've seen Yorick throw around references. MASSIVE overuse of references. So he knows who Jane Goodall is, he's familiar with Ibsen's plays and whatnot and then you have him being unable to crack such a simple thing:

Chinese, alright.

Dr. Mann: Yes, Yorick is -- in the loosest sense of the word -- a man.


What's really, really relieving is that we get to exclude porn out of the possible causes of the manxtinction. You see, this lady obviously thought that no woman ever watched or watches porn. Y'know, it's a man thang. And aniway, her good ole Ernie never did dat in his 40 years, alright!


*wipes sweat of her forehead*

Now, beware. For the first time, Yorick mans up. He only had to get drunk to get...sober. He actually fires a gun at another person then he lies about shooting one of 'em saying he was a coward who hid and that they had shot each other! I guess we'll have some deeper character development in the coming issues that'll explain that, but 'til then..
that seriously was the first thing he did right :')



The ending was too exciting :D need to find out what happens next!

[I hate GR for not saving drafts. My initial review got lost in a finger spasm which ended up in me closing GR. All my fiery bitching was lost. Gone. Forever. Of course, I couldn't redo it properly once all my rage was poured into the previous review. Deepest apologies!]
Profile Image for Himanshu Karmacharya.
1,117 reviews109 followers
October 14, 2020
In this volume, we delve in the psyche of the protagonist. The psychological trauma that he has gone through is written and revealed in a brilliant fashion. However, I found this book to be a bit too ridiculous at times. Despite this, it has kept me intrigued.
Profile Image for Jenn(ifer).
191 reviews996 followers
October 12, 2012
Y: The Last Man, Volume 4 SAFEWORD

Safeword? You had me at hello! Oh, not that kind of safeword? Okay. I'll shut up now before I incriminate myself...

Anyway, please forgive me for floating my reviews of the first three volumes of this series, but (1) I needed to refresh my memory after a 6 month Y The Last Man hiatus, and (2) I thought maybe one or two of you might have some remote interest in reading the background of the series to date (cos I'm not going to reiterate it here).

Look, props definitely go to Guerra and the gang for the artwork in the series. It is really beautiful and bad ass. Exhibit A:

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And I love the concept; it's highly original and entertaining. I'm still a little bothered by what I call "the hokey factor" but, it's a comic for chrissakes, it's going to be hokey. This particular volume wasn't as strong as the first three. I'm wondering if that's because I took such a long break between volumes and I'm just not as affected now as I had been. A lot of the same stuff happened that has already happened: fights, shootings, some chick wanting the last man's seed, etc. And of course the inevitable cliff hanger. I'm not seeing any plot or character development, it's just a little stagnant right now. But I have the next two volumes in my grubby little paws, so we'll see...
Profile Image for Tanabrus.
1,965 reviews187 followers
July 25, 2021
In questo volume, oltre all'ennesimo incontro con qualcuno che li aiuta per poi finire male e con una milizia ostile, abbiamo un po' di lavoro introspettivo.

Su Yorrick, riguardo al quale viene fatta luce sulle origini di certi suoi comportamenti e forse vi viene posta fine, ma anche sulla dottoressa: si districa la tela di bugie raccontate, scopriamo la verit脿 e il motivo per cui si era inventata storie.

Fa un po' effetto vedere questo lato di Yorrick, c'猫 davvero molto oltre all'immagine che ha dato di s猫 fino a ora. E nel finale, il comportamento tenuto 猫 conseguenza dell'incontro con 711, che magari l'ha aiutato a sbloccare una parte di s茅?


Nel finale torna in scena qualcuno che sicuramente creer脿 fastidi, e speriamo non succeda nulla al secondo uomo sulla Terra!
Profile Image for Kristen.
167 reviews79 followers
February 16, 2018

"Okay, that is the worst fake chick voice I have ever heard. And look at your hands! You're totally a dude."

This one is super out there, but I loved it. The second half is particularly awesome--lots of crazy happenings and some new interesting characters.

Yorick is growing on me. In the first two volumes I thought he was pretty damn annoying, but now I am appreciating his dumb humor far more. The snippets of backstory given about him made this volume feel a little more deep than the previous volumes, which is a definite plus.

One thing I really don't like about this series is the repeated use of the word "retard". It has been used in pretty much every volume (sometimes several times), and each time it throws me out of the story a little.

Another thing that I'm not really fond of is

Overall: This volume is a great addition to the series. Each one seems to be better than the last.
Profile Image for Dan Schwent.
3,174 reviews10.8k followers
January 4, 2023
In this volume of the adventures of the last man on earth, Yorick and the gang keep heading west. After some aversion therapy, they run afoul of the Sons of Arizona, a militia group that's blockading highway 40.

Jokes, gunplay, and probes into Yorick's psyche abound. Dr. Mann comes clean about some things but nothing really gets settled. I won't say BKV is writing for the trade but he definitely has the trades in mind. This one ends with a surprising return to the fold.

The pace is really quick for a modern comic. I don't know why I misremembered this series as being padded.
Profile Image for Dylan.
457 reviews125 followers
January 24, 2022
Officially giving up on this series. So sick of Vaughan鈥檚 use of slurs.
Profile Image for Summer.
138 reviews176 followers
April 3, 2016
I like Yorick more and more with each Vol. This one was again such a quick read. My eyes just flew through pages and clouds of words. And at the beginning of this one..oh my, it got a little juicier 鈥 mean I thought something like this would happen sooner, like in the first book. But it turned out to be like a therapy session. Like intervention. Ha ha, funny psychiatric stuff! And just you wait to read about some Yorick's memory from the past. Something that happened to him when he was a kid, it's quite shocking.
Profile Image for Bill Muganda.
410 reviews242 followers
October 4, 2016
EVERYONE!!! Should read this graphic novel its hella badass and drives such a powerful message!!!! This probably one of the best thing ever!!!!
Profile Image for Jefi Sevilay.
746 reviews80 followers
November 4, 2020
Her ne kadar h谋zl谋 okusam da her kitab谋n ba艧谋ndaki 枚zetler 莽ok iyi dedim, demez olayd谋m. 陌lk defa Anahtar Kelime'de 枚zet yoktu.

Yine de hikaye biraz daha iyi akmaya ba艧lad谋. Dedesinin Yorick'e huzurevinde s枚yledikleri hikayeye 莽ok uygundu. Yorick zaten hi莽 de fena bir karakter de臒il. Ajan 711'i duyunca "vay be, acaba ka莽 herif b眉t眉n gece a莽谋k olup olmad谋臒谋n谋 sormu艧tur" demesi beni 莽ok g眉ld眉rd眉.

脟izimler asl谋nda 莽ok detayl谋 ve g眉zel. Sadece 莽arp谋c谋 de臒il, normal.

Ayr谋ca Homer Simpson'谋n Nathaniel West'in 脟ekirgenin G眉n眉 isimli kitab谋nda isim olarak ilk kez ge莽ti臒ini de buradan 枚臒renmi艧 oldum.

Yaln谋z kitab谋 kapat谋r kapatmaz cilt elimde kald谋 ya o baya 眉zd眉 i艧te.

Herkese keyifli okumalar!
Profile Image for Gavin.
1,248 reviews89 followers
March 6, 2015
Hmm...I dunno, I didn't love this volume.

Maybe it's been too long since I read Vol. 3?

This just seemed like a gigantic downer. I realize post-apocalyptic books aren't usually laugh-fests, but this was just not doing it for me...

Even the weird Sex part turned out to be sad and depressing (which is actually pretty normal I hear, when it comes to sex involving comic book readers...zing!).

Here's hoping things pick up next time around...

I suppose I should discuss how this was the volume where Yorick had to grow the fuck up, but they keep throwing strange things in here to throw us off, and unnecessary stuff as well, which detracts from the focus...but I think I have no idea what the focus of this story is anymore, so maybe I'm just wrong? It's entirely possible.

I'll read further, but this is no place to jump on board...


Profile Image for Licha.
732 reviews117 followers
January 18, 2015
I'm starting to get a bit irritated. I don't get why every woman the quartet (Yorick, 355, Dr. Mann, Ampersand) meets along the way is some kind of crazy, demented man-hater. All are toting guns and ready to shoot before asking questions. So far none of the women have really tried to seduce Yorick (really? probably the only living man around and none of these women in their prime want to jump his bones?).

This volume starts off with 355 taking Yorick to get babysat by an excolleague of hers while she and Dr. Mann go find antibiotics for Ampersand who's been hurt. As soon as they leave, the excolleague (who goes by the name of 711) turns into scary dominatrix a la extreme ready to kill Yorick if he doesn't answer some off-the-deep end questions for her. Just as you think she's going to kill him she's like 'Just kidding. I was doing reverse psychology on you, blah, blah, blah, psychobabble.' I think this is where I started to lose patience with the progression of the story. Some revealing memories of Yorick's do emerge out of this weird "therapy" but I wasn't too fond of this arc in the story.

The four depart then depart in search of Dr.Mann's lab in San Francisco only to find that I-4o has been blockaded by the Sons of Arizona militia group. I'm not getting why all the women have gone extreme militant. This group is responsable for the freeze on goods being delivered out east.

I've got to say this issue had me a bit bored. I find it hard to believe most of the women are so hard and so bent on killing the last man on earth. You'd think more of them would want to at least procreate if not get one last chance at being with a man before the population starts to die.

I'm probably not going to stop reading the series but I do hope this starts to pick up interest again.
Profile Image for Jesse L.
533 reviews23 followers
September 25, 2013
Wow just when I thought this story couldn't get any worse. Talk about an excuse to put S&M into a story line jesus christ what a STRETCH. Throw in a story about child molestation and threaten to rape someone and they have an epiphany? what? What the hell is this psycho garbage? Laughably terrible the only reason this volume didn't get a 1 star is that the story with the Sons of Arizona in the second half is at least mediocre. Of course, just after learning not to endanger himself and reaching self-understanding...he immediately gets put in danger and magically survives/wins.....AGAIN. Seriously, this comic is so unbelievable (as in, literally not believable because of how stupid it is) I don't get why people like it. It's got some great cliff hangers...but I think the writers put them in on purpose because they know how horrible the comic actually is.
Profile Image for Lucas Mota.
Author听8 books132 followers
August 23, 2021
Nota: 3

Muita enrola莽茫o. A hist贸ria fica dando umas voltas desnecess谩rias. O problema da m谩 caracteriza莽茫o de personagens femininas continua. O final se aproxima, e eu to prevendo um desastre.
Profile Image for Rob.
883 reviews577 followers
January 5, 2019
Story
I liked the first half of this volume more than the second half. Once again I was surprised at the direction it took. I continue to be surprised at the way story has unfolded. At this point I'm really interested to see where it goes next, but first I'll need to see if I can get a copy of the next 2 volumes as my library doesn't have them.

Artwork
The artwork continues to be fine, but not mind-blowing. So far I feel like this could easily be a novel instead of a comic.
Profile Image for John Wiswell.
Author听60 books823 followers
February 23, 2008
This volume has two major stories, and they're very different.

The first explores Yorick's mind through some highly dubious and expedited psychoanalysis and chemical means. There are some offensive assertions here (like that a guy who isn't horny must be repressing something; that comedy is always a defense mechanism, inferior to seriousness), some really redundant points (for the eightieth time the pseudo-feministic narrative reminds Yorick that he isn't always in control), and both the art and the story try too hard for something cool (be it sexually, violently, traumatically, etc.) - but for all the nuisances, it has a very interesting ending that made me forgive the first half.

The second story has the more interesting premise of an Arizona state militia that believes the federal government was responsible for the catastrophe, and so has turned on it to protect their state over the union. We see some scary approaches to violence (though mostly original, aside from a couple of awkwardly gratuitous moments - eyeball out of the socket, why?) along the story and, well, the book returns to its stride of being compulsively readable. Following the trip down Yorick's mind in the first story, this one brings out more (much-needed) revelations on the histories of the main cast.
Profile Image for Vikas.
Author听3 books175 followers
January 7, 2025
Looks like I will have to repeat the same things as the last review, yeah still loved the volume and love the series so let's go on and Keep on Reading.

So yeah it's my second go through the series and I am still loving this all the way. I mean 7 years is enough time to forget mostly anything you read so I remembered a few basic details and when the TV series was released I thought okay let's give it a re-read and so lucky because the TV series is already canceled, ah just the luck.

Loving every part of this awesome series. This Series is the story of the last man on earth. Last pair of males on earth he and his monkey. All the other males of all the species are dead at a time.

I have always loved comics, and I hope that I will always love them. Even though I grew up reading local Indian comics like Raj Comics or Diamond Comics or even Manoj Comics, now's the time to catch up on the international and classic comics and Graphic novels. I am on my quest to read as many comics as I can. I Love comics too bit, may comics never leave my side. I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just .
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author听28 books158 followers
September 21, 2021
Safeword (#18-20). I'm usually not a fan of the whole psychological-assault-as-an-intervention trope, and so I didn't love this the first few times I read it, but I came around on my third or fourth read. It's great psychological insight into Yorick that explains a lot of his actions over the comic to date. Yeah, it's over the top, but worth it for it reveals. [4/5].

Widow's Pass (#21-23). We really get back on track with "Widow's Pass", which has us ever-so-tantalizingly close to California. We get a new interesting situation (paramilitary right-wing wacko women), believable guest stars with depth, and lots of great moments and interactions for all of our main cast. And that doesn't even speak of the ending, which is ... [5/5].
Profile Image for Melody.
595 reviews61 followers
June 15, 2017
This series is amazing. Every single volume is amazing. I just love it. I can't wait to read the next one. I just don't want this series to end.
Profile Image for Courtney Daniel.
370 reviews15 followers
November 1, 2024
Best one so far it had adventure and love and both lost and won again. The reunion of 鈥� was great. Highly recommend and can鈥檛 wait to start next one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 702 reviews

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