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J.G. Keely's Reviews > Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned
Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned
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A sort of reversal of the film 'Children of Men', Y the Last Man is sometimes difficult to take seriously. The storytelling itself is not bad, though it sometimes falls into the faults of Lost, with endless, predictable hardship. It is an interesting concept, and Vaughan at least connects himself tangentially to the literary tradition, but these connections are often too flimsy or too coincidental in construction.
The worst crime of all may be that one keeps feeling that Yorick is standing in as an author surrogate; he is the last man on Earth, after all. Of course, anyone writing this story would have to come up against this challenge, but by not really addressing the character's sexual conflict, or his motivations in general, it can begin to feel like an escapist harem romp.
The worst crime of all may be that one keeps feeling that Yorick is standing in as an author surrogate; he is the last man on Earth, after all. Of course, anyone writing this story would have to come up against this challenge, but by not really addressing the character's sexual conflict, or his motivations in general, it can begin to feel like an escapist harem romp.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 2006
–
Finished Reading
May 27, 2007
– Shelved
May 27, 2007
– Shelved as:
science-fiction
May 27, 2007
– Shelved as:
comics
June 9, 2009
– Shelved as:
reviewed
October 29, 2009
– Shelved as:
post-apocalyptic
Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)
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Ha, I've heard it gets worse as the series goes on. Vaughan just isn't very good at making interesting, realistic characters.
Unfortunately, many in the comicsverse would disagree with you on that point. Vaughan is lauded shit - someone to be looked at as one of the few young writers out there who are bringing intelligent, innovative series to comics. He ain't no Milligan, or Moore.
No, I keep looking for a young author to step up and write something as revolutionary and challenging as the previous generation, but it just hasn't happened. In a recent interview, Moore was talking in about how disappointed he was that DC wants to reboot watchmen and said something along the lines of "there are no good authors writing good stories at big companies these days".Of course everyone in the industry got all pissy about it, but I really agree. He's not saying that there aren't writers out there who are capable of revolutionizing comics, just that the industry isn't giving any of them the opportunity to do so. All the industry wants to do is keep cannibalizing itself.
So back then, we got the far-reaching, disturbing, well-researched fantasy of 'Sandman' and today's analogue is a shallow, talky soap-opera like 'Fables'? And there are other people who point to 'The Nightly News' as a modern 'V for Vendetta', but while I really enjoyed the design aesthetic, I found Hickman's self-satisfied, predictable 'sheeple' rants really didn't say much for his sophistication.
But we keep looking.
The sheer lack of imagination let this series down - the main vector for plot advancement is physical violence and random running-about and as for the characters - the artist's cookie-cutter depictions dovetail pretty well the writer's grasp of characterisation. Agree with you on Fables as well.
I found this series incredibly disappointing, partially because of the insanely glowing blurbs on the back. Vagugh's storytelling seems good-natured enough, which I found both refreshing and weird, given the subject. But the way the plot veered into family psychodrama - arg Hero arg - with no believable motivations for anyone - bah.
"The sheer lack of imagination let this series down"Yeah, it's not hard to imagine the editors being excited when he pitches his ideas, they tend to sound promising enough, but the execution is just so lackluster.
"I found this series incredibly disappointing, partially because of the insanely glowing blurbs on the back."
Yeah, it doesn't say much about the state of the genre that the critically-acclaimed, award-winning works turn out to be so unremarkable.
These comments are all very interesting. I've only recently started reading these comics, and while I don't hate the stories within, it definitely is not what I expected based on the hype. I find it rather...silly. It may be the authors goal to be such, but I still feel the material could be stronger if this is indeed the case.
I will finish reading the series, but with adjusted expectations.
Yeah, if it's meant to be silly, then it could be more clever and subversive. It's pretty straightforward. Thanks for the comment.
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