Johnsenclan

Book 5 in 52 books in 52 weeks

Brain K Vaughan is one of my favorite comic-book authors. He also writes episodes of Lost, including the episode next week. Unlike most comic books, he decided ahead of time this series would have a specific end, and it’s finally arrived. I’m counting this as a book, but it’s really a collection of ten books, all with varying degrees of success in telling the story of the Last Man

In 2002, something that everyone assumes is a plague kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome. The only exceptions are Yorick Brown, a young magician/escape artist, and his Capuchin monkey Ampersand.

Society goes off the deep end and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men, their survivors’ guilt, and the knowledge that humanity is doomed to extinction. Vaughan does a great job showing the resulting world, how things might change for the better or worse for the survivors.

Everyone is after Yorick and the monkey to either kill him and seal the fate of the world, or save him to try and figure out how they can resart civilization. At the same time he’s trying to get to his girlfriend who was in Australia at the time of the plague.

For the first few books, maybe up to issue 30, it’s the perfect series. There is always something interesting happening, and it’s exciting to see what will happen next, and how Yorick will deal with the different women he meets on his journey. Then it becomes way too convoluted, with events happening that are way out there (I know, I’ve already accepted there’s a single man left on earth). Then when Yorick reaches his destination, and it all seems to be for nothing, it’s really annoying. Still, as a whole the series is some of the best writing in comics I’ve read. Enough to read the series start to finish all over again now that the last issue is out. Like the comic last week, this is another on for readers that aren’t interested in heroes dressed up in tights trying to save the world.

The art’s great, though nothing to get excited about. The pace is good for comics, some great cliffhangers along the way.

This one’s not at any library around here,  you can download the first issue here for free.

Rating A+ for the first 20 issues.  B for the whole series

More of my reviews here.

Other people taking part in the 52 week challenge

• Jamie reviews Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson
• Heliologue reviews Thomas Pain’s the Rights of Man by Christopher Hitchens, The Big Con by Jonathan Chait, and History of the Millenium (So Far) by Dave Berry
• Natasha reviews What is What by Dave Eggers and Rules by Cynthia Lord
• Kevin reviews Diamonds are Forever by Ian Flemming