Y Again

I tend to re-read my favorite Comic-Runs/Graphic Novel collections about every two years, and I've just finished reading the epic Y THE LAST MAN for the second time. While I loved the 10-part Brian K Vaughan/Pia Guerra futuristic story of the Last Man of Earth the first time I read it, I found it to be even MORE enjoyable the second time, probably 'cause I already knew how it ended and wasn't rushing to see how it wrapped up. This time I was able to take the time and enjoy all the little nuances and appreciate even better the time they took to create such great characters!


See Also:
Agent 355
Agent 711
Hero Brown
Kilina

Super-Vixens: Hero Brown

I was a relative newcomer to the Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra masterpiece Y THE LAST MAN, and didn’t get around to reading it til they published the series in the collected graphic novel format. But once I got through the door, I was all in, hook, line and sinker!

 The story and artwork really invoked (to me) the best works of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon in both HELLBLAZER and PREACHER to me, and since I was a HUGE fan of both comics, I INSTANTLY fell in love with Y The Last Man, diving in headfirst and full throttle through the entire run! I guess it didn’t hurt that I didn’t have to wait issue-by-issue, either!

 And GIRLS! Man, for a guy who spends his time fawning over his favorite super-heroines every day,  a comic about a world populated solely by WOMEN was like Heaven on Earth! Obviously the strip was crammed to the hilt full of cool and sexy female characters, but there were four or five that really had impact on me while reading the strip, and those are the ones who I’ve decided to gush a little about here today…

 First we have HERO, Yorick’s cool, collected and WAY pretty sister, one of the first characters you get to see just as the Apocalypse hits. As her partner and lover dies in front of her eyes, you immediately have sympathetic attachment to her, and want to stick around to find out what happens to her plight.

 Hero is  the female character that I think changed the most not just  through the crisis, but throughout her whole life, from her rebellious childhood to her resentful teenage years, we see her falls and ascensions from heroic emergency medic to ruthless killer outlaw, and yet we always saw the tender side of her, and when she finally makes peace with herself in the end, that’s when you really feel in your heart that the story has come to its conclusion.

Hero Brown

Y The Last Man

By

Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra

Super-Vixens: Agent 355

...But of course, my favorite heroine in Y THE LAST MAN just has to be Agent 355, the heart and soul of the strip, the woman who was everything from bodyguard to conscience to Yorick!

  When we are first introduced to 355, she is a hard-a-nails kick ass government working on a mission in some third world country, but once she is assigned by the governor to protect her son, the last living male on the face of the earth, we slowly get to see a multitude of different facets of her personality.

 As  the relationship between 355 and Yorick develops and become more than bodyguard and bodyguardee, her character is slowly fleshed out ( and those flashbacks of 355 from childhood to rookie agent and beyond are by FAR my favorites in the book!) and you realize she’s more than just a kick ass chick- she’s  caring and compassionate, and by the time the story is winding down, you aren’t surprised to see that the two have developed feelings for each other as well!

  At the end of the mission, we see 355  all dolled up and feminine, folks, this scene is what I was waiting to see throughout the whole strip, though I didn’t know it at the time!

I was like, “WHOA! Check out 355- she’s so…pretty!” When you see Yorick finally meeting up with her, and 355 looking so damn great, you really are aching for these two to get together, though fate has other plans for the couple.

 When the strip ended I was like “Gah! I wanted MORE stories featuring 355…how could they DO this to me?!”

 Agent 355

Y The Last Man

By

Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra

Super-Vixens: Agent 711

 Yes, more kick-ass girls with numbers for names. 711 was part of the Culper Ring with 355, and it was really nice to see a part of 355’s past, knowing she was a trusted partner made me like her right off the bat, and then when things got wonky (i.e. Tying up Yorick and “punishing” him pure S&M style, see pictures above), you were SO interested just to find out where the interrogation was going!

 Up until this point in the strip, Yorick was wandering around without aim, dealing with the guilt of having survived the horrible ordeal of the Apocalypse- She was the one who took his life by the reins and forced him to see something worth living for.

 I just love the fact that after they’ve gone through this violent and explosive situation, by the time the other girls get back, they have smoothed out their problems, and are quietly reading !

Agent 711

Y The Last Man

By

Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra

Super-Vixens: Kilina

As an afterthought I figured I’d throw in another extremely hot but altogether brief character from Y the Last Man here: the delectable (yet venomous) Kilina, Captain of the Whale, a ship the gang hitches to get across to Japan, totally unaware that it’s a drug-smuggling ship !…

   Just like Han Solo (that OTHER drug smuggler), Kilina is a cool and reckless leader, a ruffian of sorts, and yes, even “Scruffy-looking”! To me she always seemed like Tia Carrera coulda played her a la  RELIC HUNTER, but my friend says she seemed more like a young Grace Slick character than a model-turned-tomb-raider. Heck, she’s a bit of BOTH!

Kilina

Y The Last Man

By

Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra