Y: The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic science fiction comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra published by Vertigo from 2002 through 2008. The series centers on Yorick Brown and his pet Capuchin monkey Ampersand, the only males who survived the apparent global gendercide. The series was published in sixty issues by Vertigo and collected in a series of ten paperback volumes and later a series of five hardcover "Deluxe" volumes. The series' covers were primarily by J. G. Jones and Massimo Carnevale. The series received three Eisner Awards.
A ten-episode television series adaptation of the first volume aired on FX on Hulu from September 13 to November 1, 2021.[1]
On July 17, 2002, all living mammals with a Y chromosome—including embryos and sperm—simultaneously die, with the exception of a young amateur escape artist named Yorick Brown and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand. Many women die as a secondary effect of male deaths, such as plane crashes. Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse, and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of men, and the belief that, barring a rapid, major scientific breakthrough or other extraordinary event, humanity is doomed to extinction.
Yorick's mother, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, commissions Agent 355 of the secret Culper Ring organization to protect Yorick. The two travel to meet geneticist and cloning expert Dr. Allison Mann, who works to discover why Yorick survived and find a way to save humankind. Due to damage at Mann's laboratory in Boston, the trio first travel across the country to Mann's other lab in San Francisco, then to Australia and Japan.
During the trip, the group is chased by multiple parties who know of Yorick's existence and want to capture or kill him for their own purposes, including an Israeli army commando named Alter, the militant Daughters of the Amazon, and a ninja. They are aided by Yorick's sister, Hero; a Russian soldier named Natalya; an astronaut named Ciba; a former flight attendant named Beth who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with Yorick; and Rose, an Australian sailor.
In China, the group learns Mann's father, Dr. Matsumori, is also still alive and has created many clones of Allison Mann. He reveals to Yorick that Ampersand had been one of his lab animals he was experimenting on. He believes Ampersand had been inadvertently shielded by what killed off other Y-chromosome lifeforms as a result of one of his experiments and that this protection was transferred to Yorick via pathogens. He also reveals that Ampersand ended up in Yorick's care by accident. When Mann learns that Matsumori plans to murder Yorick before committing suicide, she kills him. Armed with the samples and information she needs, Mann stays in China to work on cloning.
Yorick and Agent 355 journey to Paris, France, where Yorick is reunited with his ex-girlfriend, whom he wanted to marry before the die-off. After initially celebrating their reconnection, Yorick realizes he actually loves 355. After meeting up with 355, Yorick tells her how he feels and she reveals she feels the same for him. Agent 355 is killed by Alter using a sniper rifle shortly thereafter. When Alter attempts to capture Yorick, he defeats her and says he believes her dedicated pursuit of him was actually a roundabout way of suicide. He lets her live, and she is remanded into the custody of the Israelis. Yorick and Beth become a couple shortly thereafter and raise their daughter together.
Decades later, Dr. Mann has succeeded in cloning Yorick seventeen times, along with thousands of copies of a small number of deceased males. Most of the world enjoys peace and prosperity as economic and technological development has resumed. Yorick and Beth's daughter is President of France. Yorick is institutionalized after making a joke interpreted as a suicide attempt. He is visited by one of his clones, who is the same age he was during the die-off event. After imparting advice to his clone, Yorick escapes.
The source of the plague that wiped out every living mammal with a Y chromosome except Yorick Brown, Ampersand, and Doctor Matsumori is never fully explained. A number of possible explanations are provided throughout the course of the series, but a definitive answer is left for the reader to decide. Discussing the cause of the plague, Vaughan is quoted as saying:
Three explanations are considered by the protagonists:
Other explanations put forth in the book include:
The film rights to the series were acquired by New Line Cinema (a sister company to Vertigo), and in July 2007 screenwriter Carl Ellsworth and director D. J. Caruso were attached to the project with David S. Goyer as a producer.[4]
Caruso intended on finishing the script in the summer and filming during the fall of 2008. The script would be a rewrite of the original draft written by Jeff Vintar. Although Vintar's draft was faithful to the original comic book, the higher-ups at New Line Cinema seemed unable to fully embrace the material. A subsequent draft by Vaughan himself, which departed from his own comic considerably, was also unsuccessful in convincing the studio to proceed.[5]
Caruso maintained that the source material was too much to be told in one film and his team decided to concentrate on the best first film they could, which would end somewhere around issue 14 of the comic series. The entire comic series as a whole would be plotted into three films.[6] Actor Shia LaBeouf, who worked with the writers on the films Disturbia and Eagle Eye, was considered to play the role of Yorick, but the actor considered the role too similar to the character Sam Witwicky, which he portrayed in the Transformers series.[7] Caruso planned to use a real monkey, and not a CGI construct, to play Ampersand. Caruso also said he would like to have Alicia Keys for the part of Agent 355.[8] Zachary Levi, who played the lead in the TV series Chuck, expressed interest in playing Yorick as he is a fan of the comic book series, even going as far as having his character Chuck Bartowski read the Y: The Last Man graphic novel in the episode "Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler".
Caruso remained "loosely attached" to the project, but New Line refused to acquiesce on its development as a stand-alone movie as opposed to the trilogy Caruso preferred.[9] Caruso, maintaining "I didn't think that you could take Yorick's story and put it in to a two-hour movie and do it justice... I just feel like it's too much for one screenplay", ultimately walked away from the project.[10]
In March 2012, former Jericho writers Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia entered final negotiations to write New Line's adaptation of the series, following in the footsteps of Vintar, Vaughan, and Ellsworth. J.C. Spink, Chris Bender and David S. Goyer were attached to produce; Mason Novick and Jake Weiner were named executive producers.[11] Reports in September 2012 suggested New Line was enthusiastic about the draft screenplay produced by Federman and Scaia, and had begun meeting potential directors to hire for the project.[12]
In January 2013, it was announced that Dan Trachtenberg would direct the film.[13] In June 2013, producer David S. Goyer announced having "a script that's as close as it's ever been," and suggested the film could go into production in 2014.[14] However, in January 2014, Brian K. Vaughan stated, "It's my understanding that the rights to Y: The Last Man will revert to co-creator Pia Guerra and me for the first time in a decade if the planned New Line adaptation doesn't start shooting in the next few months."[15] On September 24, Trachtenberg confirmed via Twitter the film was "Not happening. But it's in trusted hands (the creators)."[16] In a subsequent interview he noted that in fact, "The rights reverted back to Brian quite a few months ago."[17]
In 2011, a loose adaptation of the graphic novel was made in Portugal by Luís Lobo and Bruno Telésforo as an independent short feature and school film produced by Universidade Lusófona, which was premiered in the Fantasporto film festival on contest.[18]
In November 2010 French director Louis Leterrier expressed interest in adapting the series for television.[19] In October 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that FX was developing a TV series of Y: The Last Man produced by Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson alongside Brian K. Vaughan, who would also be a writer for the show.[20] In an interview with Vulture in July 2016, Vaughan commented the FX series was, "very slowly coming to life. No news I can share, other than that it’s all chugging along happily."[21] In November 2016, it was reported that Michael Green would be the showrunner for Y: The Last Man.[22] [23]
On April 5, 2018, FX announced it had handed out a formal pilot order and enlisted Aida Mashaka Croal to serve as co-showrunner alongside Green, with Melina Matsoukas as director.[24] On July 11, 2018, FX confirmed the cast list for the lead characters in the TV pilot (titled "Y"), with Barry Keoghan as Yorick Brown, Diane Lane as Yorick's mother Senator Jennifer Brown, Olivia Thirlby as Yorick's sister Hero Brown, and Lashana Lynch as Agent 355.[25] Production commenced on August 20, 2018,[26] [27] and was ordered to series on February 4, 2019.[28]
In April 2019, Green and Croal exited the series due to creative differences.[29] In June 2019, it was announced that Eliza Clark would be replacing Croal and Green as the showrunner.[30] In February 2020, it was reported that Barry Keoghan had exited the role of Yorrick and the character was being recast.[31] Later that month, it was announced that Ben Schnetzer has been cast in the role of Yorick.[32] The role of Agent 355 was also recast, with Ashley Romans replacing Lashana Lynch.[33] The series premiered on September 13, 2021 on FX on Hulu. In October 2021, the series was canceled after one season, FX citing financial disagreements over requests to extend the cast's contract by $3 million on renewal.[34]
The comic series attracted wide-spread acclaim during its publication with Comic Book Resources praising it as "a series that transcends the normal restrictions of most comic books"[35] and Publishers Weekly claiming that it was "entirely convincing—and addictive."[36] The Atlantic called it "this wonderful, affecting, intelligent, humane story."[37] Dan Phillips of IGN felt that "the conclusion of Y: The Last Man is as close to a perfect ending as you're likely to see anywhere in the history of comics."[38]
Later reception was more mixed, with SyFy Wire writing that "the premise and execution are lazy, problematic" and "someone’s best imitation of what they think a feminist plot would be"[39] and Screen Rant writing of the series' "problematic treatment of trans men" and unintentional implication that "gender identity is a matter of choice."[40]
The series currently holds a rating of 7.8 on ComicBookRoundup.[41]
The series is collected in trade paperbacks.
| Title | Material collected | Publication date | ISBN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unmanned | Y: The Last Man #1–5 | January 2, 2003 | ||
| 2 | Cycles | Y: The Last Man #6–10 | September 1, 2003 | ||
| 3 | One Small Step | Y: The Last Man #11–17 | April 1, 2004 | ||
| 4 | Safeword | Y: The Last Man #18–23 | December 1, 2004 | ||
| 5 | Ring of Truth | Y: The Last Man #24–31 | August 1, 2005 | ||
| 6 | Girl on Girl | Y: The Last Man #32–36 | November 23, 2005 | ||
| 7 | Paper Dolls | Y: The Last Man #37–42 | May 1, 2006 | ||
| 8 | Kimono Dragons | Y: The Last Man #43–48 | November 22, 2006 | ||
| 9 | Motherland | Y: The Last Man #49–54 | May 2, 2007 | ||
| 10 | Whys and Wherefores | Y: The Last Man #55–60 | December 1, 2008 |
After the finale, the series was re-released, in parts, as oversized hardcovers with alternative cover art. Beginning in 2014, the deluxe editions were reprinted in trade format with the same material.
| Title | Material collected | Publication date | Number of pages | ISBN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deluxe Edition Book One | Y: The Last Man #1–10 | October 28, 2008 | 256 | ||
| 2 | Deluxe Edition Book Two | Y: The Last Man #11–23 | May 12, 2009 | 320 | ||
| 3 | Deluxe Edition Book Three | Y: The Last Man #24–36 | April 27, 2010 | 320 | ||
| 4 | Deluxe Edition Book Four | Y: The Last Man #37–48 | October 26, 2010 | 296 | ||
| 5 | Deluxe Edition Book Five | Y: The Last Man #49–60 | May 3, 2011 | 320 |
The series was released as three Absolute Editions between 2015 and 2017.
| Title | Material collected | Publication date | ISBN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Absolute Y: The Last Man Vol. 1 | Y: The Last Man #1–20 | July 7, 2015 | ||
| 2 | Absolute Y: The Last Man Vol. 2 | Y: The Last Man #21–40 | September 27, 2016 | ||
| 3 | Absolute Y: The Last Man Vol. 3 | Y: The Last Man #41–60 | July 4, 2017 |
An omnibus was released on December 17, 2019 that collects all 60 issues
| Y: The Last Man Omnibus | Y: The Last Man #1–60 | December 17, 2019 |
| Title | Material collected | Publication date | ISBN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Y: The Last Man Compendium One | Y: The Last Man #1–31 | November 10, 2020 | ||
| 2 | Y: The Last Man Compendium Two | Y: The Last Man #32–60 | March 8, 2022 |
Y: The Last Man won the 2003 National Comics Award for Best New Comic.[42]
In 2008, Y: The Last Man won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series.[43]
In 2009, Y: The Last Man, Volume 10: Whys and Wherefores was nominated for the first Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.[44]