"Y: The Last Man" (DC/Vertigo)

[pkristen]

Summary: In an instant, every mammal with a Y-chromosome dies a gruesome death... except recluse unemployed escape artist Yorick Brown and his semi-trained monkey Ampersand. As expected, the world is turned upside by the sudden lack of a gender and what that means for the survivors. Yorick is joined by secret agent 355 and cloning genius Dr. Alison Mann to see if they bring men back and solve the mystery of why they were killed in the first place.

Review: This series came out at the time that I had lost interest in Western comics. And though I had heard of it by title only, I was a little turned off by the concept, because stories like that are about... well, men and the idea that it's a horrible thing that they're gone.

...

So, with the tablet and being able to download the graphic novel collections cheaply from Amazon's Kindle store, I bought the entire series. And I still didn't get around to reading it for several more months. I hate setting myself up for wasting time on material I just know is going to be bad and/or offensive.

But a nagging voice in the back of my mind couldn't ignore the labels of "award-winning" and "intelligent" and "Vertigo". I finally forced myself to crack open the first book... and I loved it!

It goes with my theory of stories where if there aren't a lot of guys in the cast, then the spotlight must be filled with women. And the good stories have very intelligent, realistic women at that. Kudos to the creative for being educated about feminist issues, and showing that women are diverse and have their own priorities that makes the events in the series very identifiable and emotionally absorbing for a reader like me.

This series has some of my favorite female characters in comic book-dom, (not just those of the lesbian inclination).

If you want a good, absorbing read, this series has my thumbs up all over it!