The subtitle of “The Last Man” is not an exaggeration. One day, each mammal on the planet with a chromosome there dies except two: the escape artist Yorick Brown (played by Ben Schnetzer in the television show) and his Capuchin, Ampersand. Yorick’s father was an English teacher, hence his name (as in “Alas, poor Yorick” de “Hamlet”) and his sister, “Hero” (played by Olivia Thirlby). Yorick also studied English, which led him to name his monkey after a symbol of grammar.
It is a world of women now, but old and new conflicts are still ensued. The loss of half of the population also means critical infrastructure, such as electricity, communications and travel, the fall. It is not completely post-apocalyptic, but it is close, especially since the human race could go out in a generation.
Yorick is the key to ensuring that this does not happen. With the secret service agent 355 (Ashley Romans in the series), he goes to Boston for the first time to find the geneticist Dr Allison Mann (Diana Bang), who manages experiences in human cloning – the very thing that could have triggered the mother nature to decide those who have chromosomes in there were not necessary for the future of humanity.
When Mann’s research samples are destroyed, the trio has shared across the country on its rescue site in California and, finally, around the world. Yorick’s goal on this odyssey is to find his girlfriend Beth, who visited Australia when the “gendercre” occurred, just like Ulysses braving the monsters to return to his wife Penelope.
“Y” is a story about the search for a reason for living; THE very first page of the comic strip Understands a woman holding a firearm when she realizes that the world she knew is over. Yorick was passively suicidal before the world even changed. The irony is that, yes, the only man spared death did not even know if he wanted to continue to live. Can this escape artist free himself from these self-destructive feelings?
During his original race, “Y” attracted lots of praise (he received a prize for “best continuous series” at the 2008 Eisner Awards in the comic strip industry) and not only to typical comic strip media either. The series continues to be reprinted in new editions collected, more recently as part of DC’s “Compact” comics. With the popularity of the comic strip “Y”, it is not surprising that Hollywood is interested. Then, the adaptation spent more than a decade thrown into the development of hell, for a long time beyond the “y” boom.
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