Y: The Last Man, Book 2: Cycles

It's been a while since I read the first volume, but the summary in the beginning brought me back up to speed, and I quickly ran through the five issues of Cycles in less than an hour. Vaughan's writing is so good and Pia Guerra's artwork so clean that it's hard not to just burn through the pages. I got two volumes at once this time to hold me for a little longer, but I'm already about to grab a couple more to satiate me. I may already be addicted after less than a year's worth of stuff. I like experiencing things as they're released, but there are advantages to waiting until they're finished and going at your own pace.

To be honest, I found the actual content of the main plot in this book to be a bit silly, and I was disappointed to see Yorick stray from the right path so early in his journey, but I still found it entertaining and smartly done. The quality of the dialogue and pacing just make the slightly kitschy plot work very well. There's an edge to the one-liners and repartee that's just unlike any thing else I've read. They reference a lot of pop culture, and it's not cheap jokes about things everyone knows, they're often obscure lyrics or quotes that just add a lot of enjoyment for people who catch them. There's a lot of cursing, but it never seems gratuitous, and neither do the other adult elements. Cycles hints at future developments and has some good twists here and there, including one that appears to be the subject of the next book, which I'll be reading shortly.