Y: The Last Man, Book 3: One Small Step

I just found out the co-creator and penciler of Y, Pia Guerra, is a woman. It kind of makes the whole book make a little more sense. The Last Man, written by Mary Shelley, author of the original Frankenstein novel, has basically the same premise as Y and clearly served as inspiration. It is referenced in the second, smaller storyline contained in this third volume, which is drawn by guest Paul Chadwick and features the first nudity in the series, and is about a troupe of actors that decided to make a play based on the same idea, again. Certain elements of the play they make caused me to wonder if a woman had any input on this story, which focuses so much on the differences between men and women in society. The fact that one did makes me feel a little better, I guess.

That storyline was mostly a small break from the heart of Yorick's strange and fun trip through a woman-filled apocalypse, though. The third book properly introduces another important, tough Government operative who happens to be beautiful, and she joins the first we met as they fight against the second over control of the last man in existence. He might not be though, as we learned in a teaser at the end of the last volume. It's more pulpy, clever entertainment, although it's not the comic book that's going to convince the world that comic books are high art. It's an extremely well done action movie that may or may not actually work as a film when they get around to making the adaptation soon. They're also doing a film of Shelley's Last Man, which could cause some confusion whenever these things come out. The social commentary is a little obvious, but at least it's branching out from just women's rights to things like the purpose and necessity of war. Firefox' spellchecker is now telling me that "women's" is not a word, which is fucking preposterous. In any case, Y: The Last Man is still a good comic and I will continue to read it.