Vaughan has crafted an interesting look at a post-apocalyptic world, but despite the research that has gone into it, I don't think you can call it a strictly realistic exploration. Instead, it's sort of a magic realism, a sort of weird, quirky take on the death of all men that provides Vaughan with means to play around with unusual story elements and commentary on our modern society. In this issue, the first issue of a new story arc, the story elements include paranoia, super-secret espionage organizations, friendship and how much you really know about someone and an unusual fetish element that shows up late in the game. Ampersand's injury has redirected the central goal of the story a little, and like the stopover in Marrisville earlier, it allows Vaughan to take a breather in the story and explore a strange little side journey without feeling like the characters have lost their intensity and purpose.
What's really kind of cool about Y: The Last Man is how much is implied in the story rather than outright being said. The opening three-page story, showing Yorick and Hero visiting their grandfather, is really a lead-in for an ironic take on his grandfather's misogyny, but there are implications that shape the Yorick/Hero relationship today. Hero's half-finished sentence implies that maybe her trouble with men goes deeper than her post-adolescent promiscuity, and might help explain her turn to the Amazons, for example. You can also find parallels in Yorick's discovery about Dr. Mann and what 355 turns out not to know about her friend 711, as Vaughan indicates we don't always know people, whether it's their sexual preferences or how they react when the world changes radically.
While Y: The Last Man is a road trip story, and the plots revolve around the characters happening into different challenges along the way, the central strength remains the characters. Vaughan has done a terrific job of softening both 355 and Dr. Mann without losing the sharper, smarter edge that they both had, and Yorick still comes off as hapless and well-meaning but just about the last choice you'd want for the last guy left on Earth. However, in spite of (or perhaps because of) his sort of everyman, regular guy personality, you can't help rooting for Yorick, because he always seems to have the best of intentions, and is in fact nicer and less cynical than most of the other characters we've met.
Pia Guerra brings the same sort of everyman quality to the look of Y: The Last Man in general, which is part of what keeps a book about all the men on the planet dying from being oppressively grim. Sure, the locations are often somewhat desolate, but there's a naturalistic look to them, plenty of log cabins and open plains and that kind of things that suggest humanity has fallen back to basics somewhat, losing the overly industrial nature of the society, and while that might mean less convenience, it does suggest a smarter, tougher race as a whole. The more surreal aspects of Vaughan's stories come off as more easy to swallow because Guerra makes it all believable. And when she really goes all out on the shocking moments, as with the final page of the issue, it has that much more impact.
2004 is the beginning of year three for Y: The Last Man, and the book still shows no sign of slowing down or running out of ideas. There's a certain similarity of structure, as our protagonists stumble into weird situations reflecting the changed times on their way to a larger goal, but Vaughan and Guerra have shown plenty of imagination in coming up with these different situations, and we're getting a fuller picture of the world around the characters as well as the characters themselves with each new tale.
