What does it say when Y: The Last Man has fallen into a pattern that could be called predictable in some regards, and that I still find it absolutely compelling and something that has to go on the top of my reading stack every time it comes out? It says that Vaughan and company have managed to strike that near-impossible balance between hitting a reliable standard of quality and maintaining surprises for the reader. Vaughan's stories contain an element of formula in that it features Yorick and his friends happening on another part of America and exploring a different aspect of the post-apocalypse, but his new characters are always so interesting, and his notions of what might have changed so intelligently imaginative, that I'm not struck by what's familiar so much as what's new. In the case of this two-part story arc, it's the exploration of religious fallout, all seen through the eyes of an unlikely mouthpiece for that particular aspect of the story, and it all moves forward the personal story arc of Yorick at the same time.
Something struck me while reading this issue of Y: The Last Man, which I hadn't quite realized before. I hadn't realized just how many stories Vaughan was leaving on the table. He's got this rich variety of tales from what happened right after all the men died, the real clean-up, the big mess that was caused, all those kinds of things, and instead he's just parcelling them out as part of the story he's telling. That speaks to a decision to not take the easy road, to focus on stories other than the obvious "How will Yorick save mankind?" that lesser writers might have chosen as the focus for Y: The Last Man. Just as Preacher was about friendship, loyalty and love as much as it was a road trip to find God, Y: The Last Man is much more about wider gender relations questions than about a journey by three characters to find a cure for what killed all the men.
What made me realize that was that this issue features another flashback to the day of the disaster, and it's a terrific little story. It features some dark humor as well as some of the same flashes of horror that Vaughan and Guerra have shown us when they've done similar flashbacks to the day of the event. Of course, that's not really the focus of the issue, it's actually a culmination of the story to that point, a bonding point between Yorick and his new friend, and the continuation of a question raised in the last story arc when Yorick killed someone in self defense. Vaughan's rendition of Yorick continues to show him as an everyman type character, because your average hero would think nothing of killing someone who was trying to kill him, but Yorick's reaction is very much what most real people would have.
The most impressive aspect of Y: The Last Man, however, is not the plot. These creators are telling an interesting story, but what makes it absolutely fascinating is the dialogue and character interaction. Yorick's self-mocking, mildly angry words as he walks into the church, the believable chemistry between him and the new woman who enters his life, even the dialogue during the flashback sequence, it all has a touch of humor and humanity to it. Vaughan does have a tendency to throw in little factoids in the dialogue, such as the brief rundown this issue on auricular confessions, but I find that to be a charming aspect of his writing, and it's always interesting to hear in context at any rate.
This issue sees the return of Pia Guerra to these pages, and while I actually really liked Goran Parlov's work on the book, I'm certainly not disappointed to see her return. She has the same subtlety and skill that Vaughan brings to the book, most notable in this issue with the scar across the new character's face that reveals its origin later in the story. But the chemistry between the characters has to be carried visually as well, and Guerra doesn't disappoint in that regard either.
