When was the last time a comic-book unsettled you enough to give you nightmares? If it's been a while, I suspect that the last few pages of Y: The Last Man might do it for you. And even if the creeps aren't what you're looking for in your comics, there's a lot to like about Y. Vaughan introduces a far-flung and quirky cast of characters, builds tension very effectively and sets up a status quo where literally anything could happen next, providing one of the strongest first issue hooks in recent memory. Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan, meanwhile, provide strong characters and backgrounds to make this story come to life. I was pretty sure that Fables was going to be my favorite new series to come out of Vertigo this year, but it looks like it has some competition.
The post-apocalypse genre is not a new one in comics. In fact, the idea of all the men in the world being wiped out save a few has even been done in comics before, most recently in a Justice League mini-series. However, I don't think I've ever seen the consequences of this kind of event played out with this kind of slow-building suspense and horror. Vaughan structures the story so that we get a mere glimpse of what is to come before jumping back in time to see how it all happened, and the pacing reminds me of a good disaster movie. The audience knows what's coming, so we're seeing the signs and the clues, but the characters are just going about their normal lives, which makes things all the more disturbing when it all goes wrong. The normality of life is established well in this first issue, so that the shock of the disaster really hits hard.
Beyond an interesting story idea, Vaughan has introduced a far-flung cast that makes me really curious as to what direction the story will take. Yorick is a likable guy and an unlikely hero, and his girlfriend Beth is likable and believable as the type of woman he might cross the world to find. Vaughan spends plenty of time making gender politics (which will soon be radically changed) clear when he introduces his characters as well, including the role of women in politics, combat, espionage, emergency response and science. The script also assumes intelligence on the part of its readers, never outright saying what caused the plague but indicating pretty well what did and why Yorick is protected, or showing a bit of hope in the cloning situation that develops with one of the characters.
Pia Guerra is a new name to me, but it's easy to see why she was deemed ready for prime-time. In her work I see the strong storytelling and defined characters of Steve Dillon, but with a looseness and distinctiveness in likenesses that I liken to someone like Sean Phillips or Duncan Fegredo. A big part of the reason that the normal scenes work is because Guerra delivers such believable backgrounds and clothes, and the creeping horror of the last few pages rests almost entirely on her shoulders. The imagery in those last few pages is quite likely to give me nightmares, and if a book can move me that much, I think it's a good thing.
Y is a hard book to pin down so far. There are elements of light humor and strong characterization, and a premise that fits pretty solidly into the horror genre. However, there are also elements of the series which seem to promise action, romance and adventure, not to mention a pretty heavy touch of science-fiction both physical and more sociological. If this is an indication of the kind of quality Vertigo will be offering up in its new spate of series, mini-series and one-shots, we could be looking at a renaissance for the imprint's 10th anniversary.
