I think what impresses me most about this issue is that without the big shocks and twists that have been one of the selling points of Y: The Last Man, this is still a really great read. Anyone who has been reading will be able to predict a lot of what happens in this issue, but it's very interesting to see the characters think and plan and act against one another. It's an examination of the psychology of two of the more driven women in the series, Agent 355 and Colonel Alter, who are contrasted as different sides of the same coin, and it also happens to contain some of that always-entertaining Yorick dialogue, a little bit of entertaining gunplay and, yes, another cliffhanger ending that has me on the edge of my seat.
Though this story is really centered around the descent of the astronauts and cosmonaut from the International Space Station, those characters and their situation are really more of a bookend to the story than anything else. The opening scene sets up the risks these characters are taking, reminds us of them as people and not just objects to be manipulated in the name of larger plots, and then the story spends its time showing characters treating them as objects to be manipulated. It's clever manipulation of the readers, making us care whether three characters who we really don't know much live or die, not just for what they represent to the plot but because we buy into them as people.
Really, though, this particular story is about several battles of will. Agent 355 faces off with Natalya over what to offer Alter. Alter and 355 face off over the radio, battling with tactics and what military units they have. Yorick faces off with Alter, and tries to play Sadie off against Alter, and Sadie must battle with what she knows is right and what her military training tells her to do. There's a lot of conflict, fairly impressive for an issue where a lot of the action is actually dialogue-based rather than physically-based.
Which isn't to say that there aren't some moments of action. Guerra and Marzan do a tense and quick version of sniper fire and a dangerously close call with a missile, and we get to see Yorick become surprisingly physical as well. Despite seeing the sniper situation coming, I still loved the way it was laid out, and it is my hope that Natalya will stick around after this storyline is over, because the way she plays off of Agent 355 is terrific.
As is now traditional for Y: The Last Man, the book ends on a cliffhanger, and it's one that doesn't feel forced, predictable or trite in any way. Yorick, in a humorous bit of meta-commentary, even admonishes 355 to "knock off the 'to be continued' shit!" Speaking as a reader, I hope that Vaughan doesn't choose to grant that request anytime soon.
