On July 17, 2002, all living mammals with a Y chromosome—including embryos and sperm—simultaneously die, with the exception of a young amateur escape artist named Yorick Brown and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand. Many women die as a secondary effect of male deaths, such as plane crashes. Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse, and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of men, and the belief that, barring a rapid, major scientific breakthrough or other extraordinary event, humanity is doomed to extinction.
Yorick's mother, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, commissions Agent 355 of the secret Culper Ring organization to protect Yorick. The two travel to meet geneticist and cloning expert Dr. Allison Mann, who works to discover why Yorick survived and find a way to save humankind. Due to damage at Mann's laboratory in Boston, the trio first travel across the country to Mann's other lab in San Francisco, then to Australia and Japan.
During the trip, the group is chased by multiple parties who know of Yorick's existence and want to capture or kill him for their own purposes, including an Israeli army commando named Alter, the militant Daughters of the Amazon, and a ninja. They are aided by Yorick's sister, Hero; a Russian soldier named Natalya; an astronaut named Ciba; a former flight attendant named Beth who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with Yorick; and Rose, an Australian sailor.
In China, the group learns Mann's father, Dr. Matsumori, is also still alive and has created many clones of Allison Mann. He reveals to Yorick that Ampersand had been one of his lab animals he was experimenting on. He believes Ampersand had been inadvertently shielded by what killed off other Y-chromosome lifeforms as a result of one of his experiments and that this protection was transferred to Yorick via pathogens. He also reveals that Ampersand ended up in Yorick's care by accident. When Mann learns that Matsumori plans to murder Yorick before committing suicide, she kills him. Armed with the samples and information she needs, Mann stays in China to work on cloning.
Yorick and Agent 355 journey to Paris, France, where Yorick is reunited with his ex-girlfriend, whom he wanted to marry before the die-off. After initially celebrating their reconnection, Yorick realizes he actually loves 355. After meeting up with 355, Yorick tells her how he feels and she reveals she feels the same for him. Agent 355 is killed by Alter using a sniper rifle shortly thereafter. When Alter attempts to capture Yorick, he defeats her and says he believes her dedicated pursuit of him was actually a roundabout way of suicide. He lets her live, and she is remanded into the custody of the Israelis. Yorick and Beth become a couple shortly thereafter and raise their daughter together.
Decades later, Dr. Mann has succeeded in cloning Yorick seventeen times, along with thousands of copies of a small number of deceased males. Most of the world enjoys peace and prosperity as economic and technological development has resumed. Yorick and Beth's daughter is President of France. Yorick is institutionalized after making a joke interpreted as a suicide attempt. He is visited by one of his clones, who is the same age he was during the die-off event. After imparting advice to his clone, Yorick escapes.
Natalya Zamyatin, a Russian soldier who helps Yorick, Agent 355 and Allison Mann.
Ciba Weber, an astronaut who is saved by Agent 355 and Allison Mann from a burning Soyuz capsule.
Rose Copen, a spy and demolitions expert for the Australian Navy, and Allison Mann's lover.
Alter Tse'elon, the new chief of the general staff for Israel.
The plague
The source of the plague that wiped out every living mammal with a Y chromosome except Yorick Brown, Ampersand, and Doctor Matsumori is never fully explained. A number of possible explanations are provided throughout the course of the series, but a definitive answer is left for the reader to decide. Discussing the cause of the plague, Vaughan is quoted as saying:
I feel that there is a definitive explanation, but I like that people don't necessarily know what it is. In interviews we always said that we would tell people exactly what caused the plague. The thing was, we never said when we were going to tell. We weren't going to tell you when we were telling you, I should say. We might have told you in issue #3. There might have been something in the background that only a couple people caught. It might have been Dr. Mann's father's very detailed, scientific explanation. It might have been Alter's off-the-wall conspiracy theory. The real answer is somewhere in those 60 issues, but I prefer to let the reader decide which one they like rather than pushing it on them.[2]
Explanations
Three explanations are considered by the protagonists:
Failed clandestine attack on China (propagated by Lt. General Alter): the Culper Ring created a chemical agent designed to prevent women from conceiving male children. This agent was introduced into China to cripple their economy; however, something went wrong, and the chemical agent instead killed males of all ages.
This is stated as the definitive cause of the plague in Brian K. Vaughan's abridged script for Y: The Last Man, penned two years after the completion of the comic book series.[3]
Dr. Matsumori's theory:[2] viable cloning made males unnecessary, and thus mother nature destroyed them – the Y-chromosome had been "rationally self-destructing for hundreds of millions of years" and thus the birth of Dr. Matsumori's first successful human clone "triggered a time-bomb that had been ticking for millennia." In other words, the moment the Y-chromosome became obsolete "nature righted its course."[4]
Moreover, Doctor Matsumori had also discovered a "chemical compound that had an adverse effect on the genome of cloned mammals" which he injected into a capuchin monkey (Ampersand) in an attempt to kill his daughter's unborn clone fetus. Yet, as fate would have it, Ampersand was misdelivered to Yorick and when the plague struck, the compound ended up having the opposite effect on non-cloned mammals, shielding all three of them from "God's wrath."[4]
Cursed amulet (propagated by ancient mysticism and the Setauket Ring): the plague struck the moment Agent 355 removed the sacred Amulet of Helene from the nation of Jordan. The amulet carried a warning that if it was ever taken from its homeland, it would create a tragedy greater than the Trojan War. It is also suggested that the wedding ring Yorick bought for Beth may have protected him and Ampersand from the effect of this curse.
This was the first theory for the plague's cause presented in the series, with Agent 355 being warned about the amulet's curse in the opening pages.
Yorick's ring was a similarly supposedly mystical Middle Eastern relic, alleged to muddle the bearer's gender in order to give a married man an aspect of his wife's femininity, and vice versa.
Other explanations put forth in the book include:
The Earth cleansing herself of the Y chromosome, as believed by the Amazons.
The Rapture taking all men and leaving women as a punishment for original sin, as believed by an air traffic controller.
The remaining (female) members of Sons of Arizona were convinced that the government was responsible for the plague, and the top government leaders were lying in wait to take over the country.
One member of the "Fish & Bicycle" traveling theater troupe advanced the theory the plague was a direct response to the exclusion of women from true parity in the performing arts, thereby upsetting the natural order. In support of this theory, it was speculated the total exclusion of women from the stage in William Shakespeare's day had resulted in pandemic outbreaks of the Bubonic plague.
Caruso intended on finishing the script in the summer and filming during the fall of 2008. The script would be a rewrite of the original draft written by Jeff Vintar. Although Vintar's draft was faithful to the original comic book, the higher-ups at New Line Cinema seemed unable to fully embrace the material. A subsequent draft by Vaughan himself, which departed from his own comic considerably, was also unsuccessful in convincing the studio to proceed.[6]
Caruso maintained that the source material was too much to be told in one film and his team decided to concentrate on the best first film they could, which would end somewhere around issue 14 of the comic series. The entire comic series as a whole would be plotted into three films.[7] Actor Shia LaBeouf, who worked with the writers on the films Disturbia and Eagle Eye, was considered to play the role of Yorick, but the actor considered the role too similar to the character Sam Witwicky, which he portrayed in the Transformers series.[8] Caruso planned to use a real monkey, and not a CGI construct, to play Ampersand.[6] Caruso also said he would like to have Alicia Keys for the part of Agent 355.[9]Zachary Levi, who played the lead in the TV series Chuck, expressed interest in playing Yorick as he is a fan of the comic book series, even going as far as having his character Chuck Bartowski read the Y: The Last Mangraphic novel in the episode "Chuck Versus the Nacho Sampler".
Caruso remained "loosely attached" to the project, but New Line refused to acquiesce on its development as a stand-alone movie as opposed to the trilogy Caruso preferred.[10] Caruso, maintaining "I didn't think that you could take Yorick's story and put it in to a two-hour movie and do it justice... I just feel like it's too much for one screenplay", ultimately walked away from the project.[11]
In March 2012, former Jericho writers Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia entered final negotiations to write New Line's adaptation of the series, following in the footsteps of Vintar, Vaughan, and Ellsworth. J.C. Spink, Chris Bender and David S. Goyer were attached to produce; Mason Novick and Jake Weiner were named executive producers.[12] Reports in September 2012 suggested New Line was enthusiastic about the draft screenplay produced by Federman and Scaia, and had begun meeting potential directors to hire for the project.[13]
In January 2013, it was announced that Dan Trachtenberg would direct the film.[14] In June 2013, producer David S. Goyer announced having "a script that's as close as it's ever been," and suggested the film could go into production in 2014.[15] However, in January 2014, Brian K. Vaughan stated, "It's my understanding that the rights to Y: The Last Man will revert to co-creator Pia Guerra and me for the first time in a decade if the planned New Line adaptation doesn't start shooting in the next few months."[16] On September 24, Trachtenberg confirmed via Twitter the film was "Not happening. But it's in trusted hands (the creators)."[17] In a subsequent interview he noted that in fact, "The rights reverted back to Brian quite a few months ago."[18]
Portuguese adaptation
In 2011, a loose adaptation of the graphic novel was made in Portugal by Luís Lobo and Bruno Telésforo as an independent short feature and school film produced by Universidade Lusófona, which was premiered in the Fantasporto film festival on contest.[19]
In November 2010 French director Louis Leterrier expressed interest in adapting the series for television.[20]
In October 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that FX was developing a TV series of Y: The Last Man produced by Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson alongside Brian K. Vaughan, who would also be a writer for the show.[21] In an interview with Vulture in July 2016, Vaughan commented the FX series was, "very slowly coming to life. No news I can share, other than that it’s all chugging along happily."[22]
In November 2016, it was reported that Michael Green would be the showrunner for Y: The Last Man.[23][24]
On April 5, 2018, FX announced it had handed out a formal pilot order and enlisted Aida Mashaka Croal to serve as co-showrunner alongside Green, with Melina Matsoukas as director.[25]
On July 11, 2018, FX confirmed the cast list for the lead characters in the TV pilot (titled "Y"), with Barry Keoghan as Yorick Brown, Diane Lane as Yorick's mother Senator Jennifer Brown, Olivia Thirlby as Yorick's sister Hero Brown, and Lashana Lynch as Agent 355.[26] Production commenced on August 20, 2018,[27][28] and was ordered to series on February 4, 2019.[29] In April 2019, Green and Croal exited the series due to creative differences.[30] In June 2019, it was announced that Eliza Clark would be replacing Croal and Green as the showrunner.[31] In February 2020, it was reported that Barry Keoghan had exited the role of Yorrick and the character was being recast.[32] Later that month, it was announced that Ben Schnetzer has been cast in the role of Yorick.[33] The role of Agent 355 was also recast, with Ashley Romans replacing Lashana Lynch.[34] The series premiered on September 13, 2021 on FX on Hulu. In October 2021, the series was canceled after one season. This was due to the fact that FX did not wish to extend the cast's contract by $3 million.[35]
Reception
The comic series attracted wide-spread acclaim during its publication with CBR praising it as "a series that transcends the normal restrictions of most comic books"[36] and Publishers Weekly claiming that it was "entirely convincing—and addictive."[37]The Atlantic called it "this wonderful, affecting, intelligent, humane story."[38] Dan Phillips of IGN felt that "the conclusion of Y: The Last Man is as close to a perfect ending as you're likely to see anywhere in the history of comics."[39]
Later reception was more mixed, with SYFY WIRE writing that "the premise and execution are lazy, problematic" and "someone’s best imitation of what they think a feminist plot would be"[40] and Screen Rant writing of the series' "problematic treatment of trans men" and unintentional implication that "gender identity is a matter of choice."[41]
The series currently holds a rating of 7.8 on ComicBookRoundup.[42]
After the finale, the series was re-released, in parts, as oversized hardcovers with alternative cover art. Beginning in 2014, the deluxe editions were reprinted in trade format with the same material.
In 2020 the first compendium in paperback format was published. Compendium One was published with a variant cover on November 2, 2021 for the release of the television adaptation.
^Dish, The Daily (2008-02-19). "Y: The Last Man". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
^am, Dan PhillipsUpdated: 13 May 2012 4:07 amPosted: 31 Jan 2008 3:30 (31 January 2008), Y: The Last Man #60 Review - IGN, retrieved 2021-10-04((citation)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata