After multiple missteps and unfinished beginnings, Y the Last Man, the graphic novel created by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra that follows Yorick, the last man on earth after a cataclysmic event kills every living thing with a Y chromosome, has finally released a trailer and is premiering on FX on Hulu September 13th, 2021.
With three Eisner awards, a canceled film adaptation in 2007 and television development beginning as far back as 2010 along with the unprecedented cultural reckonings of just the last four years, a lot of anticipation has been built around the series. But what aspects of the wide post-apocalyptic world in the graphic novel absolutely have to appear in the FX series?
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The Y the Last Man trailer included the broad strokes of its graphic novel source material, released under DC comics Vertigo. Yorick, his capuchin male monkey Ampersand, Agent 355, Dr. Allison Mann, Yorick’s sister Hero and of course the terrifying experience of all Y-chromosomal life dying violently at once. But Y the Last Man wasn’t just about “What if women?”. While feminist theory and female-centric social constructs are obviously a huge part of the narrative, Y the Last Man made an effort to show that the rebuilding of the world would always be more than the archaic concept of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. It was about what would humanity as a whole do, regardless of which group is left, during and after a societal collapse. And in our almost post-pandemic life, those concepts are more than interesting. They’re familiar.
The DC Music Scene is Dead
It’s only natural for a series set in the dystopia to find its way to where the leadership should be. In the early issues of Y the Last Man, Yorick arrives in Washington DC seeking his mother (to be played by Diane Lane in the FX series), democratic congresswoman Brown. As expected after a traumatic event, a makeshift memorial has been in action since the plague took half of the population on Earth. Where? The Washington monument.
Women gather to sing, hold candles and meditate and it’s here that a particular piece of dialogue first underscores the weight of loss outside the dramatic events of the inception. Yorick meets a woman (while wearing his gas mask to shield his chromosomal identity) with whom they list off all the bands that were comprised of all men and, thus, are gone. There’s something that throbs at the thought of how much music was snuffed out in an instant.
Farewell Pygmy Shrew
Almost midway through the graphic novel series, Agent 355, Dr. Allison Mann and of course Yorick, travel through Arizona. There’s a lot in the Arizona sequence, from PJ the woman mechanic living alone at her garage to her neighbors, the now all-woman Arizona sovereign militia. It’s hard to imagine, with recent historical developments, that PJ and the militia won’t have a part to play in the upcoming series. However it’s an aside from Dr. Mann before the action picks up that hits home. The Last Man team are walking on foot through Arizona desert, bickering as people do when they’ve spent too much time together, when Dr. Mann interrupts with a sobering statement. “I don’t give a f*** about the smell of anything. The Pygmy shrew just went extinct.”
She elaborates on the lifespan of different mammals, a year, two years, ten years, and that with the time that has already elapsed… how many species are gone and time is ticking away.
The Amazons Find A Hero
Of course in a story about the fall of man and a world left to women, there are Amazons. An army of women led by Victoria to kill anyone presenting as a man, destroy sperm banks and monuments to men, and raid any women who stand in their way. Victoria’s purpose is power. Believing she was denied her honor as a chess champion due to sexism (actually true in real life), she manipulates starving women into her fold.
Hero Brown, Yorick’s sister, is a touchstone for Y the Last Man’s ever-evolving philosophy of love and survival. While she’s involved in most of the plot's big swings, her entry into the Amazons is another telling visual of how destroyed the world became at the edge of the disaster. It’s how she’s found by Victoria, the former Paramedic hunched over in the aisle of a destitute and empty grocery store, struggling to open a can of cat food. After fighting off two Amazons who arrive to claim any abandoned supplies, she’s approached by Victoria who offers Hero an orange, which Hero eats ravenously through the skin, crying. It’s haunting.
Hero Finds Beth
Yorick’s goal is to be reunited with his longterm girlfriend, Beth, who’d been studying in Australia at the time. In his travels, he winds up at an abandoned church with a former flight attendant now self-appointed caretaker… Beth. They get familiar and Yorick moves on to find “his Beth”.
Church Beth, or Other Beth, returns to the graphic novel in a series of panels that evoke the first strong notes of hope. As mentioned, Hero really gets into it in Y the Last Man. After multiple traumatic events, some caused by her own hand, Hero is rehabbed and reborn, traveling alone as a second “team” to the Last Man team of Agent 355, Dr. Mann and Yorick. She reemerges in the story like a cowboy. Pack on her back, boots on feet, weapon in hand, cowboy hat on her head and curl in her lip as she calls out, “Beth? I’m looking for Beth?” at the door of a familiar abandoned church. After warning shots fired, Other Beth appears. Pregnant.
It's a two-hit power punch. Hero, once so broken now standing strong, and Beth, the only pregnant woman in the US. Possibly the world. With everything that is dreary and naturally very sad, those panels shine.
Power Without Abuse Is Leadership
It’s been almost twenty years since Y the Last Man was first published. It was a grand story and most likely will take its own direction as it moves in the FX series. A lot will most likely make it to screen, but some aspects will be left to the page. But as long as the core remains, abuse begets abuse but strength with empathy is insurmountable, Y the Last Man on FX on Hulu can survive.
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