Dex's Comic Awareness

Y: The Last Man #37
written by Brian K. Vaughan
pencils by Pia Guerra
cover by Massimo Carnevale

Now that we know that Beth is alive, we really have some good reasons to see Yorick go after her. But he's only given a day to do it in before they must set off to find Ampersand. Not much time at all to explore an entire continent.

The real problem doesn't come from not finding Beth though, at least not yet. A reporter keeps hearing rumors of the last man. And a crazed citizen calls the lady in to look into Yorick. She tasers the crap out of 355 and threatens to kill her if Yorick doesn't strip and get his picture taken. We can only assume what’s going to happen next. But obviously the world will be in an uproar if everyone knew about what was going on.

Vaughan continues to be smart about the story, for instance, no one would really still be afraid of women catching the plague after three years so the idea of Yorick running around with the gas mask is a bit of a stretch for people to believe. So they put a burka on him. Seems to work and they explain it away saying that a lot of Afghan women are fleeing to Australia. But they can't use that, say in Japan. I wonder when they are just gonna break down and give him a wig or fake breasts.

Y: The Last Man is easily one of the best comics each month. It's sad that its sales aren't higher than they are.

Rating - Good

---

Y: The Last Man #36
written by Brian K. Vaughan
pencils by Pia Guerra
cover by Massimo Carnevale

We finally get a glimpse at Beth, Yorick's girlfriend. This is supposedly all we're gonna get for a while from the sales caption that said this book was a one-shot. After this book, that's bad news because I really like Beth. Before this issue she was an elusive figure in the reader's mind. She was almost not real because she was so talked about yet so obscure. Now we know both more about her, and Yorick through her memories. It's a great way to tell things about Yorick. Vaughan's storytelling is really beginning to get good in this comic as we get a montage of dream sequences that are induced from an Aborigine’s "magic." It's another part of the world Vaughan likes to tease us with, magic. He leaves just enough doubt to make the reader think, "Maybe it is magic." But then he'll pull away and leave you wondering.

This whole tale alludes to Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." It has both a visual image of an albatross and the literal mention of it with Hero's warning to Beth to not let Yorick become the said albatross around her neck. It's a great allusion and really bodes ill for her future; at least it makes you THINK that. The scene with Hero also shows that Hero was beginning to be sexist before the plague. Her warning is not meant in the same context that it's boding in the rest of the comic. It can't, precisely because so much of the world has changed since she made the comment. We also see a younger Yorick blabbering on like an idiot to Beth. It's cute in a way that makes you see why she liked him.

The comic is full of interesting tidbits that are smoothly put together to give you a more rounded out Beth. Yes, it's a little heavy handed at times, but it's done well enough to not come off as Vaughan just leading you by the hand. Some of those interesting moments include Beth's post-mortem goodbye to her father when she is a little girl, her becoming a super-hero in her dream to save Yorick, and a nice nod to the DCU with her dressing as Zantana for Halloween. It all ends with her dream telling her that Yorick is alive. She wakes up and says his name as if she's going to go find him. I hope so because I really want THEM to make it now.

It wasn't until this point when we meet Beth that I really cared about Yorick sleeping around. Yeah it made sense, and still does, but now I like them together so much that I want them to be reunited in love. I'm a hopeless romantic, what can I say?

The art is beautiful as always. Both the cover and the interior art is amazing. Pia draws faces distinctly enough to almost rival Bryan Hitch. And Carnevale just has a cool name. No seriously, his cover work is both inventive and beautiful. I'd like some of his covers on my walls. I've been lucky enough to have been reading this since issue one. One of those rare instances where I guess that's it going to be fantastic and I am actually right. You need to go back and read the Graphic Novels. You need to read this book.

Rating - Great