Y: The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic science fiction comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra published by Vertigo from 2002 through 2008. The series centers on Yorick Brown and his pet capuchin monkey Ampersand, the only males who survived the apparent global die-off. The series was published in sixty issues by Vertigo and collected in a series of ten paperback volumes and later a series of five hardcover "Deluxe" volumes. The series' covers were primarily by J. G. Jones and Massimo Carnevale. The series received three Eisner Awards.
A ten-episode television series adaptation of the first volume aired on FX on Hulu from September 13 to November 1, 2021.'Y: The Last Man' review: Diane Lane stars in an FX on Hulu drama that envisions an apocalyptic world without (well, almost) males - CNN. Retrieved September 14, 2021
Plot summary
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 shortly thereafter by Alter, using a sniper rifle. 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 soon become a couple 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.
Main characters
Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist who is believed to be the last human male on Earth. Agent 355, Yorick's bodyguard who works for the Culper Ring, a mysterious U.S. government agency dating back to the American Revolution. Doctor Allison Mann, an expert geneticist seeking to discover the cause of the plague and why Yorick survived. Ampersand, Yorick's capuchin monkey and the only other male mammal to survive the plague. Beth Deville, Yorick's girlfriend. When the plague hit, she was engaged in anthropological work in Australia. Beth 2, Yorick's one night stand and mother of his daughter. Hero Brown, Yorick's older sister, who joined the Daughters of the Amazon after the plague. 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:
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; 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. Dr. Matsumori's theory: 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." 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." 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. Changes in the Dreamtime affecting normal reality, as believed by some Aboriginal Australians and Beth. 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.
In other media Cancelled film adaptation
The film rights to the series were acquired by New Line Cinema (a sister company to Vertigo), and in July 2007 screenwriter Carl Ellsworth and director D. J. Caruso were attached to the project with David S. Goyer as a producer.
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.
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. 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. Caruso planned to use a real monkey, and not a CGI construct, to play Ampersand. Caruso also said he would like to have Alicia Keys for the part of Agent 355. 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 Man graphic 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. 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.
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. 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.