Book #54

Y the Last Man: Ring of Truth by Brian K Vaughn & Pia Guerra

Yorick Brown, the last man on Earth, finally makes it to San Francisco where his unbalanced sister, Hero, finds him seemingly succumbing to the male-killing plague after losing his still-unused engagement ring to the burqa-clad agents of the Setauket Ring. But is the ring really the key to his survival? And what does it have to do with the mysterious Amulet of Helene, which the Setauket leader is determined to take from Agent 355 by any means necessary. 

Much more of the same. People are still trying to kill them, the number of ‘secret societies’ following the trio is growing, and I’m losing track of everyone’s motives. There’s a great deal of violence, and I don’t care who gets hurt as long as it’s not Ampersand, because he’s a cute little monkey.

We marginally find out why Yorick and Ampersand survived the plague. Dr Mann’s explanation of this, to the non-scientific mind, is incredibly confusing and mediocre. And although she positioned this as a guess, if that really is the reason then I’m not sure there’s much incentive to read on. 

Yorick spends the majority of this volume advising other characters of his extreme uselessness. Although I was glad he’d noticed, the extent of his self-deprecating outburst was just a bit much. 

When the trio arrive in San Francisco, they find it far less chaotic than where they’ve come from. Things are more peaceful and organised than places we’ve previously seen, however rather than look into this further, and show us some women who have adapted well to change, and how they managed this, Vaughn chooses to introduce us to more crazy, violent ladies who are looking to kill Yorick. Rather than show us three billion women in a world without men, we focus on one drippy pain in the arse who, let’s face it, can’t reinstate the patriarchy on his own anyway.

I’m still dragging my heels with this. One more volume and then I’m going to have to cut my losses and give up.