Review: Y the Last Man vol. 10 - Whys and Wherefores

I discovered Y the Last Man in trades, so when the series ended a few months ago I knew I'd have a bit of a wait before I could read the grand finale. The wait was excruciating. At last, the final trade was released, was it worth the wait? I'd say yes and no (way to be ambiguous, eh?)

For the uninitiated, Y tells the story of what happens when a plague kills every mammal with a Y chromosome except for Yorick Brown and his monkey, Ampersand. The series followed Yorick's adventures as he and his companions searched for answers about the plague and attempted to reunite him with his girlfriend who was on the other side of the globe when the plague struck. The tenth trade collects the final six issues of the series and does a pretty good job of wrapping up all of the loose plot threads. Beth, the girlfriend, and Yorick are reunited and we get to check in with all the important characters that have come and gone throughout the course of the series. We even get to jump ahead and time 60 years to see what becomes of the world. All the bases are covered, and overall it's an enjoyable read, but I was left feeling a tiny bit unsatisfied. Something's missing and I'm not sure what. I think part of it might be that there wasn't enough of a wind down to the story, I could have used an issue to decompress between the end of the main story and the epilogue. Part of it also has to do with the fact that it would be hard for any ending to live up to the build up we've had over the past nine trades (or 54 issues).

Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (along with the rest of the creative team) have done really good work producing 60 solid issues of comic goodness. I'm sad that it's over; I got to really love Yorick, 355, Dr. Mann and the rest and I'm going to miss them now that their story is done.