Thanks to this website that has every issue online...
https://comiconlinefree.com/y-the-last-man-2002/issue-1... I just read all 60 issues over the last 4 days.
I like it more for the humor, characters, and story twists than for the post-apocalyptic setting. It never really gives you any panoramic overviews of the world post-disaster (see just about any two page spread in KAMANDI, where Kirby gives you the goods. Likewise McGregor/Russell in AMAZING ADVENTURES/Killraven.)
But Y, THE LAST MAN is at many points very funny, and goes in a lot of unexpected directions. The art is rather lackluster, and is completely driven by the story. In some ways Vaughan's writing reminds me of Grell's writing, for the most part very cinematic, brisk and fast-moving, with a minimum of text and dialogue.
What I disliked most about it was the ridiculously pointless amount of profanity. "Fucking fuck!" That was a sample of actual dialogue from one issue. Particularly offensive is using God or Jesus Christ as if they were swear words.
I definitely pick up that Vaughan is a self-loathing white liberal secular humanist, and his jabs at Christians and Republicans, who he throughout speaks of with contempt, are views that are sure to alienate half his audience. I only got through all 60 issues because they were free, and very fast reading. It took me at most 25 or 30 hours to read 60 issues, probably less.
I thought it was entertaining with a lot of funny moments, but it's not a series I'll look back on as one of my favorites and reread over and over, as I have with, say, Alan Moore's work, or O'Neil/Adams stuff, or Levitz/Giffen Legion, or Kirby's KAMANDI, DEMON, OMAC and Fourth World titles.
Y THE LAST MAN is a bit too cynical, profanity-laden, and too much of a trendy hippie-slacker Mellenial-audience targeted book. The lead character to me could just as easily be Peter Parker or Kyle Rainer, and is certainly drawn as to be a double for either one of those two.
So while entertaining it just doesn't rise to the level of a comic book classic. In particular issues 51 and 60, I'm not entirely sure I know exactly what was going on.
Lots of sex jokes, complicated love triangles with funny twists, and monkey-poop-flinging jokes. I enjoyed much of it. But not quite my cup of tea.
