Home » Blogs » DeusExMachina's blog

Y - The Last Man

By DeusExMachina - Posted on 20 February 2008 - 11:49am.
Tagged:

So there's a comic book series called "Y - The Last Man" that's actually pretty related to the topics we've been discussing lately. But unlike Left Hand of Darkness, which shows us a world where the two sexes as we know them have been sort of combined, this series shows us a world where one sex just ceases to exist. The story is about an English major named Yorick, and his pet monkey Ampersand, who are (apparently) the last remaining male mammals on planet earth after a catastrophe instantaneously wipes out all the others. Here's the description from the back of the first chapter:

Welcome to Unmanned World

In the summer of 2002, a plague of unknown origin destroyed every last sperm, fetus, and fully developed mammal with a Y chromosome (with the apparent exception of one young man and his male pet).

This "gendercide" instantaneously exterminated 48% of the global population, or approximately 29 billion men. 495 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are now dead, as are 99% of the world's landowners.

In the United States alone, more than 95% of all commercial pilots, truck drivers, and ship captains died... as did 92% of violent felons.

Internationally, 99% of all mechanics, electricians, and construction workers are now deceased... though 51% of the world's agricultural labor force is still alive.

14 nations, including Spain and Germany, have women soldiers who have served in ground combat units. None of the United States' nearly 200,000 female troops have ever participated in ground combat. Australia, Norway, and Sweden are the only countries with women serving on board submarines.

In Israel, all women between the ages of 18 and 26 have performed compulsory military service in the IDF for at least one year and nine months. Before the Plague, at least three Palestinian suicide bombers had been women.

Worldwide, 85% of all government representatives are now dead... as are 100% of Catholic priests, Muslim imams, and Orthodox Jewish rabbis.

(I'm not sure if the "29 billion men" statistic is meant to be 2.9 or if it's referring to the male mammals also exterminated.)

This series presents a pretty interesting view of what would happen. There's a fair amount of comic-book-ized material, like the badass secret agent who helps protect Yorick, and lots of somewhat cheesey, somewhat witty dialogue... but it's good. Some interesting phenomena that pop up: the "Amazons", a cult whose philosophy is that men were punished and that the world is better off; Congress faces issues putting itself back together, because the remaining members are overwhelmingly Democrats, which the remaining ones see as unfair. Oh yeah, and there's less sex than you'd think, because as it turns out, Yorick is trying to find his fiancé, who was studying abroad in Australia when the Plague hit - unfortunately, it's not easy for anyone to find a boat or an airplane after the catastrophe.