On the Coffee Table: Cycles

Title: Y: The Last Man, Volume 2: Cycles

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan

Penciller: Pia Guerra

Inker: Jose Marzan, Jr.

via Amazon

Y: The Last Man continues with Cycles, collecting issues #6-10 of the comic book series.  The basic premise: Yorick and his monkey are the last two male mammals on Earth, or so it appears.  At the moment, they're trying to make their way to California along with geneticist Dr. Mann, who is hoping to understand how Yorick survived, and federal agent 355, who is trying to keep them all alive.  Story lines converge in Marrisville, Ohio where a community of women is untroubled by the lack of men, a significant contrast with practically everyone else in the story.  The women of Marrisville also have a secret.

I've been reading other dystopian comics recently - Transmetropolitan and Trees - and Y: The Last Man works better for me.  For starters, the narrative is much simpler in structure.  Yes, there are multiple strands but they converge regularly and their relationship with one another is easily understood.  Also, there's a surprising lightness to Y, not easily accomplished with such a dark tale.  Yorick is likeable and goofy enough to provide comic relief.

There's a lot to unpack with the sexual politics.  Would human society truly fall apart if men suddenly vanished?  The implication is not that men are more capable.  Rather, it's that our entire civilization is built around the patriarchy and losing men would leave a dangerous power void - governments would be thrown into confusion, for instance.  Nearly all airplanes would fall out of the sky because the vast majority of pilots are male.  I think it's fair to say that men would find out in a hurry how dependent they are on women if the reverse were to happen.

But I suppose that's a different dystopian narrative.