After a mysterious plague wipes out every mammal with a Y chromosome on Earth, 22-year-old Yorrick Brown, the last living man, must survive to perpetuate the human species while investigating the cause of the "gendercide." Yorrick Brown is a 22-year-old, unemployed English major living in New York City. He and his pet monkey, Ampersand, become the last living male mammals on earth when a mysterious gendercide, often referred to as "the plague," simultaneous kills anything walking around with a Y chromosome. As the last living man, Yorrick is humanity's only hope for survival, but all he can think about is reuniting with his estranged fiance Beth who was busy conduct research in the Australian outback at the time the plague struck.
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Wearing a gas mask to hide his identity, Yorrick journeys by foot to Washington D.C. to find his mother, a congressman who he assumes survived the plague. When Yorrick reunites with his mother, she introduces him to the two women who will accompany him for most of his epic journey: Dr. Allison Mann, a geneticist specializing in human cloning and 355, a deep cover spy working for a cover U.S. government espionage ring dating back to the Revolutionary War--the Culper Ring.
Yorrick, Ampersand, 355, and Allison leave journey to Boston, MA, where Allison has a genetics lab. She hopes she can use Yorrick's DNA to decipher the cause of the plague and the reason why Yorrick and Ampersand survived it. They are hunted by a group of militant feminists called the Amazons. The Amazons revel in the new, male-less world. They've spent most of their time since the plague hit, bombing sperm banks to ensure that no new male children are born. When they discover that Yorrick is alive, he begins their prime target.
After Yorrick leaves for Boston, his mother, Congresswoman Brown, does some research into the Culper Ring. She doesn't like what she finds, and she begins to regret sending her son off with 355. She uses a secure line to contact the Israeli military and asks a battle hardened Israeli soldier named Alter to track down her son and bring him back to Washington. Since all Israeli women spend at least 2 years training in the military, the Israeli army is the most well prepared to respond to the plague.
Yorrick and his crew arrive in Boston and Allison begins doing testing. When Ampersand runs away, they are forced to halt their experiments and go looking for him. By the time they track the monkey down and return to the lab, Alter and her Israeli special forces have blown it sky high.
Allison tells Yorrick that she has a back up lab, but it's in San Francisco. The group begins the long journey cross country by hitching a ride in a freight train bound for the west coast with both the Amazons and Alter's Israelis hot on their trail. The rain ride is far from smooth, Yorrick and his friends are ambushed by train robbers. Even though 355 is more than capable of fighting them off, Yorrick takes a swing at one of the robbers, misses, and falls out of the moving train. 355 finishes subduing the robbers and pushes Allison out of the train, before jumping herself after Yorrick.
Before Allison and 355 catch up with Yorrick, a young girl stumbles upon him unconscious in a field. Shocked to find a living man, she takes him back to her village of Marrisville, Ohio, and revives him. When Yorrick wakes up, he and his savior hit it off and they kiss, even though Yorrick still professes his love for Beth.
355 and Allison find Marrisville and they discover that the peaceful village of women is actually a village of convicts. The women all escaped from a state correctional facility nearby after the plague hit. They've been living on their own ever since. As Yorrick comes to terms with the fact that his pretty savior is a meth dealer, the Amazons crash the reunion. Their newest recruit is paramedic from Boston named Hero--Yorrick's sister. Yorrick tries to reason with her, but the Amazons have Hero so brainwashed that she won't listen.
Hero shoots Yorrick's savior dead and the women of Marrisville rally to his rescue. They kill the leader of the Amazons and capture Hero. Yorrick wants to kill Hero for what she did, but ultimately decides to leave her imprisoned in the old Marrisville penitentiary.
The last page of volume 1 reveals that although Yorrick is the last man on Earth, two more human men still survive on the international space station, 220 miles above the surface of the planet.
Best part of story, including ending:
Y The Last Man is an incredible adventure story--the ultimate "what if" scenario played out in a cross-country romp.
Best scene in story:
The Amazons hold a rally to discuss the discovery of a last living man and it's revealed that Yorrick's sister, Hero, is among them.
Opinion about the main character:
Yorrick's dry wit is his most compelling trait. Brian K. Vaughn really plays up the English Major motif, peppering Yorrick's dialog with obscure literary references and sarcastic witticisms.
