Y the Last Man: Book Five

Reading this final volume of Y the Last Man is a little bittersweet because you know the series is ending.  This series has truly been one wild ride, I can't believe it took me this long to read it especially since Brian K. Vaughan started writing this back in 2002.  First things first if I had been reading this by issues I would have been so frustrated by this final story line which came out bi-monthly.  This is one title that once you start rolling you really don't want to stop & it is best to read in the collected edition.  Brian brings all of his hanging plot threads to a head: characters are reunited, reveals are made & some are even killed off.  In China we find out that Dr. Mann's father is still alive & he has a connection to the plague, Ampersand & is also the employer of Toyota.  Dr. Mann's father is also in the process of perfecting human cloning to fix his shortcomings as a father.  Toyota & Agent 355 have their final showdown.  The group decides to split up at this juncture in the story with Dr. Mann & Rose staying in China while Agent 355 & Yorick continue on their journey to Paris, France.  Meanwhile Brian shows us what has been going on back in the states and around the world with little tidbit stories about the twins in Kansas, Waverly the supermodel turned undertaker, the drama troupe that put on the play The Last Man & everyone's favorite psycho bitch Alter.  Hero, Beth number two, Beth jr., Ciba, Vlad & Natalya all arrive in Paris as well to look for Yorick & Beth number one.  I know a lot of people are upset by some of the final events in this story but when read all in one sitting it really does make sense.  I don't want to spoil anything from here on to the final issue because that would just be rude & ruin the experience for anyone who has a slight interest in this title.  The final issue jumps ahead sixty years into the future to see how the world has changed & how our friends have dealt with life after their journey around the world.  This is truly a touching & heart string pulling issue in which our hero performs their greatest trick of all.  Only time will tell what Brian K. Vaughan's greatest work is between Y the Last Man, Ex Machina, Pride of Baghdad or Saga.

Y the Last Man: Book Four

So much has happened since the end of the previous volume, Yorick & company have been on a quest to reclaim Ampersand, find Beth & save the human race.  After the revelation of drug running pirates on the high seas the book goes through several flashback stories about all of the important characters.  All of these stories explain how Yorick, Beth, 355, Dr. Mann & Alter got to were they are today.  Yorick has made it to Australia only to find that Beth knows he is alive & has gone in search of him in Paris, France.  Before he can leave the land down under a reporter takes Yorick's picture showing the world that the last man isn't a myth.  They have to leave to continue on their quest for Ampersand in Japan.  The company gains a new companion in the form of Rose who is more than a friend to Dr. Mann along the way but is she all that she seems.  Back in the states Hero is performing some task for her brother as penance for her bad decisions in the past.  She finds Beth the woman who seduced Yorick is pregnant with his child.  The two then travel to Kansas back to the astronaut & her baby.  By the end of this book Yorick's group have retrieved Ampersand from some messed up Triads, Dr. Mann has reconnected with her mother, 355 & Yorick have grown closer together but there is still an unseen storm on the horizon.  Alter is back on the hunt for the last man on earth & she will kill whoever she has to in order to find him even Secretary Brown.  Plus we still don't know who Toyota is working for but whoever it is was working with Dr. Mann before the plague hit.

Y the Last Man: Book Three

The  third volume of Y the Last Man takes place entirely in California.  By this time two years have passed since the plague hit killing off all of the male mammals.  One of the best things about this volume clears up some plots while adding more chaos to story.  We find out who killed Agent 711, Yorick gets laid finally but who is Toyota working for?  Finally we get a chance to see what Beth has been up to in Australia if only for a brief couple of pages. 
Brian K. Vaughan has set up a couple of threads as to what caused this plague; at this point as the reader I am so invested in this that any of the reasons he's come up with would work for me.  There are two great surprises in this volume the first is that Yorick is no longer the last male human on earth.  The second is that Hero is back on the side of the side of her family but she seems to be carrying the scares of what she did during her time with the Amazons. By the end of this book you start to wonder if Yorick has fallen for a new girl in the captain of the ship they are on.

Y the Last Man: Book Two

I went out picked up the rest of this series since the book was such a great read.  Brian K. Vaughan continues to impress with Yorick & company as they journey across the country.  New characters are introduced & some are even killed off in the process.  In this book Yorick shows a great amount of character growth compared to the previous volume.  One of the things I like about this series is that the story arcs are little vignettes of their journey with several month time jumps in between.  it makes for an exciting read.  Now on to volume three, I really hope they reach California soon.

Y the Last Man: Book One

After just sitting here on my must read list for years I finally picked up a copy of Y the Last Man Book One.  This book has a slower start that some of the other Brian K. Vaughan books that I have been reading like Saga, Runaways & Pride of Baghdad.  By the end of this book however I was wishing I had picked up the other volumes as well because I finished this in a day.  From the get go a team made up of Yorick, Agent 355, Dr. Mann & Ampersand have been an amazing group of survivors to follow on their journey across America.  I really want to know who is sending Alter after Yorick & his team & is Hero ever going to come out of her brainwashed state?  Y the Last Man is really an apocalyptic tale its Brian K. Vaughan’s The Walking Dead but instead of being on the run from zombies Yorick & company are on the run from the Daughters of the Amazon & several other angry women.  Whoever thought being the last guy on earth surrounded by women would be a dream come true really needs to read this, you won’t have that opinion by the end of this book.

Harbinger Vol. 2: Renegades

Peter & Faith have taken the fight to Harada in with a vengeance.  Not only has Peter found out that Harada has been playing him but he takes out one of the Harbinger recruiters & then starts going after potentials himself.  By the end of this volume the Renegades have assembled just in time for the Harbinger War.  The new recruits that Peter is going after are outcast like himself but they help ground him & give him a purpose in life.  One of the mysteries going forward is who or what is the Rising Spirit?  This second volume has officially blown the first book out of the water.

X-O Manowar Vol. 2: Enter Ninjak

The second volume of X-O Manowar is a fantastic read pitting the Manowar armor against Ninjak is such an epic showdown.  This is a versus then team-up story done in true comic book fashion.  I thought that the Eternal Warrior was the ultimate badass of the Valiant Universe but I was wrong that title either needs to go to X-O Manowar or Ninjak.  The Vine betrayed by one of their own plantings while they are on  a course to invade earth I am loving this series.

Archer & Armstrong Vol. 2: Wrath of the Eternal Warrior

Archer & Armstrong just rides the wave it built up in the first book all the way to the beachhead.  There are little hints here and there that these characters exist in an even larger universe.  But the real surprise for me is that Gilad the Eternal Warrior is Armstrong's younger brother.  I want more of a back story for the Eternal Warrior.  Throughout this whole volume our heroic duo has been on the run from Gilad for accidentally killing the previous Geomancer a Hitler look-a-like.  However by the end of this volume the earth as chosen a new spokesperson in the form of Kay McHenry & the Null have been nullified.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Two Towers starts off with the death of another member of the fellowship & continues on from there at a brisk pace building toward the battle at Helms Deep.  Helms Deep however is only the halfway point of this book as Saurumon & Shelaub still have to be dealt with be this books end.  Back in the day Tolkien was a true master of fantasy nowdays authors like George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, & Terry Goodkind just to name a few have sprung up to tackle the genre.  They have all taken cues from Tolkien over the years Jordan's & Goodkind's works even copy Tolkien's from time to time.  Martin however has used the writing style & layout for his grand epic even the cliffhangers are very similar.  I can only imagine how destraut a child would be if they had to wait six years inbetween The Two Towers & The Return of the King to find out what happened to Frodo Baggins.  Overall this is still a spectacular tale that stands high above the movies.

Death of Wolverine

The Wolverine is dead but was it meaningful? Throughout the year I have been reading different Wolverine titles starting with Jason Aaron's run on the character.  This is the first official title I have read by Charles Soule & I can't say I was impressed, it was good but I think he is a little overrated.  That may change when I pick up some of his other titles.  This is really a vignette type story of Logan back tracking to where his roads always inevitably end up, the Weapon X Program.  I like that Viper, Sabretooth, Ogun & Lady Deathstrike are part of this title but why is Nuke in here it seems off & a little confusing.  Having Kitty Pryde team up with Logan against Ogun harkens back to an old Wolverine story.  Overall the real gem of this book is Steve McNiven's art, it is some of the most beautiful work I have seen in a book ever.  As a reader of this series another problem I have is that Dr. Cornelius has gone through all this meticulous planning for his experiments that he would know ahead of time that the Wolverine had lost his healing factor.  In the end Logan died the way he lived saving others from the experimentation that was done to him.  But having Wolverine encased in a shell of adamantium & turned into a statue is like a set up for a glorious return in the future, even Steve Rogers death after Civil War looked more permanent. 

Harbinger Vol. 1: Omega Rising

This is another good effort by Valiant Comics but not there best in my opinion I compared to X-O Manowar & Archer & Armstrong.  By the end of this volume though I was excited to see where this story is heading & how it is similar to X-Men in a way.  This title definitely has potential though & could truly be the book that Valiant shapes their universe around.