So, about five years after everyone else in the world, I'm finally reading Y The Last Man. It's curious that it took me this long, seeing as Brian K. Vaughan's Runaways was, as pretty much anyone who's visited here for half a second knows a million times over, basically responsible for my comics habit to begin with. Maybe it's because I was afraid of disappointment, with all the expectation of it being, you know, supposedly the best comic of all ever. I'm pleased to report though that I'm enjoying it immensely, although I might be able to make a case that Ex Machina is at least as good. If you'd like to fight about that, let me know.
But really the main point I want to make is this: Yorick Brown is Peter Parker if he were written really, really well. I don't expect him ever to be, but now I can imagine what it might be like.
12 comments:
You're not alone... I too only just began reading Y. Perhaps we should form a support group for our kind. If it makes you feel any better, I just read Watchmen for the first time this summer. I'm not ashamed.
I'm reading Watchmen for the first time right now, and I was collecting comics when it was first published.
I'm just now getting the wife into "Fables" which is requiring me to re-purchase the title in trade form, because she doesn't want to read through my monthlies.
I bought "Y" from the get-go, though. Fantastic series.
Elwood, I hate to sound terribly sexist and stereotypical, but I'm gonna ask anyway: Is Fables the type of title a woman who is just starting out in comics likely to enjoy? I too have a wife who wants to get into comics. So far she's only into the Hellboy trades and Spiderman Loves Mary Jane.
JC, I'll answer your question as a woman and a feminist: yes. It was one of the earliest comics I read, and is certainly a gateway drug. It's an incredibly exciting and romantic story driven by already well-loved characters, with unbelievable artwork. Few ladies (or people for that matter) would have trouble getting into it, I suspect. The funny (not really) thing is that Bill Willingham has a pretty crappy history with the respect for female characters thing, but he manages to summon an enlightened trance while he writes Fables.
Oh, I should also add that Fables is much better read in trades (or issues all at one time), so now that there are like nine or ten volumes, it's a great time to read it. I zoomed through the first eight trades because that's all that was out at the time, and was compelled to start getting it monthly--but it's such an epic kind of story that it definitely loses something when it's broken up.
Thanks, Evie. I'm sold.
BKV is on record as acknowledging Peter Parker's influence on Yorick. And I think that Ex-Machina is by far the worst of BKV's series, although of course, bad BKV is miles better than most everything else on the market.
This isn't the wife's first trip through the comic world, but she is very selective about what she reads.
She is a HUGE Neil Gaiman fan and has read "Sandman" a number of times, so I think she'll do fine with "Fables."
p.s. I am going to wildly blaspheme and say that the last issue of Y: TLM kind of blew. As the capper of a fantastic series, it was pretty disappointing. I've never been a fan of those "Many Years from Now" postscripts (I'm talking to you, Rowling). Ok, pelt me now!
I beg to differ Greg ... did you read Mystique or his run on Ult. X-Men? Both were fun, but nowhere near as good as Ex Machina.
Okay, yeah, I was just talking about his own inventions (Y, Ex-Machina, and Runaways). I actually thought Ultimate X-Men was pretty awful (never read Mystique), so if you're talking about his entire work, then you're right.
Not that BKV is always bad on other people's properties. His Dr. Strange and Logan mini series were great fun.
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