The award-winning Vertigo series Y: The Last Man is about to release its FX series on Hulu this September. Nearly twenty years have passed since its debut, and it remains a classic that was well ahead of its time. At the start of the story, a mysterious event causes every biological male on the planet to die simultaneously, save for one. This is an intense premise, but more than that, the series separates itself from other post-apocalyptic disaster fiction by exploring complex literary, political, and philosophical themes of gender and power with sophistication and nuance. Written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Pia Guerra, Y is a story that should be experienced as least once.
That said, the series ran for 60 issues, making it a significant investment of both time and money. For those who want to know a little more before they make such a commitment (and before watching the FX series), here is a breakdown of the main characters.
Yorick Brown
The protagonist of the series is Yorick Brown, a young man in his early 20s with an English degree and a hobby of escape artistry. He is well-educated, cares for others, and has a strong sense of morality, but this often makes him come across as preachy and judgmental rather than compassionate. Yorick's mother works as a Democratic member of the US Congress and his father was a professor of Shakespearean Studies. At the start of the series, every single animal with XY chromosomes on the planet dies at once--every one except for Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand.
Y: The Last Man is the story of Yorick's journey as he tries to survive in the post-apocalyptic ruins of the world. Beyond the trauma and depopulation of the planet, governments were thrown into disorder, planes dropped out of the sky, and if humanity cannot rebuild soon, the human race (and all other mammalian life on the planet) will go extinct. Yorick is nothing special. He's just a scrawny twenty-something with a humanities degree--and yet he's humanity's last hope.
Ampersand
Shortly before the world fell apart, Yorick adopted a Capuchin monkey that he named Ampersand. He was supposed to train it to be a support animal, but was apparently terrible at this as Ampersand never learned to behave.
Whatever causes all the people with XY chromosomes on the planet die also affects animal life, with the sole exception of Ampersand. Yorick may be the last man, but his unusual pet is the last male animal.
Beth Deville
Beth is Yorick's girlfriend and was abroad conducting anthropological field research in Australia. In fact, the two were on the phone and Yorick was getting ready to propose when everything went wrong with the world.
Yorick desperately wants to be reunited with her and spends much of the series determined to find a way to get to Australia as soon as he can. This makes Beth as much of a MacGuffin as she is an actual character. However, her time in Australia is explored as she learns to survive and eventually meets up with others.
Agent 355
Agent 355 belongs to the Culper Ring--the spy organization founded by George Washington, which in the world of Y has continued to operate in secret since it was formed. She was crossing international borders in the Middle East when the incident occurred.
Amidst the devastation, she tracks down the next person in line for the US Presidency, then is ordered by the new President to safely escort Yorick across the country to a facility where he can hopefully be cloned. During their travels, Agent 355 and Yorick grow to become friends. More importantly, she regularly saves his life, ensuring that the last man doesn't get killed before he can help save the rest of humanity.
Doctor Allison Mann
Doctor Allison Mann is one of the world's leading geneticists and specializes in cloning technology. She was pregnant and in the middle of giving birth when all of the men died, turning the operating room into a bloody massacre at the very moment she was trying to bring new life into the world.
Agent 355 takes Yorick to see Mann in Boston, hoping the doctor can clone him. However, to do this, they need to get to Dr. Mann's lab in San Francisco. This requires the three to travel across the length of the US together. But with no gas stations operating and most of the roads closed down from automobile wrecks, they have to travel most of the way on foot.
Daughters of the Amazon
Trauma causes dramatic reactions in people, and the Daughters of the Amazon are nothing if not reactionary. These women view the death of men as a divine miracle from the Earth Mother who they claim has cleansed the planet. The Amazons self-mutilate, cutting off their breasts in imitation of the Amazon warriors of antiquity. They are unrelenting in their misandry and transphobia, murdering both transmen and other women whom they believe to be perpetuating the patriarchy.
The Amazons are led by a charismatic and educated woman named Victoria, who cites radical feminist talking points to justify her bigotry (despite the fact that actual feminism is not about hate, but about uplifting women). Many of the Amazons were mistreated by men during their lives, and the trauma of surviving an apocalyptic event compounded with their history of abuse to fuel their hate--something that Victoria exploits.
Hero Brown
Hero is Yorick's older sister. She has a long history of bad boyfriends who took advantage of her, but even in her liberal accepting household, there were repeated microaggressions as Yorick often took precedence over her, reinforcing patriarchal attitudes.
After the incident that kills all the men, Hero joins the Daughters of the Amazon. In her traumatized state, Victoria brainwashes Hero and convinces her that she needs to kill her brother to purge men from the Earth forever. Throughout the series, Hero grapples with her trauma and conflicting loyalties, which results in a psychological breakdown.
Alter Tse'elon
While most of the story takes place within the continental United States , several other countries are depicted in Y: The Last Man, one of which is Israel. Alter Tse'elon is a commander in the Israeli Military. As Israel requires all young people to serve (unless they are granted an exemption), the country has one of the largest remaining militaries on the planet after all of the men die.
Alter Tse'elon is an aggressive, stubborn leader. When she learns of Yorick's existence, she is willing to risk his life, the lives of her soldiers, and the future of the species to capture him. She is the closest the series has to a recurring villain.