Y: The Last Man: Unmanned

DC Compact Comics

by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra (Illustrator), José Marzán Jr. (Illustrator)

The story of the last man on Earth and his quest to find love, hope, and answers in a world turned upside down.

In a single moment, the world’s men are wiped out by a mysterious plague, leaving only women behind—except for one. Yorick Brown, an unassuming escape artist, and his pet monkey Ampersand become the focus of humanity’s hopes and fears as they embark on a perilous journey to uncover why they’ve survived.

Yorick’s quest to find his girlfriend and discover the truth of the plague leads him into a radically transformed world full of political intrigue, desperate alliances, and terrifying dangers. Can Yorick navigate this new society while holding on to his humanity, or will the weight of being the last man standing crush him?

This volume collects Y: The Last Man #1-10.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

248 pages, Paperback

Published October 21, 2025

About the author

Brian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site www.PanelSyndicate.com

BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.

Reviews

[Nicholas Dehler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like this premise could go either way but honestly I quite enjoyed it, it is an interesting concept and well paced to make it easy to cruise through. Later on in the book it has a walking dead kind of feel that I loved. Yorick has to wise up though he keeps making these brain dead decisions that piss me off🤦🏻‍♂️ quite an engaging story though and I like the art style of the pages (but not of the covers lol), I would definitely read more

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ultimate form this genre of comics took was The Walking Dead, and as popular as that was (including all the TV hours that’ve resulted)…I still consider it a mistake. Me, of course I was partisan to the unpopular ones (G. Willow Wilson’s Air, Antony Johnston’s Wasteland), apocalyptic survival dramas that somehow found realistic ways to explore their fantasies. It’s not like human history isn’t full of the real thing, right? So I grow impatient with the likes of Brian K. Vaughan and Robert Kirkman, just sending their characters from one disastrous community to another (which, by the way, extends to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, The Road)…But Vaughan was the pioneer, here, and he single-handedly redefined the whole Vertigo imprint, made himself a name commodity that, in the pages of the sporadically published Saga, remains vital to this day. So a little respect is due.

I read some of this back in the day. I remember the last issue is something of a melancholic note for Yorick (ah, alas, poor…). This is the first ten issues. It’s basically setup. Its idea of resolution is seeing Yorick reunite with his sister. Vaughan’s idea of storytelling is giving Hero the more interesting story, teasing the truth of what’s happened…while embedding her in what’s actually become the least necessary element of society in a post-male world: radical feminists…So that’s where I draw the line. Saga lost me when it became clear Vaughan would do anything to appear edgy, short of launching yet another riff on someone else’s story (Mad Max, etc.) (and no, I’ve never really understood why I should care about him, or whoever stars in those movies, other than their endless set pieces; George Miller is better served appreciating his true masterpiece, Three Thousand Years of Longing). Of all the moving parts here, Vaughan is least interested in exploring their fantasy’s rampant misogyny even he can’t help exploiting…I mean, he launched this in 2003. Condoleezza Rice was a big part of the Bush administration, Hilary Clinton was already known as arguably the more important half of her marriage, even if she had yet to lose a presidential election or two…

So it’s important and worth reprinting in the Compact Comics line (there was a streaming adaptation for a hot minute, so Vaughan’s cache extends beyond Saga). It’s just not as good as all that.

[Ola Hansson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gripping story that flows smoothly, but is partly ruined by the artist who seems to have no feelings for faces whatsoever. Everyone looks the same, and it is impossible to know what characters are supposed to be black or asian. You rarely see this in European comics but often in American and Japanese. Very boring and very confusing.

Also, the pop cultural references were a bit too much, and made me think of Sawyer from Lost.

[Sotiris Kosmas · Rating 4 out of 5]

At last a comic with a feminist perspective that surprised me with how educational it was without being overly preachy.

[meagan · Rating 1 out of 5]

um so i wanted to enjoy this but it was quite literally littered with racism, sexism and one of the main characters is an israeli soldier so yeah not fun

[Neil Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read many graphic novels. This one was a gift from a good friend, and I quite enjoyed it.

[nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

need to read the next parts of this