This book is such a neat concept, but there's 4 things I'm stuck on.1. it's a book about a world run by women after all the men die, yet it's still told from the POV of a man because conveniently !!!! one survives. I think I would have loved this more if we were given a story of a world with just all women, because heaven knows we could survive without that one man. 2. This book was way, way, way, way more political than I was expecting it to be. The mother of the MC works in Washington so a lot of this concerned the government and what to do once a bunch of the male politicians died, and that was cool for a few pages, but got old really fast? I'm sure this will get more interesting throughout the next books, but it was a bit repetitive. 3. I feel like this just feeds the negative image and stereotype of radical feminists. One main antagonist in this book is a group of women called the Amazons who burn sperm banks and basically celebrate the end of men, which I think is farfetched and a bit inappropriate. Even if some women did this, I don't think they would play as major of a role as they did in this book, and I think this misleading depiction could rub off wrong on readers and make feminism seem more militant than it actually is. 4. One of the first things I thought of when I started this was the topic of trans men and how they would be treated and/or react to this situation. I think it would have been awesome to spotlight a trans man navigating this new world. However, this book handled it so poorly. The one mention of a trans man is to tell the reader that he was murdered by the Amazons because they didn't think any men should continue to live. Additionally, a slur (tr*nny) was used to address this person, AND he was misgendered and called a "she" whenever his death was described. This book was written/set in 2002, so I anticipate some of those flaws and the political incorrectness may derive from its outdatedness, but I still couldn't get over those few things.But other than that, I had a great time reading it. The art is nice. It's funny. It's easy to follow, and one of the only graphic novels i've read in a while that I'm eager to find the sequels to immediately.

In typical comic book male-centric fashion, this series wonders what life would be like if all men died spontaneously...except for one. I suppose if we're trying to put ourselves in the head of an early-nineties comic book reading teen, this might feel innovative. Unfortunately, I find that innovative in the world of comics is pretty much Iron Age for the rest of literature. How does Vaughan manage to make a series with gender issues at its center so bizarrely sexist? Example: In a world where all men are dead except for one, and the death of that one man will mean the end of humanity, VIOLENT CULTS OF FEMINISTS SPRING UP TO TRY AND HUNT DOWN MEN AND MALE SYMPATHIZERS. What is the motive here? There sure isn't one written into the plot, other than the one speech about social inequality between the sexes--and how the only way to escape this inequality is to KILL ALL MEN. Characterwise, I was exceptionally not impressed. Even the main character has vague motivations. As for the women, pretty much none of them function as anything but placeholders: the token love interest, the sister who has gone astray, the protective mother. IN A WORLD WHERE ONLY ONE MAN SURVIVED...apparently the world still revolves around that man. And here's where the cultural rant starts...This is a symptom of thinking that is still prevalent in most of popular culture, although not to as great an extent in literature. F'rinstance, lets talk about movies: movies are a great medium for making political statements. Statements about social injustices, such as the way that women are objectified, sexualized, expected to live up to some bleached, shaved, makeup-smeared, surgically modified yet waifishly thin ideal that has been developed over centuries of patriarchal society...and how this objectification upon women is psychologically damaging--to men.This poor guy above has been so mentally warped by Hollywood and advertising that he's incapable of developing a physical attraction to any of the normal girls he knows in real life. Let's take a moment to pitty him. Okay, we done? Good. Fortunately, a blonde porn star moves in next door, and immediately falls for him, even though he's intensely dorky, because, you know, it's what's on the inside that counts. But, I'm not just cherry-picking films here. I could point to this one:Another example of an attractive woman with a *cough cough* career who ends up with a loser whose only redeeming trait is that he's willing to "raise" the baby...if sleazy frat boys without jobs can be said to raise babies. But surely this is a phenomenon in teen comedies?Well, look at "romances."Here's a fairly recent romantic comedy where a successful, relatively well-balanced woman who is portrayed as HORRIBLY DESPARATE for being interested in a neighbor....meanwhile, the character played by Gerard Butler mudwrestles with models on television, and has no interest in anything but one-night stands, yet this is understandable because of his childhood. This is a ROMANCE. Aren't these supposed to be geared more towards female audiences? It really bothers me that I'm more bothered by this film than any women I know. End rant. Okay, BUT, regardless of how inadequately this comic deals with gender issues, it at least TRIES to grapple with them, and it does a better job than any of the movies mentioned above. Perhaps by the end of the series, the author's portrayals of gender issues will become more interesting and sophisticated. This was an entertaining comic, and I plan on continuing it for at least a little longer...but I'll admit that I'm highly confused by the acclaim it has gotten.

Ok so maybe it's just me but I found this series to be incredibly chauvinist. I know I'm gonna get flamed for it, so many ppl rave about it. I APPRECIATED IT but the premise and execution and what the women were doing, boy oh boy. I'm gonna shut up and not review this. Check box'd.

so - while i realize that the premise of this book is supposed to be stunning in overturning the stereotypical assumption that women without men will create a feminist/lesbian utopia, a la Herland, by proposing that left to their own devices, women would act like a bunch of goomba guys, arm themselves and create civil war, strife, and general mayhem, can any of us really image a scenario in which large groups of women, left without men for extended periods of time, would NOT 1) hug a lot 2) lick each others pussies 3) feel weird but talk it out and 4) begin building some sort of egalitarian communal society from the ruins, which, despite its passive-aggressive penal code and lack of vertical monuments, would still probably feed, clothe and manage the resources of the planet less recklessly than anything ever devised by men?

What if all the men, except one young man and his male monkey pet, were wiped out all over the world and nobody knew why exactly? That's the setup for volume one of this series that takes a look at gender issues and progressive science versus a natural order of things. I like that the explanation for the plague is not known and there are several possibilities. There's a fair amount of mischievous style humor in the first volume. For instance, women commemorate the dead man at an obvious phallic symbol a la The Washington Monument. Extremists women take on the role of the ancient Amazons and tear off one breast and take to believing Mother Earth meant to eradicate the males. Hardcore GOPs may take offense when Republican wives of dead senators show up with guns, arguing they should have a voice in the new government. The main character, Yorick, is a putz and sometimes clueless but believable enough even though some might argue he is a passive character. The super model turned corpse collector who just got her implants is an obvious jab at how the fashion industry and of course female looks are intertwined with male desires. Overall, I'd say this is a very good start but if you're the nitpicking type you may not enjoy it as much because everything hasn't been explained. A good starting read, by the way, for people new to comics/graphic novels. The series has received 5 prestigious Eisner Awards. Hollywood has been trying to make this into a movie since 2007. Some say this series saved Vertigo Comics from financial problems. CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: B plus; STORY/PLOTTING: B plus to A minus; ARTWORK: B plus; THEMES: B to B plus; WHEN READ: early January 2012; OVERALL GRADE: B plus.