- Did you know Elvis had a twin brother?
Y: The Last Man #1 is an issue of the series Y: The Last Man (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 2002. It was published on July 17, 2002.
Synopsis for "Unmanned (Part I of V)"
In Brooklyn, Yorick Brown has a long-distance telephone conversation with his girlfriend Beth Deville as she explores the Australian outback. Yorick is an unemployed escape artist who is training a Capuchin monkey named Ampersand. Yorick asks Beth to marry him when suddenly their telephone call is cut short.
In Washington, D.C., Yorick's mother, Jennifer Brown, is a United States House representative. On the steps of the Capital Building, she gets into an argument with a U.S. Senator concerning a pending abortion rights bill.
In Nablus in the West Bank, a team of embedded reporters tries to conduct an interview with a female soldier named Colonel Tse'Elon. Tse'Elon is in the midst of a firefight with a group of violent nationals, but agrees to conduct the interview anyway.
In Jordan, a special ops agent known only as Agent 355 enters the home of Doctor Frozan Hamad. She tells Hamad that she is in great danger and that she is here to protect her. Hamad rejects her offer, but 355 tells her that there are those who seek to kill her to obtain the Amulet of Helene, which hangs on Hamad's neck. Seconds later, a group of masked men enter through the window and shoot Frozan Hamad. Agent 355 kills them, but she is too late: Hamad is dead. She grabs the amulet and regroups with her extraction team.
In Boston, Doctor Allison Mann admits herself to the maternity ward of a hospital. She is going into labor and is about to give birth to her own clone. Elsewhere in the city, Yorick's sister Hero Brown works as an EMT. She is romantically involved with a firefighter named Joe and preparing to have sex in the back of an ambulance. A call comes in, and Joe is forced to cut the dalliance short.
Suddenly, all across the world, all of the males of all animal species begin having violent seizures. They cough up heavy amounts of blood then fall over dead. The only members of the male gender who appear to survive the pandemic are Yorick and Ampersand.
Appearing in "Unmanned (Part I of V)"
Featured Characters:
- Yorick Brown (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Agent 355 (First appearance)
- Agent 1033 (First appearance; dies)
- Ampersand (First appearance)
- Hero Brown (First appearance)
- Jennifer Brown (First appearance)
- Beth Deville (First appearance)
- Allison Mann (First appearance)
- Colonel Yedida Tse'Elon (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Unnamed masked assassins (Single appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- Batman (As merchandise only)
- Darin (Single appearance; dies)
- Christopher Emanuel (Single appearance; dies)
- Michael Gilman (Single appearance; dies)
- Frozan Hamad (Single appearance; dies)
- Joe (First appearance; dies)
- Larry (Single appearance; dies)
- Marty (Single appearance; dies)
- Sunil (First appearance; dies)
- Superman (As merchandise only)
- Tommy (Single appearance; dies)
- Unnamed female NYPD Officer (First appearance; dies)
Locations:
- Australia
- Brazil
- Italy
- Kenya
- Mombassa
- Japan
- Jordan
- Al Karak
- The Netherlands
- Palestine
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia (Mentioned only)
- United States of America
- Vatican City
Items:
- Amulet of Helene (First appearance)
Notes
- This issue is reprinted in Y: The Last Man: Unmanned, Y: The Last Man: Book One, Absolute Y: The Last Man Vol. 1, Y: The Last Man Omnibus and Vertigo: First Taste.
- Hero's boyfriend Joe appears here following his behind the scenes mention in a chronologically earlier flashback in issue #26; he appears next as a corpse in a later flashback in that issue. He should not be confused with Joe the astronaut, who first appears in issue #10.
- The unnamed female NYPD officer who appears in this issue commits suicide at the end of this story. She appears next, as a corpse, in flashback in issue #20.
- The gendercide occurred on July 7, 2002.[1]
Trivia
- Cultural references in this issue include:
- Elvis Presley
- Phone cards
- The National Enquirer
- Serpico
- Christopher Marlowe
- Morning-after pill
- Ohio's congressional districts
- Turner and Hooch
- Tango and Cash
- Juliana Chen
- Full Metal Jacket
- Tesla: Man Out of Time
- In the Skin of a Lion
- Layap
- Federico Fellini
- Michelangelo
- Snowcrash
- Michelangelo Antonioni
- David Copperfield (magician)
- Kreskin
- Harry Houdini
- Penn and Teller
- Helper monkey
- Israeli Defense Force
- Sea monkeys
- Habitat for Humanity
- Peace Corps
- Agoraphobia
- Honor killing
- Trojan War
- Miller's Crossing
- Harvard University
- Human cloning
- Roe v. Wade
- Herpes
- Culper Ring
- Lara Croft
- Atropine
- Nerve gas