"One Small Step" contains two stories, the primary one being the title story. Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann travel through Missouri to Kansas and seek to help two more potential male survivors of the plaque to arrive safely on Earth from orbit. All males of all species on Earth died in the plague, but it didn't extend to those males OFF the planet. The International Space Station houses two male and one female astronaut, all of whom are dangerously close to suffocating in the failing life support of the station. They have to evacuate the station and find out whether they can survive now that several months have gone by since the plague.

Thrown into the mix are the Israeli soldiers, led by their stoic Colonel, whose motives have been unclear until this story. Suffice it to say that old scores die hard.

Brian Vaughn builds the tension slowly with several events threatening to collide explosively. The violent colonel, an endangered Yorick, and the fate of the astronauts all hangs in the balance. I found myself flying through the climactic pages of this story, eager to find out what was going to happen.

You really have to read the first two volumes before you move on to this one. There's too much back story you'll miss. But it's worth the time. This is one of the best comics to come out in the past several years and is not to be missed!


Series is Starting to Lose My Attention   October 8, 2005
 7 out of 13 found this review helpful

I missed all the hype about this series, and just happened upon the trade paperbacks at the library. The first books are OK, decent storytelling and art, but perhaps not quite as amazing as the many gushing reviews I've since read make it out to be. The premise, as the title says, is that some kind of plague spontaneously kills every male on earth at the same instant -- except a 20something slacker named Yorick and his monkey Ampersand. Following the events of the first two books, this third picks up the story of Yorick, his government agent bodyguard (Agent 355), and the geneticist who might be able to solve save humanity. En route to San Francisco, they are diverted by a Russian woman who convinces them that a space capsule containing two males will soon be landing in a field in Kansas. Meanwhile, the Israeli army squad is still chasing Yorick, helped by intelligence from a rather surprising source in Washington, DC. The Israelis' murky motives for traveling halfway around the world to find Yorick are finally revealed, and the realpolitik rationale for it all is totally laughable and a major letdown. The groups converge in Kansas -- the heroes to await the space capsule, and the Israelis to ambush them. There's some cat-and-mouse with the Israelis, and a sequence in which the authors totally misrepresent how a Stinger surface-to-air missile works. In any event, once all this is done, the surviving astronaut is left at a top secret fallout shelter and the group proceeds onward.

The final quarter of the book is unlike any other part of the series so far, as it takes the action away from the heroes and the main plotline. Penciled by a guest artist, the story is about a traveling group of players who have arrived at a small town to perform for food. There's kind of a hokey message about whether art should entertain or provoke, but what's more interesting is why Ampersand shows up in their midst. And even more intriguing is the question of who the ninja trying to kill the monkey is? By the end of this interlude, Yorick, Agent 355, and Dr. Mann have shown up again, but not before a rather racy production! As in the rest of the books the artwork and inking is serviceable, if rather rather pedestrian. The series is definitely all about the writing and scores zero in the style department. Oddly, some have commended it for portraying realistically built women. I would agree with that, except that whenever women are scantily clad in this series, they inevitably have figures that would not be out of place in a "men's" magazine. In the first book, there's Yorick's bikini-topped Barbiesque girlfriend, and in this one, see pages 149 and 159. Anyway, I guess I'll keep reading the series, but my enthusiasm for it has lessened with each book.


Absolutely stunning!   April 11, 2004
 4 out of 10 found this review helpful

After reading the first two "Y the Last Man" books I was eagerly awaiting the release of this one. I was not dissapointed! The first 6 chapters of this book wrap up the storyline of the male astronauts introduced at the end of book 2 and the final two chapers provide a hilarious interlude from the main story of the book. Everything overall is great! The art is detailed and clear. The coloring and inking is also excellent. If you have never read a graphic novel before read "Y the Last Man" books 1 and 2 first, then be sure to read this one!


One of the best comic series ever!!   September 28, 2004
 3 out of 9 found this review helpful

This isn't a review of this book, but rather a review of the whole series up till this point. I started reading this series without knowing much about it. I must say that this is one of the best things I have ever read! The pacing is perfect, every character is interesting and well-written, and there is a ton of jokes that quite often have me laughing out loud. They also make lot's of references to movies and comics like "preacher" and "the outsiders" for god's sakes! The only downside to this series is that I now have to wait for the 4th book. This rates up there with "Preacher" and "Akira". Do yourself a favor and buy all the books immediately!


Series keeps getting better.   September 13, 2005
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man: One Small Step (DC Comics, 2004)

The third installment in Vaughan's Y: The Last Man series keeps things going at the same pace, with lots of action, interesting new characters, and further development of the plot. Yorick, 355, and Dr. Mann are continuing their cross-country journey to get to Mann's lab in San Francisco, but of course stuff has to get in the way. In this case, it's the possibility of three astronauts, two of them male, still being alive on the space station and trying to get back to Earth. Needless to say, if they stop, some of the people following them are bound to catch up with them...

Y is a fine series, well worth reading. Everything I've already said about it still holds true, and the storyline is getting more compelling as time goes on. If you tried the first book and weren't terribly impressed, keep going; it gets real good real fast. ***