Y: The Last Man Vol. 4 — Safeword

December 6, 2004 | Trades

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Y: The Last Man: Safeword
Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Goran Parlov
Vertigo/DC Comics
$19.95 (paperback)
**** (out of five)

Monkeys and skinheads and bondage, oh my!
The most cutting-edge comic around gets its fourth collection, Safeword and a series that was already pushing boundaries has smashed the heck out of them this time.
Yorick Brown, the last man on Earth after an unknown malady has killed every other Y chromosome-carrying thing around except for him and his monkey, continues his travels west to find his missing fiancée, but gets sidetracked in Colorado. To save his ailing monkey’s life, his travelling companions, the enigmatic Dr. Mann and the mysterious government Agent 355 leave him in the care of another Agent, No. 711.
But left in her care, Yorick quickly finds himself drugged, bound in leather and chains and facing a stern interrogation courtesy of Agent 711’s riding crop.
The biting and frank dialogue and subject matter that arise next includes homosexual rape, suicide fantasies, a weird little Wizard Of Oz dream featuring Yorick as Dorothy and few more things that aren’t appropriate to print in a family newspaper.
Writer Brian K. Vaughan and artists Pia Guerra and Goran Parlov raise the bar on an already exceptional series with this mind-bending fourth collection.

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