Y: Because It’s Awesome: One Small Step
by Teresa Jusino
Wherein I summarize and review “One Small Step”, the third book in the Y: The Last Man series…
New Characters: Heather and Heidi, Ciba, Cayce, Edie, Henrietta, and the Fish and Bicycle Traveling Theater Troupe, Toyota
Yorick, 355, and Allison are on another train toward San Fransisco when a stowaway intrudes upon them. It’s Natalya. She’s riding atop the train and insisting that she be allowed to stay. Natalya, wearing a gold star that 355 notes is “reserved for heroes of the Russian Federation”, is on her way to Kansas, where the three astronauts on the International Space Station will be attempting to land, and where she is hoping to retrieve the male Russian cosmonaut who is aboard.
Meanwhile, Alter and the Israeli army are still in pursuit, guided by a mysterious American helper. Sadie becomes more and more uncertain about their mission, questioning Alter’s motives. Alter becomes more and more frustrated with the seeming “wild goose chase” on which they’ve been sent, but their American helper assures them that they are close to Yorick. As it turns out, their American helper is none other than Yorick’s mother, Jennifer. She has become suspicious of 355’s motives after having done more research on the Culper Ring, calling them “thugs and…and assassins. A glorified dirty tricks crew”, and so she has sent the Israeli army to retrieve her son. Alter, however, has other plans for Yorick.
The astronauts are having their own problems. The close quarters has made them hostile toward each other, and the vessel on which they will be returning to Earth, the Soyuz, could potentially explode upon reentry into the atmosphere.
Yorick, 355, Allison, and Natalya make their way to a secret government “hot suite”, near the field where the Soyuz is supposed to be making their reentry. There, they meet Heather and Heidi, twin sisters and the only remaining team members in the facility.
Once in the hot suite, 355 and Natalya are lured away by the sound of an explosion. Thinking it’s the Soyuz, they run out in the direction of the sound, following the smoke. Instead of the Soyuz, they find a John Deere tractor that has exploded for no reason…355 realizes they have been tricked, and that leaving the hot suite was a mistake.
[nms:y the last man,1,0]
Alter and some of her soldiers ambush the hot suite and proceed to take Yorick hostage. They attempt to leave with Yorick, but 355 contacts Alter using an Israeli walkie-talkie after dispatching the soldiers sent to keep her occupied. She is willing to trade the two Soyuz males for Yorick….because she loves him. (!!) Alter agrees, and the Israelis wait for the Soyuz. Not to retrieve the men inside, but to eliminate them. As Alter aims a rocket launcher at the falling Soyuz, Yorick, in a surprising display of heroism, knocks Alter down to throw the rocket off course, then knocks her out. In a nearby field, 355 and Natalya have forced surrender from the Israeli soldiers, inexperienced girls who are just following orders.
The Soyuz lands, and 355 and Allison are able to retrieve a body from it before it explodes. The woman. Sadie, disillusioned with Alter’s leadership, frees Yorick and uses his handcuffs to restrain Alter.
In a private moment, Yorick and 355 discuss what to do with the Israelis, and 355 is surprised by Yorick’s decision to let them go under Sadie’s leadership despite their having tried to kidnap him. Then, Yorick confronts her about having told Alter that she was in love with him. 355 denies the ridiculous lie, Yorick expresses relief that it was merely a ploy…and they sit for a moment in uncomfortable, embarrassed silence.
Meanwhile, in the hot suite, Allison discovers that the female astronaut, Ciba, is pregnant by one of her fallen comrades, though Ciba isn’t sure which one was the father because after a year in space she “loved them both…so much.” Yorick, 355, and Allison continue on to Allison’s contingency site in California, leaving Natalya (armed with the weapons confiscated from the Israelis) to guard Heather, Heidi, Ciba, and Ciba’s child. Natalya’s parting words? You are good boy, Yorick. When you are done, you may even be okay man.
We are left with Sadie taking a captured Alter and the remaining soldiers back to their troop transport in a helicopter. Jennifer attempts to contact her, but Sadie is finished with “being manipulated by women whose power has made them paranoid.” Sadie dismisses Jennifer with a shalom. As Jennifer frantically attempts to salvage the mission to recover her son, her daughter, Hero, enters.
[nms:y the last man,1,1]
The collection, “One Small Step”, then ends with a two-issue story titled “Comedy and Tragedy”, which chronicles the efforts of a theater company, The Fish and Bicycle Traveling Theater Troupe, to bring culture and hope to a nation of women with limited access to electricity and escapist entertainment. Fish and Bicycle are in Northlake, Nebraska, where the mayor has requested a performance – the town is doing well financially, but electricity is scarce, they’ve read through all the books in the library, and they’re bored. Fish and Bicycle sets up camp and prepares for their performance of Pirates of Penzance the next day. As Cayce considers ways to make the classics they do more relevant in the new world order, one of their younger actresses is frightened by a strange noise in the night. The women investigate, and Edie floats a theory that the gendercide was caused by the dearth of good roles for women. They finally find the source of the strange noise – it’s Ampersand, and he’s bleeding. Cayce takes him in, and Henrietta tends to his wound. His smell prompts them to remove his diaper, and they realize that he is a he.
Suddenly, Cayce is inspired! They won’t do Penzance after all. She will write an original play about women finding the last man on Earth! As she writes in her tent, we see a woman wielding a sword and dressed all in black standing in a tree outside…
The second issue opens with a rehearsal for the play Cayce has written in less than a night. Cayce gets short with them as they question their characters’ motivations, and when she takes a walk to cool off with Henrietta, they are confronted by the mayor of the town, who is offended by the idea of their play and threatens to do what she can to stop it.
And there, on a rooftop, is that woman with a sword again…
Opening night of “The Last Man.” The first act receives thunderous applause, and the actors feel wonderful. As the play continues, we see that the action is also being watched from outside. The woman wielding the sword is Toyota, and she is talking to a “Dr. M” over her headset. She is after Ampersand, and is waiting for an opportunity to go in for him when there aren’t so many opportunities for civilian casualties.
[nms:y the last man,1,2]
The play continues, and there is a scene where the women rip their clothes off and fight over the privilege of fucking the last man on earth. The mayor of the town stands up, interrupting the action to decry the play’s obscenity. Edie, upset by the interruption, physically attacks the mayor, starting a bit of a brawl.
The brawl is interrupted by a gunshot. 355, Allison, and Yorick enter, all wearing gas masks and capes, pretending to be agents from the World Health Organization and demanding Ampersand back, as he is the product of experiments they are doing attempting to create hermaphrodite monkeys (how they explain his male parts). Cayce gives him back only when Allison mentions that he might have contracted a bird flu.
As they leave, Yorick asks Cayce about the play – Is it really about the last man on Earth? She answers yes. Yorick asks how the play ends:
YORICK: Wait, I need to know. Does it have a happy ending?
CAYCE: Of course. The last man saves the world.
YORICK: Really? How?
CAYCE: By committing suicide and letting the women save themselves.
*beat*
YORICK: No offense….but your play sounds like a piece of $h!t.
CAYCE (as Yorick leaves): Everyone’s a critic.
REVIEW (“One Small Step”): “One Small Step” is an exciting, if utilitarian, story arc. After the reveal of the astronauts in “Cycles”, this collection is furiously plot-driven, and while the plot is a fast-paced, intriguing one, I missed the meandering character moments that seemed a hallmark of the first two books. There were some glimmers of character; most notably in Sadie as she decides how she feels about Alter and their mission. However, while I was interested in the outcome of retrieving the Soyuz and in the next steps in the story of Y, this was the most functional collection so far, and lacked a bit of the heart of the first two volumes.
“One Small Step”’s functionality was epitomized in the final two-issue story arc, “Comedy & Tragedy”, which was much less successful. While the ideas bandied about by the theater company are interesting in theory, they didn’t make for a particularly interesting read. The characters were all either catty or pretentious, and I pitied Ampersand for having to remain stuck with them for so long. These two issues seemed to exist solely to introduce Toyota, the sword-wielding Japanese woman who becomes important in later issues, but that might have been done better, and more interestingly, elsewhere.
“One Small Step” contains plot points and introductions that become very important in later issues. However, I’ve just told them to you in the above summary. If you’re looking to save time and/or money, I would advise that this volume would be one to skip.
Earlier Reviews (for reference): Issue #1, Issue #2, Issues #3-5, Volume 2: Cycles
Y: The Last Man ends it’s 60-issue run on WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2008!
Never miss an update. Subscribe to Pink Raygun by Email or subscribe via RSS
TERESA JUSINO entered the world kicking and screaming in 1979 and hasn’t stopped screaming since. An actress, writer, and producer, Teresa’s work has been seen in several venues and mediums. As an actress, she has appeared at various venues in NYC and regional theater. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is also Associate Producer for a New York theater company, Stone Soup Theater Arts, and is producing a reading series for them that runs through January. As a geek, Teresa loves Star Trek, Lost, comics, and anything Joss Whedon ever touched. Also, she has a fangirl *squee-ing* crush on Brian K. Vaughan. Yes, she knows he’s married.
|
|
