Volume 7 is a slightly dull installment in the Y: The Last Man saga. The goofy plot twists and improbable scenarios continue to flow without end, but compared to preceding volumes, this one has an abundance of so-so character explication and not so much advancement in the overall storyline itself. Still a fun read, but nothing like the fireworks that Vaughan and his collaborators have shown themselves capable of delivering. ( )

Volume 7 of Y: The Last Man continues to follow Yorick and his friends in their efforts to find his fiance, but mainly to find his pet monkey and figure out why Yorick is the last male left on Earth. There is some decent progression in this volume, but a lot of time changes as well. We learn more of the history of Agent 355 and Yorick. The time changes might be a bit too crowded, as it was confusing at times to keep track of when and where the story was occurring. The volume is also to short, only 5 comic issues in this one, but I guess that is also a testament to how good the story is and keeps the reader waiting for more. ( )

What are the dreams of a capuchin monkey like? You get one answer in a great sequence featured in this volume. After the lull in volume six, the story kicks back into gear. ( )

I was an avid Y reader through the sixth collection, but I put off buying #7 because I had heard a lot of disappointed reviews. Specifically, I heard complaints that nothing happened in Paper Dolls, that the story had lost its way.

Now, it's true that the plot doesn't advance a great deal in this story arc. There's a lot of backstory and a few subplots are updated, but we're no closer to any answers to the Great Central Questions. Readers who were once burned by The X-Files may now be feeling a little shy.

That said, I don't count myself among them. I felt that Paper Dolls was putting the pieces in order for an upcoming Big Event (our heroes' arrival in Japan). I have faith in Vaughan, at least for the time being, that he does know where the story is going.

Most important, I'm still enjoying the story. Vaughan, much like my other favorite comics writer of the moment, Joss Whedon, writes characters who feel like individuals. The writer/artist John Byrne once wrote that characters need to look different from one another, targeting comics where you can only distinguish them by the color of their hair or the logo on their costume. Characters in Vaughan (and Whedon) not only look different -- they talk different. That sort of writing can keep my interest through a serial's inevitable lulls.

Original post on "All The Things I've Lost"

Yorick has finally arrived and is a position to look for Beth. However, he runs into a big problem when a journalist from a less than broadsheet quality newspaper finds out he is still alive, and is a story she definitely does not want to lose. He does eventually find Beth, and he certainly gets a hell of a surprise when he sees her.

http://graphicsf.blogspot.com/2006/11... ( )