Emancipation

"Because once you make it past the scales and the blindfold . . .
justice is a woman with a sword" (207.7)
Brian K. Vaughan's and Pia Guerra's Y: The Last Man (2003)

Points for Reflection

Y: The Last Man, issues #6-10 (131-246)

1. we have already noted Pia Guerra’s choice to accentuate female curves and show considerable flesh in issues #1-5.  Does this trend continue in issues #6-10?
2. do the issue covers, painted primarily by J. G. Jones and Massimo Carnevale, employ an aesthetic consistent with that of lead penciller Pia Guerra?
3. do the Arts, in some form or fashion, continue to exercise a hold on the survivors?
4. does racial prejudice vanish along with men?
5. what are the survivors’ primary modes of transportation?
6. do strong leaders appear necessary in order to maintain a lawful and ordered society, or do any of the survivors manage to practice the kind of logical political justice towards their peers which William Godwin once advocated, a system that transcends traditional, administrative hierarchies?
7. do women in Marrisville appear capable of maintaining the infrastructure on which society relies?
8. has religious faith of any kind survived the apocalyptic event?
9. why might Pia Guerra place a cross in the background in panels 208.1 and 213.4?
10. do the survivors carry hope for the future?
11. what happens to female sexuality in the absence of men? Do Vaughan's suggestions seem plausible?
12. is the post-apocalyptic world reinscribing traditional moral guidelines concerning violent and criminal behavior?
13. does Victoria’s unremitting use of chess metaphors and analogies make her sound like a mastermind?
14. does Victoria become ever more egalitarian-minded as the series progresses?
15. does Victoria’s impassioned speech to the citizens of Marrisville, in which she holds that “‘[their] imprisonment was also [their] emancipation’” (206.3) succeed in swaying them to hand over Yorick?
16. does Sonia share any attributes with Beth?
17. what do you imagine Sonia intends to say about lions (221.3)?
18. how does Hero respond to having a gun pointed at her head?
19. should we agree that Hero understands more of the way the world works than does Yorick?
    

Fatima Lim-Wilson's "Raising the Dead" (1994), PDF

1. can you determine whether the narrator shares the religious convictions of those she describes?
2. why does the child's body "swell" (l.3)?
3. why refer to the dead's belief in the present, instead of past, tense (ll.10-12)?
4. does the poem conclude with sorrow or joy?

cover art for Y: The Last Man
J. G. Jones or Massimo Carnevale

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu