Review: Beloved comic book 'Y: the Last Man' comes to life as flawed but vibrant epic

What would a world without men look like?

Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's seminal 2002 comic book series "Y: The Last Man" imagines that reality in a post-apocalyptic tale about what happens when every mammal with a Y chromosome dies at once, except for one man and his pet monkey. The violent, searing, philosophical books are beloved and cherished by comic book fans, and thus a Hollywood adaptation was both inevitable and difficult to pull off. 

The FX on Hulu "Y: The Last Man" series (streaming Mondays, ★★★ out of four) arrives on TV nearly 20 years after the comics' debut, and after a fraught production process, but manages to avoid collapsing under the weight of expectations. The series, created by Eliza Clark ("Animal Kingdom"), captures the tone and imagery of the comic books, but wisely is updated for the changed culture of 2021. "Y" is a deeply ambitious, engrossing epic that doesn't quite achieve the mastery and impact of its source material but is certainly a worthy adaptation. 

Like many apocalyptic tales, "Y" is a globe-hopping adventure and features a broad ensemble. Many of the characters are related to our one surviving cisgender man, Yorick Brown (Ben Schnetzer), a struggling magician in New York City with a pet Capuchin monkey named Ampersand. His mother Jennifer (Diane Lane) is a powerful congresswoman and his sister Hero (Olivia Thirlby) is a paramedic.

In Washington, Jennifer becomes president after the event decimated the line of succession, although the Democrat receives pushback from Republicans of the old regime, including former first daughter Kimber (Amber Tamblyn, channeling Ivanka Trump). After taking the oath of office, Jennifer finds an ally in Agent 355 (Ashley Romans), a member of an elite, secretive government task force that reports directly to the president. Agent 355 was the only woman in the task force, and so is the only member left. 

In the six episodes made available for review, "Y" splits its time between the big-picture story in which power players fight to keep the world afloat and scenes of average people struggling to stay alive as power grids fail, food supplies dry up and disease spreads. Jennifer fights to maintain control of what government remains. 

Hero and her friend Sam (Elliot Fletcher), a transgender man subject to new horrors in the new world, try to escape the perils of Manhattan. Yorick and his monkey may be the key to finding out what happened to all the men, saving a genetic future for humanity, but mostly he wants to look for his missing girlfriend Beth (Juliana Canfield). Eventually, he and 355 set out together to find geneticist Dr. Allison Mann (Diana Bang), who might be able to discover answers. 

Wisely, the series shifts the focus slightly away from Yorick to the women around him, all of whom are more interesting characters – by design, Yorick is a goofy, useless man-child, seemingly unworthy of being the lone survivor. "Y" is impeccably cast, grounded by Lane, a veteran Hollywood star, much as her character grounds the flailing country as its most senior government official. The series' standout is Romans, who brings incredible depth to an enigmatic character who won't even reveal her real name to her confidantes.

Given how cultural understandings of gender have changed over the past two decades, and the greater visibility of transgender and nonbinary people in the media, "Y" had no choice but to address what happens to this part of the population (transgender people are rarely mentioned in the comics, and even then, often with offensive terms). It is a tricky line for the writers to walk, and they do it as ably as they can while staying true to the science-fiction story. 

A drawback to the visceral, intimate live-action adaptation FX offers is that the magnitude of the tragedy is far more prevalent on screen than it ever was on the drawn page. Starting the series a full day before the mass death leads the show to introduce dozens of men and young boys, only to brutally kill them off by the episode's end. In a comic book, it's easier to gloss over horrors for the sake of the story, especially when no one is drawing the images of dead children. But a scene where we see a mother holding her dead son as people die all around her is far more upsetting than nearly anything in the many volumes of comics. 

The series also struggles occasionally to weave its many threads together, taking a bit too much time to unite characters and establish a plot beyond the catastrophic event. As the episodes progress, the narrative moves more smoothly. 

But a story like "Y" was always going to be perilous to adapt. Clark and the writers have done a thoughtful job, bridging the post-9/11 themes of the comics to make it relevant in our current pandemic era. As the story goes deeper, it's easier to overlook some of the series' missteps. 

"Y" may not be perfect, but the series wears its ambition and effort on its sleeve, creating the most compelling dystopia since "The Walking Dead" was actually good. 

More:The 10 best new TV shows to watch this fall, from 'Wheel of Time' to 'Muhammad Ali'