WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Y: The Last Man Season 1, now streaming on FX on Hulu.
Writer Brian K. Vaughn and artist Pia Guerra certainly covered a lot of ground in the 60 issues of Vertigo's Y: The Last Man, depicting a scary world in the wake of all of the male species going extinct, well, apart for Yorick and his monkey, Ampersand. The series dove into global politics as America struggled to survive its own inner-turmoil, all layered on top of Yorick trying to find his beloved Beth and hopefully evade experimentation. Now, with three episodes out already, let's dissect what changes have been made for the TV adaptation.
In the comics, Yorick tried to propose to his girlfriend, Beth, over the phone right when the extinction event occurred. Contact was lost, which inspired him to get to the Australian Outback where Beth was studying anthropology. Yorick felt she'd have said yes, but this is dramatically changed. In the TV series, Yorick and Beth are in New York living together, but she walks out on his proposal.
She doesn't think he's mature enough, but seeing as she did say they'd discuss it later before disappearing during the event, Yorick's purpose is to find her months later, leaving graffiti messages all over the Big Apple. Episode 3, "Neil," hints Beth died in a subway crash near her apartment or went to Cleveland to visit her ailing mom, perhaps thinking Yorick is dead with the other men.
The books made Hero (Yorick's sister) a polarizing figure as she quickly went from being part of a terrorist feminist militia to someone who tried to kill Yorick. It was due to PTSD after losing her fellow paramedic and lover during the incident. The show fixes this by adding a lot more depth to why Hero is flawed, making her an addict in recovery. Interestingly, her affair with her worker isn't as romantic since he lies about wanting to leave his family for her.
It leads to an argument where she hits him before the event with a fire extinguisher and kills him in the premiere, "The Day Before." Hero doesn't tell anyone, eventually helping his family get food to assuage her pain. All of this breaks her, but thankfully, Sam, a trans man and her best friend, is another key addition, helping her cope as she seems to have survivor's guilt.
When the plague hit, the books had Agent 355 initially on a Culper Ring mission in Jordan to find a relic known as the Amulet of Helene. Legend had it that if it were removed from Jordan, the world would be blighted, which led 355 to think she caused the extinction. The series alters this as 355 is with the president in Washington when all men die. She is seen, however, grabbing a necklace from a Culper Ring safe-house in Episode 2, "Would the World Be Kind," to leave that thread open.
In the show, 355 is more of a gofer for President Jennifer Brown (Yorick's mom) to find Hero, but she ends up bringing Yorick in. In the comics, Yorick found his way to Washington from NYC, while Hero wasn't in the Big Apple, but in Boston. Another change is 355 is killing folks, unbeknownst to Jen, to start covering up Yorick's existence. She needs to get him to Dr. Mann, whom she helps Jen pick out as a geneticist, which also tweaks 355's influence.
Jennifer Brown was a congresswoman in the comics who gained more power, using 355 to find the Secretary of Agriculture, Margaret Valentine, who had gone into hiding. Jen convinced Margaret to become the President, but this is tweaked as Jen is now convincing other women to help get electricity going again across the country. The biggest change is her actually becoming acting-President, to add more tension for when folks find out she hid Yorick.
Another addition is Regina, a racist right-wing presidential successor, alive in Israel and coming for the leadership role, giving Jen's Democrats a Cabinet civil war against Republicans. Another new character, Kim, the former President's daughter, is added to Jen's Cabinet to stir up insurrection, as well as another former conservative, Nora, trying to find new purpose after losing her family.
Based on the acclaimed DC/Vertigo comic of the same name written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Pia Guerra, Y: The Last Man stars Ben Schnetzer as Yorick Brown, Ashley Romans as Agent 355, Diana Bang as Dr. Allison Mann, Olivia Thirlby as Hero Brown and Diane Lane as President Jennifer Brown. Y: The Last Man is now streaming on FX on Hulu.
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