With Y: The Last Man finally making its long-awaited live-action debut, the question of how Yorick Brown survived the 'gendercide" that took out anyone with a Y-chromosome has arisen again. The show hasn't really detailed the plague much as it focuses on world-building and emotional stakes with the characters, but the completed Vertigo Comics series spent considerable time on this particular topic, offering a potential solution about why Yorick was able to survive.
In Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's comic series, an unknown event wiped out(almost) every mammal with a Y-chromosome, causing them to bleed out from the head and die, except for the escape artist Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand. But as the last of his kind, he was in danger as a resource to be experimented on, with him potentially playing a crucial role in humanity's long-term survival. His journey would then take him to his mom, Jennifer, who used her political clout, as well as Agent 355, to get him to Dr. Allison Man's lab where they discovered a dirty, disgusting secret about his survival.
Allison studied both Yorick and Ampersand and determined it wasn't luck or divine providence. Y: The Last Man #30 had her thinking the capuchin flinging poop on Yorick produced a scientific shield. Somehow, Yorick's body had a reaction and developed unique antibodies, which she posits offered immunity. Yorick couldn't believe it but later on, when Allison met her dad, Matsumori, it became clear it wasn't a random mutation in the pet.
Her dad hated how she rivaled him in cloning experiments and impregnated herself. As such, he used monkeys as lab rats, infecting them with chemical agents. One of them was Ampersand, who he shipped to Allison to kill her unborn clone, only for the pet to end up with Yorick, who was seeking something to train. Matsumori believed when Allison went into labor, that meant sexual reproduction wasn't needed anymore, which caused the Earth to send out a bio-wave to kill men. However, it appears the chemicals in Ampersand had the opposite effect, as these doctors' science was exact, thus saving him from the death signal. In Yorick's case, he was biologically contaminated from the monkey poop, which is why he could withstand it.
Ironically, Yorick had hated being in close contact with all of Ampersand's gross bodily fluids, and he couldn't believe they spared them from the apocalyptic event. Of course, the exact cause of the outbreak has never been confirmed, since Vaughn himself teased many different angles over the incident.
However, the Ampersand poop theory is grounded in science and seems more plausible than the theory that the engagement ring Yorick bought from a magic ship for Beth saved him from whatever was happening. Seeing as the ring doesn't explain Ampersand's survival, it leaves the poop evidence most solid as the capuchin threw it on Matsumori as well, which suggests the doctor survived as he was also shielded like Yorick.
0 Comments