Y The Last Man And ‘Working Boys’
It’s finally here. FX is bringing the Y series to life. Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s epic story (published through Vertigo of DC comics) of a plague that wipes out anything with a Y chromosome leaving a devastated planet has been teased to film and tv since it was first published in 2002. The original series did not shy away from LGBTQ+ issues, but the topic of trans men was barely mentioned.
Every work should be considered in its context. Y the Last Man can be defended as it was published when LGBTQ+ was still viewed as an alternative. If the comic contained more than half of LGBTQ+ content, it was often marketed as “other” and lost to speciality racks. The Last Man presented LGBTQ+ relationships and fluid sex. However, the terms of the time were far from what they would be in 2021. Y attempted, but some of the work did not age with grace.
The only references to trans, intersex, or gender-nonconforming characters are scattered. ;The Amazons killed FTM trans people a group made up of women brainwashed and manipulated by Queen Victoria. A few pirates later described “Working Boys” that they had encountered on The Whale. However, trans people are not allowed to speak or enter the narrative.
Transgender people are still a misunderstood group. Pis Guerra and Brian K. Vaughan, both transgender men, might not have known where or how to expand the idea. The Y the Last Man series doesn’t have to ignore the question, given the amount of cultural development and time that has passed. It seems they aren’t in the casting Shameless’s Elliot Fletcher into the new trans character “Sam Jordan”, Yorick’s best friend, Hero Brown.
This is not a great thing. The series premieres on September 13th, but not much information has been released. There may be many characters that represent all possible identities. However, announcing one trans character and slamming them in like a best friend to Hero who, in the graphic novel, takes the literal hero’s journey of emotional growth past trauma is a little too “My Best Friend’s Wedding” in representation. This is especially true when there are many other ways to flesh out the right experience in the source material.
Hero Brown’s journey to reflection is about her relationships with her family, her partner, and anyone she might call her “friend”. Hero Brown is a survivor of abuse both before and afterwards the plague. This particular character must be experienced and introduced on her own. Yorick is the general audience’s entrance to the world, while Hero is the idea of “abuse is what breeds abuse”. This is not the place to shove a trans-character in there.
Waverly is a former model who now collects bodies with a garbage truck. She is the first to enter the series at the beginning. Yorick, who she knows, becomes the first female to learn Yorick is a surviving man. Waverly is the only character to mention a transgender person directly and that they were their boyfriend at that. Waverly is reunited with Bobbi, a side character from the beginning of the series. The “Working Boys” are presumed to be cisgender females who dress up as male sex workers. Waverly and Bobbi fall in love as the graphic novel series is nearing its conclusion.
