Destruction, Ethics, and Intergalactic Love: Exploring Y: The Last Man and Saga offers a creative and accessible exploration of the two comic book series, examining themes like nonviolence; issues of gender and war; heroes and moral failures; forgiveness and seeking justice; and the importance of diversity and religious pluralism.
Through close interdisciplinary reading and personal narratives, the author delves into the complex worlds of Y and Saga in search of an ethics, meaning, and a path resonant with real-world struggles. Reading these works side by side, the analysis draws parallels and seeks common themes around the four central ideas of seeking and making meaning in a meaningless world; love and parenting through oppression and grief; peacefulness when surrounded by violence; and the perils and hopes of diversity and communion.
This timely and thoughtful study will resonate with scholars and students of comic studies, media and cultural studies, philosophy, theology, literature, psychology, and popular culture studies.
Author(s): Peter Admirand
Series: Routledge Advances in Comics Studies
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 302
City: London
Cover
Endorsements Page
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments: Joy and Gratitude amidst Distress
Introduction: Death, Decay, and Destruction: Only the Beginning
Opening Salvo
Structure and Thematic Rationale
Chapter Summaries
Terror Incognita: A Comic-Loving Theologian Embarking on Comics Studies
The Backdrop and The Rationale: On Genius
Collaborative Creations and Their Creators
Y and Saga —Thematic Strands
Y: The Last Man Summary
Saga Summary (Issues 1–54)
Comic Apostasy, Comic Pedigree: Autobiographical Reminisces
Notes
Part I: Seeking Meaning in a Meaningless World
Chapter 1: Ethics (and Art) after the Plague
All Is Plague
What Makes Some Heal and Others Ignore or Injure?
Scapegoats and the Anonymous Dead
Beyond Y: Postapocalyptic Empathy
The Plague in Y: Rumor and Hearsay
The Enigma of Allison/Dr. Mann/Ayuko Matsumori 45
Cloning
The Mad Scientist
Art amidst Death
Notes
Chapter 2: Inky Darkness: Ethics amidst Intergalactic War (and The Narrative)
Just Wars?
The War on Terror and Saga
The Narrative
References to “The Narrative” in Saga
The Narrative’s Morally Gnarled Language
The Price and Profit of War
Trauma of the Innocent and the Guilty
Children, Trauma, and War
Hazel and Trauma
Phang
Miscarriages and Empathy
Coda: The Problem of Evil
Notes
Reflection on Part 1
Part 2: Love and Parenting through Oppression and Grief
Chapter 3: Love and Identity: A Numeric and Heroic Journey
Heroes
355 amidst Black Lives Matter
A Number’s Origin and Quest
A Hero’s Villain within
355 as Healer
Sibling Reconciliation
Ever after
Interracial Love
Yorick and 355’s First Scene
A Relationship of Denying, Obfuscating, and Sublimating
Conclusion: The Everyday Heroic
Notes
Chapter 4: (Intergalactic) Fatherhood: Failure and Maternal Hope
Fatherhood: Reflections, Worries, Dreams
Mothers
Fictional Dads and Character Traits
Helplessness, Fear, Anxiety, Daily Death: Fatherhood during War and Oppression
Failed Fathers
The Will and Sophie/Slave Girl
Prince Robot IV and Squire
Are Dead Fathers the Only Good Fathers?
Barr—The Best Exception?
Marko
Notes
Reflection on Part 2
Notes
Part 3: Being Peace but Surrounded by Violence
Chapter 5: Blessed are the Peacemakers: Gender and Violence
“Milk for Gall”
How Best to Reply to These (Vile) Generalizations?
Gender, Ethics, and Judgment
Feminists for All
Where to Lay the Blame?
Ethics and Violence as Usual?
Alter (and Toyota): Women with Excessive Gall
Amazons: Daughters of Destruction
Heroes and Murderers
On Sonia: Crass Wisdom and Tragic Redemption
Heroes and Murders, Part Two
Seeking Peace: 355 and Violence
Conclusion: Milk and Gall
Notes
Chapter 6: On the Perils of Pacifism during War
Exemplars of Active Nonviolence
Seeking a Justpeace
D. Oswald Heist, the Writer
The Pen and the Sword
The Reception of Heist’s Books
Heist’s Other Novels in Saga and Potential Impact
A Middle Way?
Marko’s (Intermittent Vow of) Nonviolence
Pacifist and Alone
Violence within, Threats without
Marko’s Evolving Views on Violence
Conclusion: Inevitable Violence?
Notes
Reflection on Part 3
Notes
Part 4: Beyond Diversity and Tolerance: Towards Communion
Chapter 7: Post-Religion: Sex, God, Women, Love
Religions and Women
Sporadic Godtalk in Y
Post-Vatican II Catholic Sexual Ethics: Brief Overview
Yorick’s Quasi-Sexual/Spiritual Healing
The Intervention
Theology and Y
Confession
Eucharist
Two Feminist Theology Students in a Plague
The Vatican
The Dreaming: Beth and Aboriginal Australia
Conclusion: Faith Endures
Notes
Chapter 8: Enfolding the Grotesque and the Borderless: A Politics for All
Difference and Plurality
The Grotesque and the Hybrid
Ghüs—“The Mate and Companion of People”
Petrichor: From Exclusion to Inclusion
Lying Cat: A Kantian Feline
Izabel: A Profane Holy Ghost
Hazel: “A Glimmering Girl”
A Borderless Politics?
Notes
Reflection on Part 4
Notes
Conclusion: Love in the Throes of Destruction and Despair
Love and Moving Mountains
Bearing, Believing, Hoping, Enduring: Yorick and 355
Marko and Hazel: “Love Never Ends”
Love Triumphant? Y ’s Ending and Saga ’s Midpoint
Closing Salvo: Beginning Again
Notes
Bibliography
Index
