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The comic and pre-TV series speculation

Y: The Last Man is a prescient Let's Play Perspective Flip of a more customizable Pandemic clone or sequel.
It makes perfect sense. In the hypothetical Pandemic 3, the Player set up a Y-chromosome linked virus and was very, very careful to limit as many symptoms as possible. Then, after building up its Infection rating to the maximum level, giving the disease enough time to spread to the entire world (including Madagascar, but not including the International Space Station), and saving up a couple dozen Evolution Points, the Player upgraded it to include vomiting, bleeding, ulcers, and hemorrhagic fever. The plan was to give it an X-chromosome fatality effect after another thirty or fifty evolution points. Yorick and & were a result of getting the One In A Million Chance immunity score, like how the Master Ball in the first two generations of Pokémon fails 1/65536 times due to how the Random Number God works.

The disease was the result of a godly intervention that decided, because several signs and possible causes happened at once, it/they/he/she may as well set off the Gendercide.
From a Doylist perspective, this is absolutely correct, though with effect and cause reversed.

Agent 355's real name
I'm sure I'm not the first person who thought of this, but I have a good idea of what 355's real name is. From how Yorick says "it's perfect", and the word Peace on her grave marker, her name is probably one of the following Irene, Frida, Winifred, or Olive, all of which mean 'peace'.

Yorick has magic powers
He's a little too insistent about how much he sucks at everything, it could just be covering up. And he gets his levitation trick names mixed up because he's only pretending to use tricks. His skill at annoying people comes from everyone sensing something wrong with him, and he seems to make animals nervous. But mostly he's just way too good at disappearing in thin air. (And he never does explain that trick to 355.)
  • Also explains his preternaturally bad brawling skills: He's a Squishy Wizard.
  • And come to think of it, how on Earth did he track 355 down to a random location in Paris in the same time it took him to run there from Beth?
  • And over the course of the series, he gives himself a hyperactive brain, an enlarged heart and even a ride in a submersible steel balloon. The parallels to The Wizard of Oz are obvious!

The show will update aspects of the comic to represent changes in the world

The comic was published from 2002-2008 which may not seem like such a long time ago but a lot has changed in the world since then, especially women’s place in politics and world affairs.

  • When the comic started, no woman had ever been above fourth in the presidential line of succession. That would be Secretary of State which is the highest ranking cabinet official. Towards the end of the run, Nancy Pelosi became the 2nd in line as Speaker of House. In the comic, the Secretary of the Interior (8th in line) became president which would fit with the time. By the time the show comes out, Pelosi will be back as number two. Obviously Pelosi herself won’t be president but her equivalent Speaker would become President instead of the Secretary of the Interior.
  • After the plague, the Democrats control both chambers of Congress due to the lopsideness of gender representation of the parties. It’s only gotten worse. Now there are enough women in Congress (127) to be able to govern but there are also five times as many women democrats as republicans. There were only 73 women in Congress in 2002 with a 51 D/ 22 R split . President “Pelosi” will be able to make decisive action to work on the aftermath of the plague as she has super majorities in the Congress. Though the Republican widows will put up more of a fight because of how many there are.
  • Israel will still be the world’s superpower because they’ve allowed women in combat for much longer but now they’ll have some competition as the much more populus countries of Germany, France, India, the UK, and US all allow for women to serve in combat for the military. India and the US out of sheer numbers will likely team up to take on Israel.

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