Y: THE LAST MAN

A potentially facile premise -- a ''gendercidal'' plague on earth kills all men except for one -- becomes a seriously funny, nuanced fable about sudden global matriarchy. Cocreators Vaughan and Guerra raise a multitude of feminist issues, describe the policies of a female U.S. President, and introduce some radical ''Amazons.'' Meanwhile, the last man on earth -- a Y-chromosome yutz named Yorick -- gets hunted down, beaten up, and used to propagate the race. Never has the phrase ''Payback's a bitch'' seemed more apt.