The 'Y: The Last Man' TV Show Isn't Exactly Like the Comics

Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers for Season 1 of Y: The Last Man.

TV often proves that art imitating other art can be a great thing. No, we aren't talking about remakes or spinoffs, but rather about TV shows based on novels or comics books of the same name.

Take Hulu's Y: The Last Man, which is based on a comic book series.

Fans of the show and fans of the comics alike might wonder to what extent the show pays homage to its source material. It's not uncommon for TV or film adaptations to leave out key elements or to change storylines considerably. And in the case of Hulu's Y: The Last Man, the show isn't exactly as readers will remember it.

Y: The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic story set in a world where the entire male population has been wiped out. Both the comics and the Hulu series focus on Yorick Brown, the last living man with a Y chromosome, and his companion, a pet monkey that travels with him.

The comic book series, from Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, consists of 60 issues spread across 10 paperback graphic novels, and is what the show is based on.

However, there are some key differences between the Y: The Last Man comics and the TV show version. The show delves deeper into how the plague unfolds. In the comics, every animal with a Y chromosome dies at the exact same time. In the show, the Y chromosome animals die off gradually, in the order of the typical food chain.

The show also introduces a trans main character, Sam Jordan. He's a protagonist, rather than one of many trans characters who pop in and out of the comics.

There's also a part from the comics that doesn't make it into the TV show version of Y: The Last Man. The pretty vivid S&M sequence that readers might remember from the comics was left out of the TV show.

And, while the graphic novels are not especially political, the TV series focuses more on the political aspects and repercussions of the overall plot.

There are 60 issues and 10 books in the Y: The Last Man comic book series. Don't get it twisted, though: that doesn't necessarily mean there will be 10 full seasons of the Hulu show, which hasn't even been renewed for a Season 2 yet.

But there's a chance it could have a long shelf life on the streaming platform if showrunner Eliza Clark has her way.

"Five or six seasons is what I'm thinking," she told Polygon of her plan for the series. "Without giving anything away, the comic is a great template, but the show will have its own twists and turns. Generally speaking, I feel like television is best at about five seasons."

Watch Y: The Last Man on Hulu.