Spectators by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon
Image Comics (September 23, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Brian K. Vaughan is an American comic book and television writer, best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, Pride of Baghdad, Saga, and Paper Girls. His newest book, Spectators, is a violent, sexual exploration at a voyeurism set against an apocalyptic nightmare.
A woman is murdered in a movie theater in present day. Her murderer is playing an online game, in which participants attempt to kill the most people at once. After she’s murdered, she becomes a ghost and haunts the city. Years later, the city, indeed the world, has descended into a pleasure-driven chaos. Deadly fight clubs, mechanically aided pornography, and public orgies are the rule of the day, and Vaughan pulls no punches in presenting this lawlessness to us. The woman’s ghost eventually meets another ghost, one much older than she, but with a shared interest in voyeurism. The rest of the novel proceeds through the final days of the world as observed by these two ghosts, who are on the hunt for one last voyeuristic thrill before humanity dies.
The book is as intense as the description implies. Niko Henrichon’s rich, colorful illustrations are as blood-stained and pornographically salacious as the plot demands. While some readers might be put off by such graphic displays, the whole plot of the book and the moral queries it asks necessitate violence and sex to such magnitude. The book is designed both to thrill and disgust readers in equal measures, and forces them to question the direction of their own gaze.
Spectators is a bizarre sci-fi horror graphic novel. Set in a near-future society that has descended into a madness of violent power and sexual pleasure, the two protagonists seem a rational, even sane, counterpart, despite being specters. The rich art of Henrichon coupled with Vaughan’s sense of tension driving the story create a compelling tale. Adult fans (this book is DEFINITELY 18+ Only!) of body horror, sexual horror, and apocalyptic horror will thoroughly enjoy this morally introspective graphic novel.
