Peeping Val - Brian K. Vaughan's Spectators (2025)

 

Spectators (Hardcover) front

This book is an original graphic novel.

Score (out of 5 Capes)

A visually attractive and entertaining commentary on our human tendency to watch things happen to other people, 4 out of 5 Capes.

My Review

When I saw this new graphic novel on the store shelves, by one of my favourite authors in Brian K. Vaughan, I knew I could not leave the store without it. 

Vaughan has made a name for himself in the world of the "big two" comics makers and their superhero lines, of course. But where he really shines is in his growing body of creator-controlled books and long-running series.

Paper Girls was sometimes deeply moving and always amazing. Y: The Last Man broke moulds and pushed boundaries. Little else compares to Saga. So my expectations were high for this new standalone book. 

It did not disappoint.

In this world, when people die, most pass on in short order. But not everyone. Some choose to linger, observing the "real world" and its many dramas both small and large. But unlike horror or paranormal genres, those who remain in this story have no ability to interact with the rest of us. There is no haunting, no spectral visitations or eerie sensations. 

They are pure spectators, watching the world unfold before their no-longer-living eyes. Vaughan uses this remarkably imaginative setup to explore our penchant for voyeurism, for watching things happen to others, for living vicariously through the experiences of others. He does not in the least shy away from the obvious sex-and-violence obsessions, and this book is most definitely for Mature readers only, as a result.

Lest the reader miss his point on the human nature of being, well, Spectators on the lives of others, he (spoiler alert) ends with a clever but very apropos breaking of the fourth wall, as the Spectators themselves tell us readers to mind our own d@mn business.

Our lead actor is Val, a single, forty-something woman who is not shy about the pleasure she gets from watching others perform acts of either sex or violence. She meets her untimely demise in a random shooting at a movie theatre, only to discover that she has a never-ending supply of opportunities to watch others in her afterlife.

Along the way she meets several other spectators, including Theodore Roosevelt, a very scantily clad woman, wearing nothing but one single thigh-high stocking, a stalker spectre. But the one she hangs around the most is Sam. He has been Spectating a century or more longer than she has and has both wisdom and despair to share with her.  

Together, in their quest for a threesome to watch - hey Val does love watching others get it on -  they live through many other experiences, including the near-end of the world in a nuclear Armageddon.

The tale is a meditation on our human and social urge to watch others, whether in movies, porn, TV broadcasts or influencer videos, do ridiculous or sexy or violent things. The sex has a much stronger and more central depiction in the story than the violence; the occasional mass shooting or underground Fight Club soon enough becomes dwarfed by the looming global nuclear annihilation, but the moments of intimacy persist throughout their many, many forms.

Niko Henrichon handles the art duties in this book and does an incredible job. The "Real World" is the backdrop and is therefore rendered almost entirely in black and white, while our denizens of the afterlife all glow with their own tinted aura and full colours in their skin and clothes.

Henrichon handles all the demands of the story, from some pretty explicit sex acts to some brutal and gory moments of violence on one extreme, down to some very sweet and tender moments of quiet reflection between Sam and Val. Much of the story is them sharing their experiences and building bonds of deep afterlife friendship, which can happen as they float above a forest or in an abandoned subway car as well as in the midst of an orgy or fistfight.

I especially admire Henrichon's easy transition between detailed shading and careful attention to every corner on the one hand, then switching to a more simplified and elemental view at other moments. Any time you feel the narrative beginning to drag or drift, he is there with smart artistic decisions to keep things on the rail.

Does Spectators rise to the level of Saga or Paper Girls or Y, Vaughan's most renowned work? Those other titles had more time and space to build their worlds, while Spectators is much more condensed and compact in its setup and simpler in its cast of characters. 

It is a great read, one that, like a great movie, you can either watch purely for entertainment or you can allow yourself to be challenged by its messages and commentary on our world and our humanity.

For that, I give it 4 Capes out of 5.

What I loved

Val is a passionate observer

There is no interaction between the spectral observers and the still-living humans. No hauntings, possessions, frissons. Val and Sam and others like them are entirely watchers. Spectators.

Not like people watching a sporting event or a play. In those contexts, the spectator might still catch a foul ball or distract the opponent in their free shot or lead to a pause in the soliloquy. These spectators are more like watching a TV broadcast or an influencer with their comment stream turned off. There is zero interaction between the living and the dead.

And there is no TV Guide or anything else to help the watchers find the kind of entertainment they seek. It leads to frustration by times, as in the panels above, but also cleverly serves as the quests at the heart of this story: Val and Sam spend much of the book looking for a certain kind of stimulation and entertainment.

Such a throwback concept, in this world filled with reviews (ahem!), guides, directories, listings, search engines. Good thing they have all eternity, because this is a never-ending hit-or-miss hunt. One that adds to the delight in reading and following their quest.

Coloured Ghosts and B&W Reality

I also loved the decision, followed throughout 98% of the book, to invert our expectations and turn the living into a muted black-and-white backdrop while portraying the afterlife characters in vivid colours, each framed by their own glowing halo.

It makes for some very striking images, perhaps most of all when the spectators gather in large numbers for an especially thrilling event. And the more violent, it seems, the better. 

What I didn't love

Far-future sci-fi setting

While Val's story begins in contemporary New York City, after her murder and initial disorientation the narrative jumps hundreds of years into the future, a time of scientific advancement compared to our own, not a utopia but neither has it fallen into the opposite.

It is an unnecessary temporal jump, in my opinion.

If Vaughan is at heart a writer of Science Fiction then so be it, the tale moves in directions with which he is very comfortable. Thinking of some of his other stories, like Saga, We Stand on Guard, Paper Girls, to a lesser extent Y: the Last Man.

But here his story and its insights into humanity could be made just as effectively had Val remained in the present.

The two biggest contributions that the futuristic setting provides are: First, that Val has an insatiable obsession with watching others in their most intimate moments. We had that sense from the opening pages, but that she continues to do so after centuries of doing little else does contribute to our understanding of her character.

And second, the futuristic setting allows for cooler tools of destruction when the story turns violent on a global scale. 

Related Reviews

I have reviews of all 10 volumes of Y: The Last Man, linked here

All 6 volumes of Paper Girls also have reviews, starting with Volume 1

We Stand on Guard - What if USA attacked Canada?

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Brian K. Vaughan
Artists:  Niko Henrichon 
Published By:  Image Comics
Published When:  Sept 23, 2025
Parental Rating: Mature

Back cover of Spectators (Hardcover)