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shutupitybi's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
wbfreema's review
1.0
Highly disjointed narrative that doesn't flow. Add that to Milligan's note at the beginning that it isn't just about sex, makes me think this whole thing was about sex. And how it sells. And really who pays for pornography anymore? The ideas had potential, especially all the old Roman iconography in issue one, but then the Council appears in a pirate ship? Haphazard. The art too is in an organic style that shows promise but so many scenes, especially the action ones are hard to follow and further muddle the flow. In particular, I had to look at the frame where Mel is caught by the vitruvian man to understand what was happening multiple times. Normally I'm all for the creators trusting in their audience but the parts of the story left out here feel like translucent cliff hanger parlor tricks to string along readers to the next ineffectual issue.
helpfulsnowman's review
2.0
I don’t hate the sex and the flat characters so much (that’s a pun if you read the book’s intro!). I just thought this was pretty boring?
We’ve got tons of stories out there where an outsider moves into a secret society or whatever, undergoes a transformation. Vampire shit, Matrix shit, occult shit, secret assassin guild shit, superpower shit, wizard school shit, government power shit.
For this to be interesting, the secret society has to be interesting itself or has to be doing interesting things. Best if both.
This book presents a vague pair of secret societies. I don’t know what they’re trying to do. I don’t know why they’re fighting each other. They can time travel sort of? There are lizard men and werewolves? Orgies are involved for both?
Why not have a secret society making breakfast cereal who it turns out are legitimately battling sea monsters they call soggies?
A secret society of people who are trying to create a perfect but inexpensive ballpoint pen, and they battle pencil companies?
Occult bikers who battle pious priests who drive lifted pickups?
I dunno, something is what I’d like, I guess.
We’ve got tons of stories out there where an outsider moves into a secret society or whatever, undergoes a transformation. Vampire shit, Matrix shit, occult shit, secret assassin guild shit, superpower shit, wizard school shit, government power shit.
For this to be interesting, the secret society has to be interesting itself or has to be doing interesting things. Best if both.
This book presents a vague pair of secret societies. I don’t know what they’re trying to do. I don’t know why they’re fighting each other. They can time travel sort of? There are lizard men and werewolves? Orgies are involved for both?
Why not have a secret society making breakfast cereal who it turns out are legitimately battling sea monsters they call soggies?
A secret society of people who are trying to create a perfect but inexpensive ballpoint pen, and they battle pencil companies?
Occult bikers who battle pious priests who drive lifted pickups?
I dunno, something is what I’d like, I guess.
sebarose's review
1.0
Agree with all the one star reviews and the strangeness that hoopla's algorithm put it in front of me, or anyone.
federico13's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
janedoelish's review
3.0
A good idea that never quite manages to flourish. A potential that never fulfils its promise.
To use a sex-metaphor: this book is the one-night-stand that looks promising on the dance floor, but turns out lousy in bed.
To use a sex-metaphor: this book is the one-night-stand that looks promising on the dance floor, but turns out lousy in bed.
ferencb's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
lakshay167's review against another edition
2.0
The only good part is the art.
I don't even know where to start for The Discipline's review. In the introduction to the book, the author writes that, "This book isn't supposed to be about sex. Sex is used differently in the book to show it as being part of a process rather than an endgame. It is a key component of its plot and its theme but used differently as it is not from a male gaze." But with the author, illustrator and the colourist all being male, I don't really see how they could avoid that?
Just by mentioning that the female shown is not rocket-breasted and uber-sexualized with plenty of male nakedness, I don't see how still the book cannot be made from the male of point view. And to be honest, I felt the authors introduction was a contradiction to his own story because there is still uber-sexualization of women, and if the main character isn't rocket-breasted, her friend is definitely shown that way. And still, the story doesn't match the empowerment theme or the different portrayal of sex.
The Discipline is a book about sex, and only sex. Yes, sex is used differently but in a more animalistic and brutal experience of sex mixed with a lot of fantasy and hyper-sexualization. It is the kind of. Sex that will make you skeeve out and feel dirty and gross. Milligan's focus on rough sex and domination of others left me cringing. There's no real story here, just there's 2 different kinds of monsters that are fighting and use sex as a weapon. Nothing is explained. It surely doesn't feel like a 30 year veteran of comic book wrote this garbage.
Melissa Peake is a beautiful Manhattan housewife whose husband has lost interest in her. She is a trophy wife that is only for show. She is 'sexually and emotionally frustrated' and doubting her own sensuality when she is seduced by a mysterious stranger named Orlando, who recruits her into The Discipline.
The Discipline is an ancient order that is at war with demonic beast like creatures that are called The Stalkers. The Discipline isn't any less monstrous themselves. They are green alien like creatures inspired from Alien Vs Predator movies. They have battled for eons and human beings are their playthings. They use sex and violence to survive and Melissa is caught in the middle. Will she be able to escape or will she change into one of The Discipline?
The plot is moronic. You turn into these creatures based on the sexual acts. The pacing, the timing, the whole thing is a mess. Things just happens randomly, like people die, fights happen, one second people are fucking, next they are on a skyscraper. Nothing flows well, the sex scenes are boring and don't even get me started on the dialog.
This book is far from female empowerment, in fact it is the complete opposite of female empowerment. Melissa is ordered around by men to "be a good housewife" so they can use her husband's wealth, and ordered to kill and seduce on their behalf. Our protagonist Melissa is even forced into submission to Swinburne otherwise her sister falls victim to be groomed to take her place. After spending the evening jilling off, she simpers to her bestie that she was doing ‘that thing…that we women do sometimes’. You become very aware that she was written by a guy, drawn by a second guy and coloured in by a third guy. Having a woman on the team would have gone a long way, I think. And how in the hell did Melissa get seduced by the creep Orlando in the first place? It seemed liked the only thing Melissa wanted from her life was sexual gratification which Orlando clearly took an advantage of, and Melissa kept on falling victim to it, without using her own brain even once! It was ridiculous and stupid!
The only good part of the book and the thing which helped it earn its 2 stars in my eyes was its art. Leandro Fernández's art is good, sometimes even great but the story itself is so blurred that it distracts from the art and slows down everything.
The Discipline focusses on the sex even when not trying to, but should it have been about the story of good versus evil and what happens when both sides have more than a little evil about them, it might have just come out completely different. What happens when those lines are so blurred that there doesn't really seem like a good side and a bad side? Just a bad side and an even worse one. The sex in this book is more about control than anything else and no I don't have an issue with sex or bondage and BDSM, but this is a different kind of control. It is a control that removes all will from its participants, and just seems creepy.
The build-up was too short, the seduction too implausible, and the proliferation of supernatural monsters too silly. If The Discipline had been played slower, it might have had more going for it; as it is, there's not enough tease and the seduction does not live up to the pay-off.
Wouldn't recommend anyone to go through this torture.
I don't even know where to start for The Discipline's review. In the introduction to the book, the author writes that, "This book isn't supposed to be about sex. Sex is used differently in the book to show it as being part of a process rather than an endgame. It is a key component of its plot and its theme but used differently as it is not from a male gaze." But with the author, illustrator and the colourist all being male, I don't really see how they could avoid that?
Just by mentioning that the female shown is not rocket-breasted and uber-sexualized with plenty of male nakedness, I don't see how still the book cannot be made from the male of point view. And to be honest, I felt the authors introduction was a contradiction to his own story because there is still uber-sexualization of women, and if the main character isn't rocket-breasted, her friend is definitely shown that way. And still, the story doesn't match the empowerment theme or the different portrayal of sex.
The Discipline is a book about sex, and only sex. Yes, sex is used differently but in a more animalistic and brutal experience of sex mixed with a lot of fantasy and hyper-sexualization. It is the kind of. Sex that will make you skeeve out and feel dirty and gross. Milligan's focus on rough sex and domination of others left me cringing. There's no real story here, just there's 2 different kinds of monsters that are fighting and use sex as a weapon. Nothing is explained. It surely doesn't feel like a 30 year veteran of comic book wrote this garbage.
Melissa Peake is a beautiful Manhattan housewife whose husband has lost interest in her. She is a trophy wife that is only for show. She is 'sexually and emotionally frustrated' and doubting her own sensuality when she is seduced by a mysterious stranger named Orlando, who recruits her into The Discipline.
The Discipline is an ancient order that is at war with demonic beast like creatures that are called The Stalkers. The Discipline isn't any less monstrous themselves. They are green alien like creatures inspired from Alien Vs Predator movies. They have battled for eons and human beings are their playthings. They use sex and violence to survive and Melissa is caught in the middle. Will she be able to escape or will she change into one of The Discipline?
The plot is moronic. You turn into these creatures based on the sexual acts. The pacing, the timing, the whole thing is a mess. Things just happens randomly, like people die, fights happen, one second people are fucking, next they are on a skyscraper. Nothing flows well, the sex scenes are boring and don't even get me started on the dialog.
This book is far from female empowerment, in fact it is the complete opposite of female empowerment. Melissa is ordered around by men to "be a good housewife" so they can use her husband's wealth, and ordered to kill and seduce on their behalf. Our protagonist Melissa is even forced into submission to Swinburne otherwise her sister falls victim to be groomed to take her place. After spending the evening jilling off, she simpers to her bestie that she was doing ‘that thing…that we women do sometimes’. You become very aware that she was written by a guy, drawn by a second guy and coloured in by a third guy. Having a woman on the team would have gone a long way, I think. And how in the hell did Melissa get seduced by the creep Orlando in the first place? It seemed liked the only thing Melissa wanted from her life was sexual gratification which Orlando clearly took an advantage of, and Melissa kept on falling victim to it, without using her own brain even once! It was ridiculous and stupid!
The only good part of the book and the thing which helped it earn its 2 stars in my eyes was its art. Leandro Fernández's art is good, sometimes even great but the story itself is so blurred that it distracts from the art and slows down everything.
The Discipline focusses on the sex even when not trying to, but should it have been about the story of good versus evil and what happens when both sides have more than a little evil about them, it might have just come out completely different. What happens when those lines are so blurred that there doesn't really seem like a good side and a bad side? Just a bad side and an even worse one. The sex in this book is more about control than anything else and no I don't have an issue with sex or bondage and BDSM, but this is a different kind of control. It is a control that removes all will from its participants, and just seems creepy.
The build-up was too short, the seduction too implausible, and the proliferation of supernatural monsters too silly. If The Discipline had been played slower, it might have had more going for it; as it is, there's not enough tease and the seduction does not live up to the pay-off.
Wouldn't recommend anyone to go through this torture.
whitethief's review
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
canisdaa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0