Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Watchmen by Alan Moore

9 reviews

byebrook's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

i get why my professor said “you can never just read Watchmen, you can only ever re-read it,” because even as you begin to read it the first time you will find yourself stopping and flipping back to the past moments you’ve read to uncover references you didn’t know were there at first.  like DAMN this comic is full of little easter eggs and niche references that you only see once you’ve started to read through. hell, the first pages contain a MASSIVE character easter-egg, and you don’t even bat an eye, because you have no clue yet. you can only go back an re-read that moment once your about halfway through the book, going “wait… i recognize him- is that..? no. way.” like there are so many of these moments, and it’s pretty damn brilliant in how they are done. especially when coupled with the fake in-universe prose pieces mixed throughout - like the pirate comics or the biography excerpts - i really like how it plays with the medium and genre of comics! 

overall, an interesting commentary on the ideas of heroes, humanity, morality, and who exactly watches those that watch us. while some aspects are definitely of-the-time and have aged less-than-stellar, i did enjoy this comic and analyzing what makes it tick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Blood, Torture, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Murder, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Rape, and Cancer

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Homophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, and Lesbophobia

manjal's review

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

THE GREATEST GRAPHIC NOVEL(COMIC BOOK) EVER, A 12 CHAPTER MASTERPIECE THAT REVOLUTIONIZED COMIC BOOKS AND LEFT AN INDELIBLE MARK ON LITERATURE AND MEDIA. ITS INTRICATE PLOT AND MORALLY COMPLEX CHARACTERS EXPLORE THEMES OF HEROISM, IDENTITY, AND MORALITY. ALAN MOORE'S CREATION ELEVATED THE GENRE, INSPIRING A NEW WAVE OF STORYTELLING THAT EMBRACES MATURITY AND MORAL AMBIGUITY. IT'S ABOUT AN ALTERNATE 1980S AMERICA, WHERE RETIRED SUPERHEROES CONFRONT A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY, FUSES GRITTY REALISM WITH FANTASY, PUSHING CREATIVE BOUNDARIES AND INFLUENCING GENERATIONS OF CREATORS. NOT RECOMMENDED TO NEW COMIC BOOK READERS

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, War, Bullying, Racism, Rape, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Grief, Domestic abuse, and Hate crime

Minor: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Police brutality, Sexism, Stalking, Drug use, Misogyny, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

vlpfeiffer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Animal death, Murder, War, and Blood

Minor: Torture, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

bethbaty's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, War, Blood, and Rape

booksandteatime's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Racism, Animal death, Gore, Torture, Vomit, Child death, Death, Abortion, Blood, Cancer, and War

wetdirtreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Antisemitism, Body horror, Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Outing, Pregnancy, Cancer, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Hate crime, and Ableism

hazel_georgene's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This took me so long to read and I didn’t  enjoy it. The ending makes it worth it but it’s a slog to get there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Genocide, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

scripturient's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Ugh, I think I'm done with Moore. You'd think the man should be capable to write a SINGLE female character without having her raped and/or tortured, but apparently not. That's just laughable character development.
The plot was interesting in parts, other parts bored me to death, but overall, I just don't get the hype at all. But maybe I was too focused on the rampant sexual violence and misogyny, who knows. I think I'll stick to other writers from now on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Mental illness

tenten's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i watched it to make more sense of the HBO series. it was good and i can see why it's a classic. but it was written by a white man in the 80s — not to say that white men in the 80s cannot write or are inherently bad or whatever i just mean, it's a product of its time and creator. it's overly cynical,  quite sexist on occasion, included period-typical homophobia, everyone is white except two side characters. some of the topics introduced are not handled well, which is largely my point because i don't except the average white man in the 80s to really understand some of these things. it's not incredibly clear to me whether some of the writer's own views are expressed through the characters but even so, most of the characters kinda suck, including my fave Dr Manhattan.

but i think that's what makes the story compelling and stand up to the test  of time....or whatever? i think it's not as deep as it was trying to be in some places. but it was good for what it's worth and i can see why it's considered a classic. i definitely prefer it to Moore's other famous work, The Killing Joke — the only good thing to have come out of that was Oracle, then DC went and ruined her by ~curing~ her disability 🙄

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual content, Misogyny, Gore, Gun violence, Confinement, and Blood

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Torture, and Trafficking