Watching the movie first was a big mistake - but maybe the movie had a finer dramatic tension to it, being less inclined to be so philosophical and cryptic?

|| 2.0 stars ||

This is kind of like a mix between 1984 and (anti-)Nazi Germany inspired politics, packaged as a graphic novel.

The story takes place in a dystopian society under a fascist regime that indoctrinates all of its citizens and sends everyone who falls outside of their idea of ‘perfection’ to a concentration camp (those people include gays, people of colour, socialists, etc.).
In these concentration camps certain experiments take place, and one of these involuntary participants is our main character V. We are not entirely sure what kind of experiment he was used for, but we do know he escaped and is now out for vengeance. He wants to spread chaos and anarchy as an anonymous vigilante; he wants to overthrow the totalitarian regime by taking away the propaganda tools the leaders use to manipulate people. However, is V doing this out of the kindness of his heart? Does he have ulterior motives? Is he simply just insane after the experiments he has endured?

The other protagonist is Evey, and she becomes more important in the second half of the story. She is a desperate girl living under the regime and she is saved by V early on in the comic, after which they develop a hard too define and extremely troubled relationship. I don’t want to say too much about her journey because it would be a spoiler, but her storyline is quite sad.
I personally did feel like her characterization was weak and her character oftentimes felt rather empty. She could have been a much more impactful character if she was written better, and not only as a naive, stupid, silly, pleading and frail girl. She simply didn’t have much of a real personality, which was a shame. She did have one powerful scene somewhere in the middle of the comic, but that was quickly forgotten afterwards and she just became uninteresting again. In summary, most of what she did was ask unanswered questions and follow V around: It wasn’t very impactful or intriguing.

Despite the story having a very fascinating and compelling premise, it was hard to feel a powerful emotional connection to the characters or any of the action. The writing simply lacked feeling and it was honestly a little stale. It often read like a political pamphlet or a theology lesson.
Some of the writing was also a little too flowery. I didn’t really like that so much was said in such hard too follow prose like it was a pretentious little riddle (especially when V was talking) or when the words were written down in certain accents. I have to admit to not being able to understand what was going on sometimes. It was annoying and often gave me a headache. I mean, there were times when I genuinely had no clue what we were even talking about, to whom was being spoken to, why something was happening, where we were, etcetera. It could all be very... confusing.
There was also a lot of it that felt quite repetitive and it almost became rather preachy. A lot of scenes were honestly just boring, and they didn’t matter to me at all.

I didn’t really like the drawings in this comic either. The lines weren’t very pronounced, and there were a lot of dark spots. I found it hard to distinguish between different faces or different facial expressions. I honestly could not tell any of the characters apart (other than V and Evey), and I didn’t find any of the pictures particularly well done. It was honestly hard to see anything clearly; the pictures really didn’t add much to the story for me, and I think that’s a very bad thing indeed for a graphic novel.

All in all, I wish I would have just watched the movie. I will probably still do that sometime in the future anyway, because I think the story has the potential to be great, it was just the execution of it that was a fail for me.

I don't know what it is about masks, but they make everything about 40% more attractive (not counting covid-facediapers). Have an unsighlty clothes stand? Slap a mask on it—instant fix.
So yeah, V is hot. I said it.

Thanks for reading my in-depth analysis of V for Vendetta. (I am indeed an intellectual.)

Imprescindibile.
Se ancora non conoscete la storia, fatevi un favore e leggetela e/o guardate il film, non penso ci sia altro da aggiungere.

Terminado. Solo me queda levantarme quitarme el sombrero y aplaudir.
Una obra maestra, genial.

1984, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451 - dystopias that are my measuring stick for all other dystopias. V for Vendetta comes pretty close. The style is raw and compelling. V as the rebel is focused on anarchy, in order to tear down the corrupt government and build a new future upon the rubble. Disturbing but so is the world they live in. Eve is V’s protege. Her scenes tend to border on repetitive. She was not a favorite character but she was necessary for the story. Some of the secondary characters don’t stand out enough. Sometimes, I did get a little confused about who was who (artwork issue? Maybe they were supposed to blend?). The background of how society got to this point and how England functions in the wider world would have been good to know. However, I’m not sure Moore had it planned out that far. While V for Vendetta has many of the right ingredients for a good dystopia, there did need to be some fine tuning for it to be at the top of my list.

V for Vendetta is one of those books that has the reputation for being one of the greatest comics ever written and frequently appears on “graphic novels everyone must read” lists. It’s a celebrated classic by the most acclaimed comics writer of all time, Alan Moore, and is one of the few books many non-comics readers have read. But why is this so feted? V for Vendetta is a badly written, even more poorly conceived pamphlet espousing anarchism as the ideal political system featuring non-characters in a moronic dystopian future world with a storyline of the most convoluted revenge.

The setup: when nuclear war breaks out, the environment goes to hell, flooding and black skies etc., and Britain suffers so badly that democratic government falls to pieces. Fascism rises and the country becomes a military dictatorship, banning things like art, music, and public freedom just because, and everyone is ok with this. Even when concentration camps (called here “resettlement camps”) start popping up and people get shuttled there to die and be experimented upon. One of these poor souls experimented upon survives and takes the roman numeral on his door as his name – V. This man quietly builds up a hideout of contraband and weaponry as he prepares to tear down the government and begin a revolution.

Ok, the nuclear war thing was a product of its time. V for Vendetta was written in the 80s when the Cold War was going on and everyone thought the nukes would start flying at any moment. But the extreme left wing reaction of Moore’s to Thatcher’s Conservative government is also outdated, comparing her policies to one step away from things Hitler would enact (and how dreary is it when western politicians get compared to Hitler?).

So the setup right away dates this book and makes its proclamations of future dystopianism seem utterly ridiculous and hysterical - which they are. But the rise of fascism in Britain is completely unbelievable. People in Britain will protest at the drop of a hat - a cutting of benefits in certain public sector jobs, an unfair tax, and so on. That NOBODY would protest or stand up against the dismissal of democracy, the rise of fascism, concentration camps, strict curfews, the loss of basic freedoms, and insane amounts of prejudice and random violence from the people supposedly in charge? It’s the fantasy of a lunatic. Or an extreme left winger like Moore. Or both.

But it serves it’s intended purpose which is Moore’s idiotic belief that anarchism is the answer. Look, fascism clearly doesn’t work, but giving up on democracy because of Thatcher? Madness. 30 years later and we’re still standing - dare I say, even better off with her time in government? My point is that anarchism is definitely not the right political system, but to Moore it is the perfect form of everything. Under anarchism, people are free to be themselves, live in peace, enjoy things they like, etc. - oh if only we had a political system in place for such things to exist. Oh that’s right we do: democracy. But democracy has to fail because Moore believes anarchism is the answer and so paints democracy as bad and anarchism as good.

Nearly all of the characters in this book are ciphers. V isn’t a character because he doesn’t have characteristics - he’s just Moore’s mouthpiece for his political rantings (when he’s not quoting literature or rock lyrics). And interestingly given Moore’s recent views on superhero characters being juvenile and examples of stunted emotional growth, V, arguably Moore’s most famous creation, is a superhero himself. He’s a character who’s basically invincible until he’s meant to die in the script, and can dispatch enemies and execute his plans perfectly as if there were no obstacles in his way (and is there anything less interesting than a hero who gets his way every time? Where’s the conflict?).

Evie isn’t much of a character either. She’s a helpless dull girl who gets caught up in V’s campaign against the government, “learns” that anarchism is the greatest thing ever (after being tortured by V), and then parrots said nonsense back to the people at the end. The detective character, Finch, is equally boring. He meanders about uselessly following V’s footsteps, always too late to stop him, until the end when he’s supposed to be a competent detective. Oh yeah and through Finch we discover that apparently if you take psychotropic drugs in abandoned places where bad things happened, you literally time-travel and the past comes to life around you!

The Leader is also an awfully constructed “character”. You might remember John Hurt’s performance in the V for Vendetta movie as a brittle old ranting tosspot but the Leader of the book is a very quiet and unremarkable man who sits in front of screens murmuring to his underlings. Guess what Moore’s revelation about him is? If only the Leader had known love in his life, he wouldn’t have become a dictator!!!

Moore’s writing is generally quite tedious but his work in V is the most turgid his prose has ever been. The pages are simply glutted with captions and long-winded speeches, slowing down what little action there is to a snail’s pace, and removing any kind of reader-interpretation from Moore’s overly stated scenes. And the problem with having characters you don’t care about means you don’t care about anything that happens to them in the story. Certain scenes are meant to be emotional and powerful like when Evie stands naked in the rain, “free”, after enduring V’s tortures. Except I read that scene and felt nothing. It was two non-characters making empty gestures.

The story is repetitive: V kills someone who was at Larkhill Resettlement Camp, goes and tells Evie about the wonders of anarchism, Finch shows up and uselessly tries to figure out who killed the person, the Leader looks at a screen and stares at a screen. Repeat this a dozen times and you’ve got the book.

There’s an interminably unfunny scene where V “talks” to Lady Justice, the statue, taking on both personas as he argues for why he’s fighting against fascism. And here’s the thing: is anyone reading this book going to actually favour fascism? I don’t, you probably don’t - I don’t imagine anyone reading this does! So what a daring position to take: a stand against a failed political concept that everyone is already against! Hearing an argument - made numerous times - against fascism is like listening to a child who’s just discovered Hitler and the Nazis and is telling everyone what a bad thing they were. DUH, we already know, stupid! It’s like saying “killing people is wrong” - agreed, and?

Because this is the viewpoint of V for Vendetta, criticising the book gives the impression that you’re for oppressive/far right government, which I doubt anyone reading this is (I know I’m making a lot of assumptions but I’m sure most people aren’t this stupid - quite the opposite belief that Moore adopts in this book). I’m not a fascist, I’m not pro-fascism, I’m not against people liking all kinds of culture or being who they are - I just don’t like this crappy comic. It’s like this book comes prepackaged with an automatic response mechanism: dislike this and you’re immediately a bad person.

The book is written from a childish viewpoint - assuming that people would be docile against such oppressive movements and it wouldn’t occur to anyone to rebel in any way even when family members and friends are literally being beaten in the streets, taken to death camps, and experimented on. Give the people some credit! If that kind of blatant villainy started happening, they wouldn’t need a Velvet Underground quoting superhero like V to tell them to rebel, they’d already be doing it!

And really, nobody thought to check the underground to see if that’s where V was hiding? Hmm, we’re expecting an attack on the seat of government, Parliament. Well, we’ve checked everywhere except the underground - but he probably won’t be coming from there. I mean, there are rails leading directly to Parliament which he could use to equip a train with explosives on and send it straight to Parliament but he probably won’t do that so we won’t check! You see what I mean? It’s like a halfwit wrote this drek!

The bad plotting, non-characterisation, terrible writing, and obnoxiously moronic political posturing is like listening to a teenager wittering on ceaselessly about something that could only make sense to someone who shared his worldview, not to anyone with a considered opinion who thought for themselves. Which makes me wonder about the overwhelmingly high ratings this book gets - is it purely because Moore anticipated the “surveillance state” where CCTV cameras are everywhere, that this is rated so highly? I’ll give him that, but to ignore everything else about this book and call it a classic is ridiculous. I applaud the sentiment of personal freedom, celebrating culture and embracing other cultures, and accountable government by the people and for the people, but I detest the way Moore’s gone about it in this near-unreadable book.

The eighties were a different time. Alan Moore was just getting started and Britain was on the cusp of fascism under Margaret Thatcher. First serialized in Warrior magazine and then published in 12 issues by DC, V for Vendetta is a dystopian tale of anarchy vs. fascism in a bleak world crafted by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

I rescued about half the run in dollar bins as a teenager and nabbed a couple issues of Warrior at the flea market but I'd never read V for Vendetta before Amazon had it for 10 bucks a little while ago.

Was it worth it? Sure. It's no Watchmen but few things are. Alan Moore was still getting things working but there are hints of things he'd later make hay out of in Watchmen, like scene shifts within the grid and a psychotic viewpoint character.

Things are bleak in V for Vendetta and David Lloyd's art is up for the task, heavy on blacks, moody as hell. V takes Eve through hell as he tries to upset the applecart of England's authoritarian regime by sewing the seeds of chaos whenever he can.

While it's a good read, it's easy to see why V isn't as revered as Watchmen. It doesn't feature super heroes, the art isn't as slick, and it's a much slower burn. The resolution isn't as satisfying. Still, it's a worthwhile read and a treat seeing Alan Moore when he wasn't the master magician he would later become. The winning ingredients are still there, though. It was plain to see Moore knew what the fuck he was doing, even if he wasn't quite sure how to do it just yet.

The 5th of November....

One of a very long waited to-read that been sitting on my shelf for so long.

As a Story, it's almost 4 ☆☆☆☆, but the art is totally 2 ☆☆.
Yet both have its own high points and low ones...
More on that on the full review.

Actual rating 4.5 ★

This was basically a cinematic masterpiece - I loved everything from the plot and characters to the artwork. The way the art linked to the themes of text was incredible and added so many layers to its meaning.

There was no clear distinction in the moral compass between our heroes and the villains. Whilst their ideologies were vastly different, they both go to extreme lengths of violence to further their goals. V himself was especially compelling and made his mark as an idea, rather than an individual, working the world around him like the conductor of an orchestra. However, near the middle I did get a bit lost with all the characters, particularly when all the gang members were introduced and I had to keep flipping back and forth to double check who's who. This might be because in a book, the characters in each scene are always named by the author, but here it is shown by the artwork instead - so hopefully I'll get used to it after reading more comics.

Also, I don't know why, but a dystopian UK makes for a far more interesting setting than the US. The atmosphere gave serious 1984: Ninteen Eighty-Four vibes, with the authoritarian government and various propaganda arms. Alan Moore deftly explores two extremes of the political spectrum both as part of the main plot and in the sub-text.

I was a little surprised by the ending - I was reading on my e-reader and was confused when the story just stopped and went to an article by Moore. Whilst the character's arc's are complete, the ending is left very open, but I think it was pulled off quite well.

The whole reading experience felt like watching a movie slowly unfold. I have seen the trailer for the film adaption, but to be honest it looks kind of cringe compared to this so not sure at the moment if I'll watch...

In terms of Alan Moore's other work, I'm definitely going to have a read (Watchmen looks particularly interesting)!

Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea ... And ideas are bulletproof.

Comic books are for geeky kids who dream of men in tights saving the world and women in skimpy outfits who swoon into their brawny arms, right? Who takes comic book seriously? Alan Moore is not the only name to be put forward in answer to this question, but he is for me the best example of the power behind the medium. I rate 'V for Vendetta' on the same level as '1984' or 'Animal Farm' or 'Fahrenheit 451' : one of the literary manifestos that have come to define our modern society (as Voltaire and Montesquieu defined the French Revolution), an allegedly dystopian future that is painfully already become the present we are living in. 

Honestly, the actual presentation of the book was uneven, alternating between brilliant script passages and stark, powerful poster-art graphics down to muddled secondary characters and slow paced detours from the main story. But, like it says in my opening quote, the idea behind V is stronger than the execution (Alan Moore was still experimenting with the medium and developing his skills in this early piece). The proof of the enduring quality of the tale is not necessarily in the success of the movie version (which I liked even better than the comic), but in the recent proliferation of masked 'Guy Fawkes' anarchists who are starting to challenge their governments in their abuse of authority, and who believe in the freedom of information and the freedom of expression, with Wikileaks, Anonymous, assorted whistleblowers and antiglobalization protesters hopefully only the tip of the iceberg:

People should not be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their own people.  

And in another place:

 “Authority allows two roles: the torturer and the tortured. Twists people into joyless mannequins that fear and hate, while culture plunges into the abyss.”

The society presented in the novel is an exaggeration of trends towards fascism and mass surveillance that Moore noticed already in the early 1980's, while the nuclear conflict that caused the collapse of democracy in his story has been avoided so far, terrorism being the rallying point of fearmongering. The artist uses his anarchist premise in a didactic role ( with V as the teacher and Evey as a stand-in for the reader) , as a challenge to take a hard look at our own lives and do something about changing the world:

Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself

The artist is 'V', who makes a spectacular entrance as the flamboyant masked justiciary in a cape who saves a damsell in distress (Evey) from the clutches of secret police thugs. His introduction is a riot of wordplay and innuendo, and of course I've bookmarked it for savouring it at my leisure:

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me "V".”

Pretty soon Evey learns her saviour is no knight in shiny armour like Superman or Captain America, but a dangerous anarchists who is bent on bringing down the government in a blaze of fire. I will leave the actual details of the plan and of the execution out of my review out of consideration of readers unfamiliar with the comic, only mentioning that Alan Moore did a sterling job subverting the myth of the superhero, pointing out the risks of taking the law into your own hands and the fact that destruction is necessary but not enough for creating a better world.

I'm the king of the 20th century. I'm the boogeyman, the villain, the black sheep of the family.

The identity of the man behind the mask remains a mystery to me, as it should, because 'who' he is is less important than 'why' he is. Sometimes I found his teaching methods too brutal and hard to swallow, but at the end of the journey in his company I knew him in his secret heart and I bleed for him and for my own inadequacy:

“But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you.”

The comic spends a lot a panels on fleshing out the oppressors, the politicos supported by police, army, secret surveillance, propaganda, religion, scientists involved in concentration camp research on immigrants and indesirables. They are called in the book The Eyes, The Voice, The Fingers, The Head etc. This is the part I sometimes found confusing and less well executed, with the exception of an elderly crime investigator who still reads books and thinks outside the box.

“Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.”

Since I named the comic a literary manifesto, I will close my review with the rest of the slogans that jumped out of the panels to write themselves on my conscience. I hope they will remain there to burn brightly as I continue my literary pursuits in other directions.

My mother said I broke her heart ... but it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us ... but within that inch we are free.

---

While a truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.

---

Knowledge, like air, is vital to life. Like air, no one should be denied it.

En az filmi kadar çarpıcı, çizgi roman dünyasını kökten değiştiren ve zamana meydan okuyan bir başyapıt. Savunduğu tüm fikirlere katılmasanız bile bu maskeli anti-kahramanın hikâyesine tanık olmanın keyfi bir başka. Filmi sevdiyseniz mutlaka okumalı, gerçek V ile tanışmalısınız.