V for Vendetta

Jazzed by the movie, I bought the book and then let it sit around for a couple of years while other matters took precedence. Maybe I should have struck while the iron was hot because when I took up V FOR VENDETTA recently it seemed listless and drawn out to an excruciating degree. That said, I must admit that if I hadn't have seen the film I might have been more taken by Alan Moore's concept and David Lloyd's execution. It's great to have a comic dealing so openly and forcefully with anarchy-related materials, but if you ask me, the movie upped the ante in every respect; the movie made the Shadow Gallery the palace of art, music and culture it was meant to be, the privations of the outside world more real, more chilling.

I know people say that the movie is inferior in that V and Evey are more heroic and lack the complex moral shadings the book gives them. But what some see as "complex moral shadings" others might view as maddeningly etiolated monologues with no visible point. The chief plot twist is kept in the movie, where it's just as unbelievable--that V would torment Evey strikes me as absurd--but luckily some of the cheaply conceived, lackluster "Advise and Consent"-style subplots of the book were dropped entirely. The inner torment of Rose Almond for example. Moore does his best to make her struggle interesting but, well, it's not. Ditto with the sexual power games of Helen Heyer. Could anything be duller than this allegedly Marat-Sade affair? Later on, Moore got good at writing about women but here he's all ideas, ideas ill-suitedly sharing a bed with a wanky titillation.

And please, like everyone else I must register a protest against the horrible printing of the book. You can barely make out what's happening in fully a quarter of the pages. They should give you at least 25 per cent off the cover price, for 25 per cent is illegible, murky, muddy. They should be ashamed to offer this as a product.

The most interesting thing about "V for Vendetta" is that the main theme of the novel isn't actually one man standing up to Fascism, though that's an aspect of it. The more relevant political theme is Anarchism, though it's still only partly about that. The primary themes are about people; about people taking their freedom and the responsibility that goes along with it. The creeping Fascism of the book came not from the scheming of an elite, but from the failure of the countrymen to take control of their own lives, and instead taking the simple way out and following the group that promised to take away their fear.

The freedom of "The Land of Do As You Please" isn't the answer, but rather than the opposite of authoritarian ideas of responsibility they're one and the same, both accepting the easy answer rather than standing up and actively choosing. Moore and Lloyd's Anarchism is a freedom of self-rule, where you take real responsibility for governing your own actions among your peers and hold your ideals in a way that can't be threatened. On a personal level, this a case made well; even Finch, who isn't pushed through this like Evey but goes through a (potentially absurd) revelation is better than Mrs. Heyer's ultimate dependency. The authors skimp, however, on the possible rise of this unruled order - the novel takes place under the old order. It's rather clear they would pin the blame on the people, and not the system, if it didn't work.

Moore is certainly verbose; there's a lot of talking here and most of the fights are abrupt matters. Lloyd's art isn't outstanding or beautiful (though the faded color may due to the printing), but it's never a problem and the lighting, shade, and color augments the action. The minimal use of internal monologue, and complete lack of sound effects or thought bubbles means it has to pull it's own weight and it does. V for Vendetta is a great graphic novel - as much or more for it's warnings of letting us fall prey to our fears and appetites in a subtle way as for the overt threat of Fascism.

Todo llego en buen tiempo y excelente estado, hasta mi natal ciudad irapuato, gto. Mexico

comic book style. good supplement to the movie for those who really got the message.

V FOR VENDETTA is Alan Moore and David Lloyd's comic book vision of future, dystopian England, where the fascist government is oppost by an anarchist terrorist.

The comic is considerably more complex than the film; V is crusading for anarchy, not freedom, and neither he nor Evey Hammond are as particularly noble as they are in the movie. This leads, then, as Moore intended, to the reader dealing with two extremes, neither one of which is perfect or necessarily even good.

V for Vendetta is a solid, thought-provoking work, although not Moore's absolute best (Watchmen). The narrative is heavy-handed at times, particularly at the beginning. There are some instances where the reader's suspension of disbelief is stretched rather thin (for example, how, exactly, did V come to have complete control over the Fate computer all these years?). The authors' decision not to use thought balloons or sound effects was avante garde, but ultimately benefits this work. Lloyd's art is on the whole quite realistic, which fits the story very well.

V for Vendetta is recommended to those who enjoy thought-provoking, multi-layered stories.

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