Customer Reviews

V for Vendetta: New Edition

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

To understand 'V For Vendetta', you have to understand the times in which it was written. Britain of the 1980s was wracked by recession and with discontent against the Conservative government. Hanging over this was the ever-present Cold War mentality.

The premise of this book is that the Conservative government are voted out (as Moore expected at the time, but which didn't come to pass) and the new Labour government insists on nuclear disarmament. So it is that when the Cold War becomes World War 3, Britain is uninvolved, but not unaffected.

As nuclear fallout affects the weather and radiation causes widespread death a fascist regime rises to offer England stability and order. The price for this is the internment and execution of blacks, homosexuals, liberals and all those who don't conform to the fascist ideals. The future Moore paints is a bleak and painfully believable one.

However, one man decides to destroy this new order so that freedom can be rebuilt from the rubble. The man is known only as V. When it comes down to it, V is the greatest element of this book. He's cultured, witty, mysterious, charismatic and ruthless. Also, David Lloyd's design of the character as a man dressed in a smiling mask and Guy Fawkes costume is inspired. My favourite bit of the book is when V sneaks into the home of a child-abusing bishop and confronts the corrupt clergyman with a Rolling Stones quote; 'Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste'.

There are numerous other characters integral to the story; the widow Rose, forced to become a stripper; the Leader, an insane fascist in love with Fate, the computer which effectively controls England; as well as the various heads of the Party. However, there are two characters who reveal about V what he never reveals himself.

The first is Mr. Finch, a police officer tasked with hunting down V, who undertakes a personal quest to understand V's mind (which includes an LSD trip in a death camp).

The other character is Evey. At the beginning she is a helpless girl who turns to prostitution to make ends meet. However, after meeting V she begins an education at his hands in the meaning of freedom which breaks her and then remakes her.

At it's most basic level this book is about freedom, both personal freedom and freedom as an abstract concept. Dark, disturbing and thought-provoking, this book still manages to be exciting and uplifting. Certainly one of the best pieces of literature (not just comic-form) that I've ever read.

Back to graphic novels after a long absence, I had never read V before, but ordered a copy.

Lets just say I'm not often motivated enough by a book or CD to want to review it on Amazon, but this book does.

Absolutely superb read, complex story with super characters. Really couldn't put this one down.

After reading, immediately watched the movie which has had mixed reviews. In my view not a truly bad film at all, but a far cry from the book with some serious storyline changes. I mention this because if you have seen the film, dont let that cloud your judgement of whether to read the book.

The book is a lot more sinister - due to its age it actually carries a wonderful style - very Orwellian, very Brazil (The film, not the country!).

Please read, its well worth it.

I tend to listen to friends advice very often, and I also happen to like being generous when I by them Christmas presents. So a friend of mine talked alot about how much he wanted to read From Hell by Moore. So I bought it as a Christmas present for him, mostly because I wanted to read it myself. And we both liked it. Later, I owed the same guy some money, and after listening to him muttering that V for Vendetta might just be even more brilliant, I bought it to him too. And it was awesome. I have always been a little scared of superhero books, and I never really liked Batman or Punisher very much. But this was beyond great. The hero is so extremely complex and sophisticated, that any comparison to the more famous superheroes is impossible. And the setting is really one of the best grim futures I've encountered in any literature or movie.

Set in London in some future, the world has been torn apart by some great war, and several continents are wiped out. England has prevailed. And now she is being controlled by a totalitarean (is that a word) and facsist government, who seem to put her future in the hands of the all knowing computer Fate. Anyone who strays from the ideals and looks the government want, are arrested and taken to camps. In this future, music, art and literature is forbidden, unless it is approved by the government, and not much is. In the middle of this we follow Eve, a young girl lost in the city and drawn to prostitution to survive, and her mysterious captor/savior V, a terrorist and visionary, who tries to turn England back to what it were before the war.

If you like Neil Gaiman or Garth Ennis, you'll love V for Vendetta, also if you like any story about dark futures, like George Orwell's 1984 (well that's more a dark past).
Now I really look forward to buying "The Watchmen" and "Swamp Thing". Guess my friend is too.

One of the latest gritty, dark graphic novels to be adapted to film was "V for Vendetta," based on Alan Moore's futuristic comic of the same name. But as usual, the source is the most compelling.

First published in the early 1980s, Moore painted a frightening future where there is only one man who can challenge the fascist system. Is he an anarchic madman, or a freedom-loving visionary? Readers will have to decide for themselves, but the story is a fascinating action story that raises quite a few questions.

The year is 1998 (okay, pretend it's an alternate reality), and Britain is ruled by a fascist regime, and dominated by a shadowy figure. Order is the law. Blacks, gays, Muslims and Jews are relegated to concentration camps, where they are tortured with medical experiments and evil priests. The one exception is a horribly scarred man, who blew his way out with a homemade bomb. He donned a Guy Fawkes mask, and calls himself V, for he "has no name."

One night he rescues a young prostitute, Evey, from a bunch of thuggish policemen, whisks her down into his hidden base, and involves her in a trap-and-murder plot. Evey is both repulsed and fascinated by V's plots, especially when she is interrogated. And when an order-obsessed policeman closes in on V, both he and Evey must accept their fates.

"V For Vendetta" is a thinking-reader's comic. Fascism and anarchy -- both concepts that Moore clearly understands -- are timeless concepts that pop up periodically throughout human history. So even though 1998 came and went long ago, "V For Vendetta" is an intelligent, deeply compelling story that still resonates in its readers.

Moore's London is a rather dank, dismal place, apparently reflecting the government. He knows how to chill his readers with a diversity-free England that seems a lot like Nazi Germany. Even nonessential scenes like Evey's interrogation are absolutely harrowing. But he can also tug at the heartstrings, such as when Evey reads Valerie's letters.

And Dave Lloyd's artwork is rather flat and a bit faded-looking, though this is not very distracting. But despite the ordinary art, the novel is brought to life by the solid characters and surreal illustrations, with V as the most surreal of all -- just look at that creepy smiling mask.

At first glance, V is a vigilante hero in the tradition of Zorro -- the government is oppressive, and he's trying to take it down. But V is not a plaster hero, and his actions can be very morally ambiguous. Is he a hero or a madman? Did those experiments make him psychotic, or did they just give him courage? Moore leaves it up to our imaginations what he is. By the end, V has become less a person than an ideal.

"V For Vendetta" is a memorable, somewhat frightening graphic novel, which will leave you thinking about what you might do in such a world. A deserving classic.

V for Vendetta is not a graphic novel, comic book or piece of literature. It is an experience. At the heart of the story is the chapter entitled 'Valerie'. I challenge anyone to read this chapter and not cry their eyes out and yet at the same time be uplifted. And that is V for Vendetta in a nutshell. It will break your heart and twist you up inside and yet leave you feeling strangely happy through your tears. And how many works in any media, comics, novels, films or tv, can you say that about? V's insane, Evey's hopelessly lost and the whole Valerie thing might all be part of his deranged imagination. And yet it is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

There are plenty of stories, film, television and literature that tell the story of a world where you're always being watched. But none achieves the level of though that V for Vendetta is able to do.

Acknowledging and referencing a large number of other works, Alan Moore not only conveys his ideas in an exciting and cinematic way (with help from David Lloyd's stunning art style), he is able to justify all of his ideas.

V for Vendetta is a story of a number of individuals that come together and collide to bring about a change in an apocalyptic Great Brittan. But it's not simply a story, but a story that is being used to make you think. Vendetta isn't great because of its narrative or suspenseful set piece but because of how it uses those to get you thinking about more important things.

True that it's not the most original piece of work story wise, but it tells its story in a special way and is the best of its kind as well as being a rarity in quality in the comic book genre.

Collected from the cult early eighties British comic, 'Warrior', Moore and Lloyd's chilling V for Vendetta portrays a chilling alternate Britain which has sucumbed to fascism after a nuclear altercation has destroyed most of the world. In a bleak and violent society, only the strangely Jacobean vigilante 'V' seems to act as a force for good.

As with Orwell's 1984, Moore and Lloyd's 1982 vision of Britain in '1997' is no less potent now that the year itself has been and gone. Darkly brilliant stuff. Lloyd's art has never been better and after this, The Watchmen and 2000AD's greatest ever story, The Ballad of Halo Jones, can there be any doubt that Alan Moore is the greatest writer in British comics today?

Alan Moore and David Lloyd's aesthetic seems almost Brechtian. With a sci-fi motif it distances the reader from the universal political issues being addressed; amusingly, V for Vendetta could be said to use Brecht's V-effekt. There is a strong dialectic that runs throughout, a sense of determinism layered symbolism. All V's Larkhill targets personify aspects of the state. Science is embodied by Delia Surridge, military and media by Lewis Prothero and religion by Anthony Lilliman. Each takes an attitude of opposition; so Lilliman is the unrepentant leader of an institution of salvation, whilst Surridge seeks repentance from the opposed standpoint of a scientist. Prothero, by representing the military become media, is in himself a synthesis between the power of rhetoric and that of violence, which ultimately spawns a new antithesis resulting in V - anarchy personified.

The secret police are represented by Peter Creedy and the figurehead by Adam Susan; Creedy seeks power as an end in itself, whilst Susan is a deranged idealist who believes in his superiority to the extent that he becomes solipsistic, disconnected from humanity and infatuated with the super computer `fate'. With all of this madness Moore knows how to offer grounding and realism; investigator Eric Finch and orphan Evey Hammond take on the roles of the everyman and everywoman respectively. They offer the audience characters to follow, to empathize with. They are a thread of sanity weaved through this excellent narrative.

Moore's story is also full of intertextual allusion; from Shakespeare to Goethe and from Crowley to Fawkes, this is intelligent writing. The dialogue (replete with convincing phonetic spellings, character ticks and vernacular language) flows beautifully and the absence of thought bubbles or sound bubbles lends this book both a maturity and minimalism. Lloyd is given room by this minimalism to show of his artistic capabilities, which are not at all lacking; this is a gritty, dystopic kind of realism that takes you to the action. Each panel demands your attention.

Overall V for Vendetta is faultless; I love the film as well, but the original is on a different level. This is a comic book that shows you how far the medium can be pushed when it is backed by enough raw creative talent.

First watch the entertaining film.

Then read the wonderful book.

I have recently read the book twice within a month (I borrowed it from the local library but it's on my Amazon wish list) and was blown away by it. I haven't read a comic for years - probably not since I was in my early teens (too many years ago to work out) - but this book was everything a book should be but in graphic novel form. Extremely well drawn and incredibly well written. Intelligent use of language; great plot and great characters. While the story is similar to the film version once you have read the book you realise how much has been changed. I'm past getting too upset over films not following the book as closely as I'd prefer and have long since forgiven Peter Jackson for some major changes to Lord of The Rings. Similarly I'll forgive the Wachowski brothers and James McTeigue for cutting out swathes of the book and changing the story-line to fit 120 minutes or so. However once you have read the book you'll realise how much better the original version is. It makes more sense and while leaving one or two things hanging it feels right.

Warning - just because it's in comic format it doesn't mean it's a child's book. I'd say 12 or over and that would depend on the child's maturity.

I expected a lot of this Graphic Novel, but it was even better. This one really blew me of my socks. What we get to see is an alternative timeline in which Germany actually won World War II and where England has turned into a fascist state. People live very cautious and affraid because everything they say or do is being monitored, and they've been overly restricted by their own government. Then oneday a mystic figure appears and he rocks the city. He murders people of importance, he blows up government buildings, and nobody knows a single thing of who he is or why he does the things he does, except that he's codenamed himself V. Meanwhile V takes a little girl under his wing who he teaches things about his history, about herself and about what is happening. But over time the government is getting closer too. Along the story more and more is explained about who V is, about what moves V, about the real consequences the war has cost and about the value of a free will. All this is illustrated very appropriatly by David Lloyd in a bit of a cinematic style. This makes the flow of the story even better. For me personally this is the best Alan Moore Graphic Novel I've read so far and I would easily recommend it to everyone who is looking for something more than superheroes. Even when you're normally not that much into comicbooks this could very possibly still be one heck of a ride for you ...