V for Vendetta (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 1982; vuoden 2008 painos)

To note - I am writing this review a quarter century after having read this. Please bear with me!

I had a boyfriend once who was into his comics. At first, I was thinking Batman? Well, that was true, but I didn't realize there was more to comics than The Fantastic Four and Thor.

He loaned me his copies of V for Vendetta to read. Wow. I was blown away. I had never read an adult comic (or perhaps I should say graphic novel?) The pictures, the dialog, the story. It was an amazing experience. I wanted more! It ended, I was sad. My boyfriend loaned me Sandman from #1 to whatever number we were up to in 1991. Also, all of his copies of Hellblazer.

I was hooked. I couldn't get enough.

I've read some of the reviews about this graphic novel. I've not re-read it since 1991. I do not know what I would say about it now, having read many other comics. What would I think about the anarchy? About the politics? I don't know. What I do know is it opened up a whole world to me and it is one of the graphic novels that I can still visualize in my head and remember scenes from so it was pretty powerful to me. (Still remembering the queen christening the waste treatment plant - as my then boyfriend let me know - Alan Moore is not a royalist!)

I liked the movie, but I liked the graphic novel more. ( )

Although it's a graphic novel, I'm going to call it a book. Because that's what I feel it is. It's a whole complex story, with many references and layers and excellent development of plot lines and characters. And the story progresses such that it sucks you right in and doesn't let go of you even at the end.

"Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody. Everybody has their story to tell."

Ratings:- ( )

"V for Vendetta" is one of the few movies that, in these days of crowded shelves and almost infinite digital storage, I chose to own a physical copy of. It is beautifully shot, perfectly cast and boldly told. It is that rare thing, a movie that dares to be true to its intent, even at the risk of being unpopular. The result is a cult classic.

Take a look at the trailer below to get a feel for what I mean.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCzfxcVrxfE&w=560&h=315]

I first saw it in the cinema in 2006 and found it startling and inspiring. At the time I was more transfixed by how well a comic (graphic novel for all you who just groaned) could be brought to the screen rather than by the political message. I saw the anti-fascist stance as obvious and necessary but the idea of fascism gripping the UK so firmly seemed like an exaggeration to make a point.

This year, for Bonfire Night, I decided to do something new. I read the "novelisation" of the movie or, rather, I listened to the audiobook, expertly narrated by Simon Vance.

I've always avoided novelisations. The word itself is ugly and the literary snob in me, which is quite happy to watch movies adapted from books, was instinctively scornful of reading novels adapted from movies.

As usual, my literary snob was an idiot. If I had come to this novel without seeing the movie, I would have been praising the quality of the writing and the structure of the story. It's well-written, faithful to the movie but enhancing it in ways that are appropriate to the novel form. I recommend it to you.

Listening to the audiobook in 2018, twelve years after seeing the movie, Britain as a fascist state no longer felt like an exaggeration to make a point. It felt like a possibility that we are only a few missteps away from. The mechanics of the manipulation of the media, the creation of enemies of the people, the appeal to national pride in a mostly-mythical glorious past, the exploitation of the fear and hatred of the foreign and the different all felt too contemporary to be dismissed.

V, the hero of this story, is not a nice man. Not a man you'd want to make friends with or even spend time with. When I first saw the movie I was horrified by his treatment of Evie, who he shapes into a weapon of sorts.

Now, I begin to understand that there may be times when we all need someone like V to remind us that our governments should be more afraid of us than we are of them. ( )

This was definitely one of the best graphic novels I have read. A good example of what can be done with the graphic novel format to tell a story. Also a good example of the dystopian genre. I wish I would have had it available when I was teaching high school as an alternative or addition to reading Orwell's 1984. I think the students would have appreciated it, and it probably could have sparked some more discussions.

Leaving that aside, I can definitely see how this story is still very relevant. It should be a warning sign. It's not just the tyrants; it's the idiots and neglectful people who put them in power. In a way, it's those ignorant and clueless people who would rather sacrifice freedom for an illusion of peace or order who are really dangerous. Freedom does have a price, and it is vigilance. However, it is not as simple as politicians and hawks make it sound. Anyways, I highly recommend this one. This particular edition includes two additional short stories that did not make it to the original run of the series and an essay by Moore discussing the development of the work. Both elements add to the story, but you can certainly enjoy it if you just read the series. ( )

I remember teen-me liking this a lot more than middle-age me does. I couldn't appreciate the art style at all this time round and - in agreement with David Lloyd's Introduction - thought the early chapters were not so good - if you can call nearly the whole first half "the early chapters." It got interesting when Evey got "imprisoned." The psychology of Evey and V's relationship then became fascinating and was really what pulled me through the remainder. I couldn't care less about anybody else.

The politics seem naive - it's all very well to say you have to destroy the despotic and fascist rulers and their power structures in order to create something better but examine history to see what happens after you succeed in that: take the Paris Commune as an example. There's no guarantee that the replacement will be any different or any better. Prevention is better than cure in these matters.

I also didn't seem to notice back then how V seems able to magically do anything he wants without ever receiving any explanation as to how, beyond his access to Fate -which in turn is never explained or justified.

Disappointing. ( )