V for Vendetta

This is not so much a review of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta as an endorsement. It has already been well reviewed in a previous issue of Prometheus. This is an exhortation for those who may have not read this novel because it is “just a comic book”.

Don’t be fooled by the form. This novel is as full of ideas, as rich in characterisation and as complicated in plot as any book that is not accompanied by detailed illustrations. For more than a decade, Alan Moore has been elevating the writing of graphic literature (“comic books”) and this book represents some of his earliest and latest writing. V for Vendetta was originally serialised in eight-page chapters for the British magazine Warrior in 1982.

The death of the magazine abruptly terminated the V for Vendetta strip, with the plot left unresolved. Years later, in 1988, DC Comics had discovered what a bankable item Alan Moore comics were. He had written the highly acclaimed and successful Swamp Thing for several years.

He had broken all sales records for his novel reinterpretation of the super-hero genre in Watchmen. DC wanted more Moore, but Alan Moore was ready to move on even more outré projects. It is my theory that the atmosphere at DC must have been desperate for them to allow Moore to complete his radical anarchist project.

Moore had sufficient clout that he could demand almost anything of them, including the publication of such an uncompromising, illiberal political tract. We are all lucky that he succeeded.

The only thing that was changed was that David Lloyd’s beautiful film-noir-style black-and-white art has been coloured. This was obviously a marketing decision made by DC since colour books sell much better than black-and-white ones, but I feel that it was a mistake artistically. The colours are pale and subdued, and a great deal of trouble has been taken to make them fit the style of the original art. Still, I would love to see a deluxe black-and-white edition of this book.

On the political side, this is one of the most purely libertarian novels of philosophy that has been nominated for a Prometheus award in years. V for Vendetta is as powerful an indictment of the totalitarian state as 1984, but is also contains a hero who expresses a philosophy that contradicts the state, quite unlike 1984 or most other dystopian novels. It has well drawn heroes and villains, and morally ambiguous characters in between. Good men are shown to serve the state, and the title character, V, may have lost some of his humanity in his desire for freedom and justice.

I cannot recommend this book enough, and I have reached my self-imposed word limit. Left to ramble I can spend hours extolling the virtues of V, but read it for yourself.

I leave you with a soliloquy from early in the book. V is addressing a huge statue of Justice at the Old Bailey. You know the one, Justice is a woman blind with the scales in one hand and the sword in the other.

I’ve long admired you…albeit only from a distance—used to stare at you from the streets below when I was a child. I’d say to my father, ‘Who is that lady?’ and he’d say, ‘Justice.’ And I’d say, ‘Isn’t she pretty?’

Please don’t think it was merely physical. I know you’re not that sort of girl. No, I loved you in person, as an ideal. That was a long time ago. I’m afraid there’s someone else now…

What V! for shame! You have betrayed me for some harlot, some vain and pouting hussy with painted lips and a knowing smile!

I, madam? I beg to differ! It was your infidelity that drove me to her arms! Ah-ha! That surprised you, didn’t it? You thought I didn’t know about your little fling. But I do. I know everything! Frankly, I wasn’t surprised when I found out. You always did have an eye for a man in a uniform.

Uniform? Why, I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. It was always you, V. You were the only one…

Liar! Slut! Whore! Deny that you let him have his way with you, him with his armbands and jackboots!

Well! Cat got your tongue?

I thought as much. Very well. So you stand revealed at last. You are no longer my Justice. You are his justice now.

You have bedded another. Well two can play at that game!

Sob! Choke! Wh-who is she, V. What is her name?

Her name is Anarchy and she has taught me more as a mistress than you ever did! She has taught me that justice is meaningless without freedom. She is honest. She makes no promises and breaks none. Unlike you, Jezebel.

I used to wonder why you could never look me in the eye. Now I know.

So goodbye, dear lady. I would be saddened by our parting, even now, save that you are no longer the woman I once loved. Here is a final gift. I leave it at your feet.

(V leaves a heart-shaped box, then bows and walks away. A bomb explodes and the Old Bailey is engulfed in flames.)

The flames of freedom. How lovely. How just. Ahh, my precious Anarchy…“O beauty, till now I never knew thee.”