I'm a big fan of the movie and have been for years, so I wanted to give the original graphic novel a go. There are quite a lot of differences, especially with Evie and Gordon's characters which are far darker in the graphic novel, with Evey being an underage girl forced to turn to sex work. But V is still the charming, roguish anarchist fighting against a corrupt, far right extremist government. I did struggle with keeping track of all of the various government agents and their roles (I'm not a big graphic novel reader and at times they all seemed the same). I also struggled with the British vernacular and slang, as an American reader, but I was generally able to get the gist and I'm glad I can check this one off my list!

The movie is one of my fav so I read the graphic novel and then watched the movie right after.

I liked the movie waaaaaaay more than the book. The movie storyline was more succinct whereas in the book, I sometimes had problems following the different storylines. The book made sense but it felt more like White Guy Meandering & Mulling About Society whereas the movie got straight to the point.

What knocked my score to the 3's (I wanted to give it a 5 because it is V for Vendetta alone but that's not fair) is the use of Black People As Society's Canaries trope, where there are no active Black characters talking, living, etc in the forefront. Nope, we're in the background being .... murdered and treated poorly and all the White folks who star in the work do is go "Wow, look at how poorly the Black people are being treated, they're always the first to go." They do nothing but wait for all or most of the Black folks to be eradicated before doing anything, while all the while going "This world is sick, look at how they treat the Black people [and how I do nothing because why have genuine human compassion for Black people, who are also human (News Flash, it's true), until they die. Which works best for me because at least they're gone, I just have to act sad about it]." There are smarter & more humane ways to say or depict the issues of totalitarianism, facism and wide-spread prejudice. The movie handled it better, at least removed the "Black People as Society's Canary" trope. 

The sexism is wowser in the book. You have the daft-but-cute 16 yr old Evey Hammond (aged up in the movie and good thing, that!) who seemed to be an easily led, doe-eyed lamb that constantly trailed out things that made V look impressive, how she would go "oh, I'm so weak and frail but you're so big and strong" (I'm paraphrasing here). It clearly didn't look like some super meta-cognitive move to quip on society's sexism by Alan Moore, it just looked like standard White Straight Cis Man Makes Comic Books And Includes Gender Beside "Man" behavior. He triiiiiiiiied? 🤷🏿‍♀️ And flopped. Even had a Lady Macbeth type character that I almost expected to say "Out, out, damned spot" at one point." I get the whole "messed up ppl like power" thing but that all could have been told way better, when it came to the women. It instead read more like "What I, a straight man, believe a woman gunning for power would act like." The movie was a bit better, had it's drawbacks (thanks to the source material, they can only do so much) but the book was more heavy handed & leaded with the built-in sexism.

It's like Alan Moore was trying to say very poignant things about society but because it's clear via his work he doesn't really interact much (if at all) with whole slices of society (*koff*AnyoneNotWhite,NotMan,NotStraightAndEspeciallyNoCombos/Intersections*wheeeeeeeeze**koff*) it comes off as very "White Man Muses About Society, Ignores His Own Glaring Blindspots", which, bro, is already so many books, dear gods. We already have 1984, Brave New World, the list goes on and on and on and! At least the movie was good. I think if Alan Moore widened up his friend circle (at least to the point a group picture wouldn't look like something the National Front would hardly blink at) before and during the time he created this graphic novel, it would have been a super knock-out, probably.

Perhaps I'm also just tired of "White Guy Muses About Society, Ignores Own Blindspots" works. Been hearing and reading them since I was a kid (usually not by choice, at least this time was), it's lame, myopic af and they miss a lot.

Those two things I mentioned mostly knocked the score to 3.75. I recommend the movie over the graphic novel. At least the movie is thrilling

Still rings true in the modern politics of today. As V says “While I’ll admit that anyone can make a mistake once, to go in making the same lethal errors century after century seems to me nothing short of deliberate.”

As humans we continue to make the same mistakes over and over again and I think that is why V for Vendetta remains so timeless and relatable even 40 years after publication. 

Cw
Genocide
Racism
Homophobia
Eugenics 
Hate crime
Sexism
Rape
Death
Murder
Torture 
Pedophilia 
Antisemitism 
Xenophobia

V for Vendetta is a dark graphic novel based in dystopian England in the 1990s, that teaches very interesting lessons of fascism, anarchism and revolution. Obvious biases that affect my reception of the graphic novel: I'm a communist, and an anarchist sympathiser. I am vehemently anti-fascist and anti-authoritarian and pro-militant action. Of course I was always going to love this story! I preferred the comic to the film, there a couple of significant changes to the film that I feel diminish the story's message. I'd recommend reading the comics, you can buy the complete collection in one volume and I found the style very easy and enjoyable to read.

Pros

I am not sure about the rating to be honest. I have been constantly comparing visual novel to the movie and they are both good. I mean the screen version has unnesary and problematic romance. But in finale was better there (probably because of the medium itself). Overall screen version stayed close to the source material.

The thing gives me Batman vibes. Oh wait Alan Moore wrote couple of Batman comics. The social commentary is still relevant though. I didn't even tried to understand V's mind honestly. That's why I didn't get wtf was the ending. The novel is more confucing in terms of characters but I guess we weren't supposed to differ them. I mean there are like 5 Important Midle Aged White Men there...

Overall I liked it. V was smart and ruthless. Ivi well faithfull companion. There were also some touching side stories.

An absolute classic for a reason. Stripping the comic of sound effects and thought bubbles was a revolution in itself, creating a noir-ish feel without ever verging into the cinematic. This dystopic world avoids the pitfalls of many others by remaining grounded and feeling real, feeling contemporary - it was shocking to read the words “make Britain great again” in a comic that was not only pre-Trump, but pre-Thatcher. The Storm Saxon panels illuminate the kind of propaganda that we consume daily. All around brilliant, subtle world building.

The world of V for Vendetta is one in which fascists in Britain have successfully eradicated all visible ‘minorities’ from their country, leaving behind only those less visible - those who are queer. Characters are forced to make the decision: to be visible, or to move invisibly. For Valerie, this is her “one inch” that she will not give up. For Ruth, this is price she is willing to pay for her ‘freedom’ — a freedom that is simply a different sort of prison. It’s interesting to me that, in the afterword of the edition I read, Moore describes an earlier version of V as “transsexual” — and it’s true. Firstly in the sense that V is both everything and nothing, he is a man and a woman and both and neither, he is an idea, and anyone can be an idea. He represents anarchy and freedom and the queerness we can associate with that, and we see this as

Evey dons his mask and becomes him; a woman becomes a man. I can also very easily see V as Ruth, as someone who decided one prison and got the other one anyway, who is fuelled by remorse for what she did to Valerie, who takes her lover’s initial in an act of defiance but still feels the need for invisibility, the need to mask her face and lie.

The world of V is also one in which love has been replaced with power, and for me this is the strongest element of the novel. All romance is a power play. Sexual intimacy is girls on a stage, is rape. Susan (and there’s something to be said about genderplay with that name as well) is ruling a world so devoid of love that he falls for a computer (here again — a non-sexed ‘entity’ who is addressed as a woman and has the voice of a man). There’s an incredible scene where, almost in a trance, Susan whispers “I love you” to Fate, while Creedy trembles in the background, unsure if he’s the object of this affection. Lost love is depicted as queer joy, as a celebration of Blackness. And this is something that has been sacrificed for uniformity and control.

There are some issues I take with the comic. I think the film’s decision to make Gordon a queer man was the right one, as his role in the book is a little cloudy. I also wish the two leads were less opaque. While I understand this decision to make V more myth than man, I wish there had been moments to humanise him and make him feel more real.

But the biggest offence for me is Evey’s under-reaction to her torture and captivity at V’s hands. What V does is insurmountable, strangely motivated, unclear in its outcome. In my opinion it would almost be better if it were lost entirely.

Overall, a classic comic, one of the greats. Definitely an important read for anyone interested in the medium.

Ah, yet another one of Moore's works where I love the story idea but just get SO angry with the man for his completely unnecessary and downright distasteful use of sexual violence as some kind of a panel filler?? Ugh. Knowing before going in that that's what you get with Moore makes it somewhat easier, but still, come on. That's just lazy writing, dude.