No doubt, V for Vendetta is compulsory reading for anyone who has ever felt disillusioned by government or pushed around by propaganda. “They were talking less about annihilating whichever minority they happened to find disfavour with and more about free market forces and market choice and all of these other kind of glib terms, which tended to have the same results as an awful lot of the kind of fascist causes back in the 1930s, but with a bit more spin put upon them. Here is Moore in conversation with a comic fan around the time of the release of the V for Vendetta film: As discussed by the Guardian,īut even so, there’s no doubt that the evils of the British Tory party and Thatcherism were preying on Moore’s and Lloyd’s minds when they created the book – as they’ve both often confirmed in interviews. Whether its priests who survey the death camps or the protestors being gunned down, the novel continues to resonate through to today.

I read it at least once a month, and each time I find something new or horribly relevant to today. I consider V for Vendetta to be a triumph of the potential of the graphic novel to convey themes and ideas as complex as any novel. An orphan who has been battered by the regime, she becomes more than just V’s stray she becomes instrumental. With the Eye, Ear, Mouth, Nose and Finger working as branches of the government in the constant surveliiance and abuse of the citizens, V begins his vendetta against the people who started this terrible regime.Īlong the way he rescues Evey, and she becomes complicit in his work. Voted in by a terrified public after a nuclear war, the fascist Norsefire runs the country in an ongoing battle against anyone who isn’t white, heterosexual, Christian and obedient to the invasive machine. In short, V, the eponymous character, sets out to cripple and destroy the government of his day. (There’s a fascinating article here in which David Lloyd discusses the meaning of the mask in further detail.) Review and Retrospective of V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David LloydĪs the world watches the growth of the Occupy movement and its often attendant V-masked protestors, it is a good time to look at and discuss the V for Vendetta graphic novel, and whether it is still relevant nearly thirty years after its publication.

V For Vendetta Novel