Nuclear war has changed the world. Continents are gone. The UK has become a fascist state. Few are willing to speak out against the injustices the government perpetrates every day. Then one man--codename V--begins to do just that.

The more Alan Moore I read, the more I like his work. His stories are consistently thought-provoking, intricate, subtle and dark. He doesn't give answers; instead, he tosses out a bunch of ideas and lets the reader figure out how she feels about them. It's interactive. You can't just kick back and enjoy the story; you really need to concentrate on what's going on, because Moore sure as hell isn't gonna tell you in so many words.

V FOR VENDETTA is no exception. It's an early piece and so is not, perhaps, quite so subtle as some of Moore's later stuff, but it doesn't suffer by comparison. It's deep and penetrating and absolutely worth your time. As David Lloyd says in the introduction, this is a book for people who don't switch off the news. It's for readers who want to look deeper. There are no good guys here, and you could argue that there are no bad guys, either. There are people; people who've chosen, or been forced into, particular paths, and must now deal with the consequences. Moore and Lloyd rarely pass judgment on them as they chronicle their story (though they do invite us to do so). They show us what these people do and how they feel about what they do. They invite us to place ourselves in the same situations and consider how our views might change. What is right? What is wrong? Where should we draw the line?

So V FOR VENDETTA is a highly political work, but it's also a book about symbols. V, the (arguably) central character, dresses as Guy Fawkes. He wears an ever-smiling theatrical mask. He collects pieces of the contraband past. He throws snippets of plays and songs in his opponents' faces. Even his codename, V, is symbolic: of what he (wants his enemies to believe he) endured after the fascists came to power; of the old slogan, "V For Victory,"; of the V sign, which I understand is basically the finger to British folks. Moore also makes it clear that V is for a lot of things, not just Vendettas and Victory: victims, vermin, villains, voices, visions, violence, vengeance, and a whole host of other things positive, negative and in between.

And then there's the format itself, which was revolutionary for the times. There are no thought bubbles, no block quotes from an omniscient narrator. The story relies entirely on the art and the dialogue, and the two together do an admirable job of pushing everything along. Lloyd's paneling is dynamic and easy to follow. His use of line ties the work firmly to the 1980's, but after a while you won't even notice. His colours, in contrast, are pretty different from the stuff that was prevalent back in the 80's. At times, V FOR VENDETTA looks like nothing so much as a watercolour painting.

There's a ton to think about here, a ton to mull over and contemplate. I feel like I'm not saying enough; like I haven't even scratched the surface. There's a lot to this book. I highly recommend that you check it out for yourself.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

A great graphic novel, but I discovered that graphic novels make me seasick. A bit more comprehensive than the film. ( )

A great graphic novel, but I discovered that graphic novels make me seasick. A bit more comprehensive than the film. ( )

A great graphic novel, but I discovered that graphic novels make me seasick. A bit more comprehensive than the film. ( )

In the post-apocalyptic "future" of the late 1990s, Britain is under totalitarian rule, but a mysterious man known only as V is about to change all that.

This is pretty much right up my alley storywise. The art...well, it was bearable to get the story. I would have much preferred it as a novel, though, because the art definitely didn't add anything to me. I'm not a fan of most western comic styles and this seemed worse than most in that it was so dark and everyone's faces were half in shadows all the time, so I had real trouble distinguishing characters (especially since aside from V and Evey, they were pretty much all Generic White Guy With Short Hair). But as with many less-than-stellarly-drawn manga, it's well worth it for the story.

I kind of feel frazzled at the moment, so I don't really have much to say beyond that, though there were definitely things that didn't sit well with me, most notably the fact that while it makes sense for the government as set up here, having all the people of color and queers sent away to concentration camps sure makes for a convenient excuse to tell a story about only straight white people (except for that one tragic lesbian whose tragic life and death is nothing more than a tool to cause straight people to change). I wasn't too thrilled with the portrayal of women here, either. ( )