V for Vendetta by Alan Moore, Alan Lloyd

V for Vendetta

by Alan Moore and Alan Lloyd

Originally published in 1990 V for Vendetta is a frightening and powerful story about the loss of freedom in a totalitarian England. Written against a background of third term Thatcherism and tabloid rants against minorites this is a work of startling clarity and intelligence. Everything that comics weren't supposed to be. Returning to print after a long absence fans of Alan Moore, old and new can now enjoy this remarkable piece of storytelling - a true classic of comic literature.

Reviewed by thepunktheory on

4 of 5 stars

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First of all, I am rather smitten with the artwork. At times it's super colorful, at other times it's drab, always perfectly capturing the mood.
The drawing reminded me quite a bit of the Watchmen graphic novel. Alan Moore is the author of both but the illustrators differ, so I was rather surprised by that.
Alan Moore wasted no time giving you an accurate picture of just how horrible this world is. By the way, on one of the first pages we get the line "every man needs to seize the initiative and make Britain great again." I found it a little unsettling that the slogan of the president of the United States comes from a graphic novel about a fascist regime. I don't know what I'd worse: that they have no clue about that line being in V for Vendetta and they accidentally went with it, or that they deliberately chose it.
V for Vendetta generally features a lot of references to songs, poems and the likes. So, you might want to keep a notepad at the ready to write those things down and check them out later.
Anyways, let's get back to the story. It's dark, it's haunting, it's intense. You don't know where it's going and you don't know how you'd want it to end. Everybody is a little mad here and just about every page is unsettling.
An extremely well-done piece from first to last page!

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  • Started reading
  • 23 January, 2020: Finished reading
  • 23 January, 2020: Reviewed