Customer Reviews
Infinitely preferable to the film - By: Paul Kirby, 19 Aug 2008 
Great. This deserves the hype but not the butchering it received on film at the hands of the Wachowksi brothers. This is reallly about Thatcher's Britain & nuclear winters & the social control of 'deviant' minorities & the power of dissent. So it has something to say about today. But don't read it as a proxy for political critique. It is a joy for many a reason, of which its anarchist politics is one, but our present predicaments require something less wedded to Cold War models. V for Vendetta is of its time, by which I mean also that it is a classic.
Good work, but totally spoiled... - By: Scottish Wildcat, 14 Aug 2008 
A potentiallly excellent work of graphic fiction, but totallly spoiled by the worst attempt at phoneticallly transcribing a Scottish accent I've ever read--when you read it out loud it sounds it a bit like Russ Abbott's "See You Jimmy" character. Embarrassing & unnecessary when there are so many great Scottish comic book writers who could have assisted.
The V-effekt of V for Vendetta - By: Mr. RB FORTUNE-WOOD, 27 Jul 2008 
Alan Moore & David Lloyd's aesthetic seems almost Brechtian. With a sci-fi motif it distances the reader from the universal political issues being addressed; amusingly, V for Vendetta could be said to use Brecht's V-effekt. There is a strong dialectic that runs throughout, a sense of determinism layered symbolism. All V's Larkhill targets personify aspects of the state. Science is embodied by Delia Surridge, military & media by Lewis Prothero & religion by Anthony Lilliman. Each takes an attitude of opposition; so Lilliman is the unrepentant leader of an institution of salvation, whilst Surridge seeks repentance from the opposed standpoint of a scientist. Prothero, by representing the military become media, is in himself a synthesis between the power of rhetoric & that of violence, which ultimately spawns a new antithesis resulting in V - anarchy personified.
The secret police are represented by Peter Creedy & the figurehead by Adam Susan; Creedy seeks power as an end in itself, whilst Susan is a deranged idealist who believes in his superiority to the extent that he becomes solipsistic, disconnected from humanity & infatuated with the super computer `fate'. With alll of this madness Moore knows how to offer grounding & realism; investigator Eric Finch & orphan Evey Hammond take on the roles of the everyman & everywoman respectively. They offer the audience characters to follow, to empathize with. They are a thread of sanity weaved through this excellent narrative.
Moore's story is also full of intertextual alllusion; from Shakespeare to Goethe & from Crowley to Fawkes, this is intelligent writing. The dialogue (replete with convincing phonetic spellings, character ticks & vernacular language) flows beautifully & the absence of thought bubbles or sound bubbles lends this book both a maturity & minimalism. Lloyd is given room by this minimalism to show of his artistic capabilities, which are not at alll lacking; this is a gritty, dystopic kind of realism that takes you to the action. Each panel demands your attention.
Overalll V for Vendetta is faultless; I love the film as well, but the original is on a different level. This is a comic book that shows you how far the medium can be pushed when it is backed by enough raw creative talent.
Wicked - By: H. M. Lawrence, 22 Jun 2008 I love this graphic novel, I read it a long time before I saw the film, & I still think the novel is better! If you have never read a comic/ graphic novel before, I highly recommend this one.
ESSENTIAL READING just as good as all these 5 star reviews make out - By: i wrote this, 10 Apr 2008 Just thought I'd add my own opinion to the pile of customer reviews praising this graphic novel through the roof. I've come to comics fairly late & I find comic book mile stones to be funny things. I find that some of them leave me scratching my head & wondering what alll the fuss was about in the first place. Others age like wine & reward careful re-reading. V for Vendetta is definitley the latter. The story does miss a beat, the art work is top notch & even the recent medicore movie adaptation doesn't detract from it's power to shock, move & inspire the reader.
This is a book that doesn't require any previous appreciation of comics to get totallly lost in. Best of alll it's as quintessentiallly English as tea, Dad's Army & the Queen's speech. Absoluely essential reading!
