re:mote voices

Title: V For Vendetta
Author: Alan Moore
Artist: David Lloyd
Publisher: Vertigo

The Tory government that came to power in the late 1970's lost the election in the early 1980's to be replaced by Labour. Labour removed all nuclear weapons from Britain. Shortly after that, war broke out, and Britain was nuked. Fortunately in terms of mass destruction it was a minor strike, but it was enough to send the country into turmoil. With corporate support, a new fascist party arose, and swept to power. Concentration camps and martial law were the order of the day.

Evey Hammond is a 16-year old girl who has been raised in the workhouses, having lost her parents in the war. The pittance paid to the workforce isn't enough to make ends meet, so Evey feels that the only way she can make ends meet is to sell her body like some of the other girls. Unfortunately, the first man she approaches turns out to be a government agent. An agent who will not think twice about raping and killing her.

It’s the fifth of November, the anniversary of the failed bombing of the British Parliament by the plotter Guy Fawkes. Just as Evey is being set upon a man dressed as Fawkes appears, killing the agents, and taking Evey to witness a successful bombing of Parliament. Thus starts the vendetta by a man only known as V.

V For Vendetta follows the expanding plot against the government by Codename V. We watch as those in charge desperately try to anticipate and understand his attacks. Carefully uncovering the truth, establishing that this is more than just an attack on tyranny. This vendetta is personal.

V For Vendetta was originally published in a serialised form. A collaboration in progress by Alan Moore and David Lloyd put together especially for the British anthology Warrior. However having only managed to print so many parts of the serial, Warrior collapsed with so much more of the Vendetta to go. With Alan Moore's success in bringing DC's Swamp Thing back to live as well as his post-superhero work The Watchmen, Moore had achieved a definite reputation. This allowed DC/Vertigo to complete the serialisation and then provide the eventual collection of V For Vendetta. Always having had mixed feelings about Lloyd's art, particularly with the colour process that was applied to the final version, I had put off reading Vendetta - even when I had had the original Warrior issues on loan.

But Alan Moore is a reliable talent. So with the persistently readable recent works like Top 10, Tom Strong, Promethea and The Extraordinary League Of Gentlemen, I felt it was an idea to fill in some of those gaps in the Moore catalogue. Especially with a film version of V for Vendetta about to hit the cinemas, following on from adaptations like From Hell and the Extraordinary League Of Gentlemen. Of course V For Vendetta does not disappoint, it is dark, dense and clever. Even the problems I had with the art/colour disappear as I immersed myself in the work. Of course how this will translate into a film remains to be seen, but then even where we will go and see a film based on Alan Moore's work we won't have high hopes. None of the film adaptations to date have been truly as brilliant as Moore's and collaborator's original works.