“V for Vendetta”, by Alan Moore (Author) & David Lloyd (Illustrator)

296 pages, Vertigo, ISBN-13: 978-1401208417

Maybe my expectations were too high after reading Watchmen, but I was rather underwhelmed by V for Vendetta. Mind you, its not like the concept wasn't intriguing: Moore once again creates a clever political dystopia with V being set in an alternative 1990s United Kingdom which is under the rule of Norsefire, right-wing fascist party (ah, yes; they are always right-wing, aren't they?) that came to power after a nuclear war which decimated the world and drastically changed climate which, in turn, caused various natural disasters, hunger and chaos across the country. The character V is a vigilante in a Guy Fawkes mask whose goal is to overthrow the totalitarian government and to bring the country into a state of anarchy which, in his opinion, will help people of England to establish a new fair and honest regime (it is from V for Vendetta that all of those damn Guy Fawkes masks come from - which is weird 'cause Guy Fawkes and his cohort wanted to blow up Parliament and establish a Catholic dictatorship; how this makes him a symbol of freedom is beyond me).

While concept is alright, the execution leaves much to be desired. First, I would have liked more background on both characters and events. For instance, the UK is ruled by a totalitarian regime, but it was not really shown what exactly was bad about it, aside from constant surveillance and the arrests of minorities, which occurred decades prior; what I mean is, the everyday struggles of people under this supposedly oppressive regime were never described, and therefore I didn't really come to care if this regime was ever overthrown. In regards to characters, I would really want to know more about them if just to be able to distinguish numerous men in suits from one another; seriously, there were so many of them and they all play significant roles, but I was always lost as to who was who (if I'm to be completely honest, I was only able to completely understand the book only after reading the plot summary on Wikipedia; until I did that I was a little confused who did what and why). This brings me to my next concern, as the story itself wasn't structured very well, being choppy with storylines that end abruptly and countless questions left unanswered in the end. Finally, my probably biggest disappointment had to do with the fact that identity of V was never revealed; he had such a great background story, but I felt I never knew him enough (I want my mysteries solved, damnit).

Overall, a while a fine idea V for Vendetta was poorly executed. I'll try other graphic novels in future, I guess, but hopefully Watchmen is not the only one which is worth reading.