ComicBook Meh
Dark and humourless, V for Vendetta is a sometimes wordy comic book that keeps on gabbing. I found myself trying not to skip some of the more verbose panels. Par for the course in Alan Moore's work, it does include superb character development.
It doesn't help that David Lloyd's expressionistic art is low key with a very atmospheric style and minimalist colour. It does get occasionally confusing and it feels cluttered in some passages with the aforementioned wordiness competing for space. You may have trouble telling some characters apart.
The original run was ten issues of 30 pages each; it feels as if the story could easily fit in eight or seven issues without losing much.
ComicBook As usual, the book is better than the film
I actually read V For Vendetta back when it was first issued in my country in the early 90's.
The story itself is not very subtle about being a Nazi Germany rip-off but somehow, and this is where the writers showed their genius, it just... works wonders.
The premises are particularly well-rendered with David Lloyd's art and his smooth shading that underlines the darkness of the novel's universe. Suspense and tension can be cut through with a knife and it's amazing just how the main plot and sub-plots carry each other to fruition. It's really worth noting how the world V created for himself in the Shadow Gallery brims with dark poetry and ironic beauty, the same way he kills most of his chosen victims. V is also the only case I know of a heroic, Warrior Poet-like, Monster Clown. All of this explodes in a terrific finale and a hopeful conclusion that leaves many questions unanswered nonetheless.
As for the film now, it was expectedly disappointing. First off, the whole overhauling of the plot was disastrous and made the movie into a big cliché-driven mess. Second, Character Derailment, ahoy. Cutting off Rosemary and Helen Heyer, the two most powerful female characters after Evey, irritated me to no end since, as a female viewer, I'd really like to stop being reminded that Most Writers Are Male and I'm only a periphery demographic of any given non-Chick Flick film. Additionally, making Gordon Dietrich a Gay guy just didn't work, plus it could pass off as some gross pandering. And really, expanding the role of Creedy into some kind of stock Big Bad Wannabe was unnecessary. Third, the choice of actors was really not that judicious. Yes, Natalie Portman can act but, as Evey, she really didn't convince me.
To finish on a lighter note, I do understand that many people might have liked the film if they never read the book before. But, as is often the case, the original novel is way superior to the film.
ComicBook Great deconstruction/social critic/revenge story
I really liked this comic; it had many interesting things to analyze from the characters to the setting and the themes. I found it to be a somewhat twisted deconstruction of superheroes. V was basically Captain America but in a concentration camp where a genocide was orchestrated. Instead of joining the government, he opposed it giving an interesting dilemma of order vs chaos, or rather, safety vs freedom.
It also mixes influences from other works of fiction in order to have an identity. The revenge subplot is Montecristo, Norsefire is 1984 and the terrorist aspect was like batman at times and IRA at others. It's not a shameless derivation either, it knows the flaws of said works and gives a better portray on how the conflict would play out. Unlike Montecristo, V transpires from his revenge for his ideals. Unlike 1984 there's relax from the oppressive nature of the rules in the idea of security based on the madness of nuclear war. Unlike Batman, V is ruthless and almost sadist, which drives other characters to consider if he is right, a disgusting sociopath or both at the same time. And finally, the terrorist aspect was not one-sided, in fiction the terrorist is a villain and a murderer, over here that's true but with a gray area in between that makes you consider if the government point of view is correct or not.
For all the aforementioned reasons, we receive a very dense plot regarding morality and many political perspectives of actual political movements. Fascism, right-winded and left-winded as well as anarchism. I don't like stories about fascism since it reduced itself to evil caricatures of you know who fancy mustache I am talking about. However, this is an exception; the members of Norsefire were tragic half of the time. Finch, Dominic, the Almond, Dahlia; they were the result of grief and despair caused by the war. The anarchists weren’t any particulary good besides in shitting on the atrocities of Norsefire. They were mentally sick persons born of hatred and repression like V who crave for hope regardless of said hope being useful or not. That’s what I call gray morality and social criticisms in oppresion and mass destruction.
The plot was great in overall; V’s plans were somewhat problematic for the improbable results, but the amount of subplots were huge enough to justify the length. All characters had goals and specific relations with others and were affecting their environment with personal agendas and emotional problems. The setting felt very vivid for the way Norsefire was organized, making parallels with a human head, like a leviathan. I could explain more but that would be over-kill. In short, it was a great comic that surpassed its inspirations very captivating way