There is always a book that draws me in; wanting me to read it; teasing me; laughing at me because it knows I will never take the leap out of my comfort zone and plunge in. And V for Vendetta was one of those books. My excuses for not reading? Too long, too dark, too old school, too popular, what a dull and boring (and a little off putting) cover. My excuse for finally picking it up to read? Nothing more than there was a reading challenge that had the book on the list and it was the only one I thought I could read.
This graphic novel by Alan Morre, David Lloyd and the DC Comics team started off okay. I read the introductions by the creators, I missed the significance of the date when the story started, but realized after a few pages, okay I get it. (The 5th of November….) Action happens: Oh, okay…. That’s what I thought. Sure… sure…. Okay already move it along…..! (It was a little slow, drawn out.)
Maybe it was partly because I was reading an old copy that I was getting bored. It smelled like old book and older BO. It was rough in my hands; the pages almost sticking together. The old school images and that rough paper started to drag me in. It had to be laced with something….I was addicted, no matter how much I was feeling that things were dragging or how disconcerting. During Part two of the book, there were “sideways” pages that you had to turn the book to read and that was annoying. But I kept reading. I finally said that it was 1984 meets Animal Farm meets a darker Batman and darker Joker, (later I found out Moore would work on these characters in other comics), it had mythology, history, insanity, religion, lust, politics, greed and more. In the afterwards (that I didn’t finish) he talks about his transgender character that would help inspire V. Well that sets off a whole other can of explosives!
As my Catholic friend would have said, “Jesus Joseph and Mary!” (and I’d add: HOLY F’ing S H I …..(you know). And WHAT THE HECK (only I didn’t say heck….and it might have had a few frails and dressings in front of it) was that? What is going on here? Because at first, I was willing to forgive some of the things V did, just as a plot point, to move things along. But then he did this on thing (funny of all the crrrraaaaap in the book it was this one thing that put me over…okay it is a HUGE thing…..I mean HUUUUUGE …. but still) and I’m like OH HAAAAAAAALLL TO THE F’ing NOOOOOOOO!
I didn’t think it would get anything to redeem it at the end so I started my review draft. I finally finished it, found out about the previous inspirations, the journey it took to get to here. I thought about how the book has probably been inspired by and inspired some works (some at or almost at classic status). Thought about when the book was set, remembered the historical elements and I wondered if the creators really know who V is/was and if they would tell us if they did know
