V for Vendetta
I finally got around to reading this, after Emory finally got around to reading it again, and I enjoyed it very much. I first considered reading it back when I was 16, right after I'd bought and devoured Watchmen and V was the only other Alan Moore work I could find on the bookstore racks. But the muted coloring and lack of any superheroic tropes kept me away. Even years later, after From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Top 10 had all found places on my shortlist of favorite comics, I sitll didn't read V, figuring I'd get around to it someday.
It finally took Emory re-reading it again after years of dislinking the work and coming to the conclusion that he actually did like it very much indeed for me to crack it open. I'm glad I did. It's a fine work. There are some minor mis-steps; the Lady MacBeth-esque scheming wife veers into cartoonishness almost immediately, and the Leader's bizarre passion for his supercomputer doesn't quite work (although V's manipulation of such is well-done), but there's no denying the power of the central story concerning Evey. From what I've read about the upcoming film, Evey's trials are all there, which will go far in pleasing irritating fanboys like yours truly. (Remember, I'm the one who can't enjoy Ghost World because it needlessly veers so far from the comic.) I considered waiting to see the movie before reading the book, but I just couldn't. I had run out of reading material and these lunch hours don't just fill themselves, you know.
It finally took Emory re-reading it again after years of dislinking the work and coming to the conclusion that he actually did like it very much indeed for me to crack it open. I'm glad I did. It's a fine work. There are some minor mis-steps; the Lady MacBeth-esque scheming wife veers into cartoonishness almost immediately, and the Leader's bizarre passion for his supercomputer doesn't quite work (although V's manipulation of such is well-done), but there's no denying the power of the central story concerning Evey. From what I've read about the upcoming film, Evey's trials are all there, which will go far in pleasing irritating fanboys like yours truly. (Remember, I'm the one who can't enjoy Ghost World because it needlessly veers so far from the comic.) I considered waiting to see the movie before reading the book, but I just couldn't. I had run out of reading material and these lunch hours don't just fill themselves, you know.
posted by Jeff at 11:45 AM
4 Comments:
Agreed. And from what I hear, not only are Evey's trials preserved, but she's much less of a victim. Not that she's a Nervous Nellie in the comic, but the crying factor appears to be less.
And lookit the pretty pretty art!
Yeah, all those posters are beautiful. My bus goes by Warner Brothers every damn day and I never get tired of looking at them.
This is my crowning acheivment in comic bookdom because it is, I believe, the only major work that I read before Jeff AND Emory, and the only work where my praises of it helped in getting someone to re-read it after hating it the first time (although I'm sure there were other, more significant influences).
The only thing I don't like about V for Vendetta is that the dead-eyed British bureaucracy-functionary characters are almost impossible to keep straight. Doesn't matter how many times I read the book; I can never remember their names or which department they work for or which woman each one is married to unless I consult a fucking flowchart.
I can't wait for this movie.
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