V for Vendetta

This year (2024) I have collected as many literary and cultural references I can find in this note.

To me, this is Alan Moor's greatest work. He is so clear, and so in command of the ideas he wanted to expose, I couldn't find a place where they got watered down which is so much common in comics.

Most of the characters in V for Vendetta are complex. Seldom there is a major character like Bishop Lilliman who is typical. So well-crafted the characters are, their inner struggles, and conflicts with the world out that they felt real, yet full of surprise. Moore has shown a mastery in psychology which I consider a hallmark of great fiction writers.

However, the characters are only backdrops here. Alan Moore used these characters to effectively convey some very elaborate ideas— freedom, anarchy, justice, integrity, etc.

So, when V started his vendetta, it was not only against some people. It is against the system, even against the lack of aesthetics that the system enforces (hence the theatrical nature of V).