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V (character)
Encyclopedia
V is a fictional character
from the comic book
series V for Vendetta
, created by Alan Moore
and David Lloyd. He is a mysterious anarchist
vigilante
and freedom fighter
, easily recognizable by his Guy Fawkes
mask and dark clothing. According to Moore, he was designed to be the protagonist
, so that readers could decide for themselves whether he was a hero fighting for a cause, or simply insane
.
Resettlement Camp"—one of many concentration camps where political prisoner
s, homosexuals
, Black people
, Jews, Muslim
s, Indians and Pakistanis are exterminated by Britain
's new fascist
regime. While there, he is part of a group of prisoners who are subjected to horrific medical experimentation
, conducted by Dr. Delia Surridge, involving artificially-designed hormone
injection
. Lewis Prothero is the camp's commandant, and a paedophile
vicar, Father Lilliman, is at the camp to lend "spiritual support". All prisoners so injected soon die under gruesome circumstances, with the sole exception of "the man in room five" ("V" in Roman numerals). During that time, the man had some level of communication with Valerie Page
, a former actress imprisoned for being a lesbian, kept in "room four", who wrote her autobiography
on toilet paper
and then pushed it through a hole in the wall.
Although there is nothing physically wrong with him, Surridge theorizes that his mind had been warped by the experimentation. Still, his actions seem to maintain a twisted logic
. The experiments actually yield some beneficial results: he develops Olympic
-level reflex
es, increased strength, and incredibly expanded mental capacity (as demonstrated consistently throughout the novel, V is a genius
in the fields of explosives, martial arts
, philosophy
, literature
, politics
, hacking
, music
, chemistry
, and, as stated by Dr. Surridge in the graphic novel, gardening
).
Over time, the man is allowed to grow roses (violet carsons
) and raise crops for camp officials. The man eventually starts taking surplus ammonia
-based fertilizer
back to his cell, arranges it in bizarre, intricate patterns on the floor. He then takes a large amount of grease solvent from the gardens. In secret, the man uses the fertilizer and solvent to make mustard gas
and napalm
. On a stormy night (Dec. 23rd), he detonates his homemade bomb and escapes his cell. Much of the camp is set ablaze, and many of the guards who rush in to see what happened are killed by the mustard gas. The camp is evacuated and closed down. He adopts the new identity, "V", and dons a Guy Fawkes mask and costume. V then spends the next five years planning his revenge
on the fascist government, building his secret base, which he calls the "Shadow Gallery". He then kills off most of the over 40 surviving personnel from Larkhill, making each killing look like an accident. However, he saves Prothero, Lilliman and Surridge, (the three most responsible for the experiments on him) for last, showing only the remorseful Surridge a bit of mercy by injecting her with a painless poison in her sleep.
He doesn't even consider "V" his "name", saying "I do not have a name. You can call me V". The only explanation given regarding V's past is Surridge's diary, which V leaves out in the open for the "Finger" (Norsefire's secret police
) to find after he kills her. Eric Finch, the head of the "Nose" (the Party's official police division) and one of Norsefire's most powerful officials, reads through the diary, but points out that V wanted them to read it. V also tore out many pages, which possibly left clues to his true identity before arriving at the camp. Finch further speculates that V fabricated the version of Surridge's diary, which he left with her body, just to confuse the police.
In the comic and graphic novel, Delia Surridge states in the diary that he was ugly, although she mentions "Physically, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him. No cellular anomalies, nothing". His confidante Evey Hammond
speculates in the comic that V might be her own father, who was arrested years before as a political prisoner
; V denies it, and Moore has confirmed that V is not Evey's father. There is also some speculation that V could actually be Valerie, the prisoner in the cell next to his whose autobiographical letter inspires V not to give up (and which he later passes on to Evey). However, Prothero and Surridge both describe V as the "man" from room five (V claims Valerie was the "Woman in room four" and also that he did not write Valerie's letter).
As Finch comments on the pages V tore from Surridge's diary "What was on the missing pages, eh? His name? His age? Whether he was Jewish, or homosexual, or black, or white?" He later proclaims to Finch that he is "an idea."
Upon witnessing V's death, Evey declines to unmask him with the conviction that even if he was her father, learning the man's true identity would not be worth diminishing what he endeavored to symbolize. Eventually, Evey takes over V's persona and his mission to consider herself as anarchy
incarnate.
on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day
. V then kidnaps Prothero, who is now the "Voice of Fate" on the government's propaganda
radio, and drives him insane by destroying his prize doll
collection in a satire
of the exterminations that occurred at Larkhill. V kills now-Bishop Lilliman by forcing him to eat a communion
wafer laced with cyanide
. Norsefire had infused a perversion of religion into their rhetoric, saying that those who were exterminated were not pure in the eyes of God
, and V's black humor was enforcing Lilliman to put some of his religious rhetoric
to the test of transubstantiation
. V then kills Surridge, the one Larkhill official who feels remorse
for her actions, by injecting her with a poison
that painlessly kills her. Having thus killed his personal foes, V moves his plans forward.
V stages an attack on the government's propaganda
broadcasting station, strapping himself with explosives and forcing the staff to follow his orders under threat of detonating them. V then broadcasts a message to the people, telling them to take responsibility for themselves and rise up against their government. Finally, V destroys the government's CCTV surveillance
buildings, eroding its control over British citizens. However, V is mortally wounded when he is shot by Finch, and he staggers back to the Shadow Gallery, where he dies in Evey's arms. Evey then puts him in state, surrounded by violet carson roses, lilies and gelignite
, in an Underground train
that stops at a blockage along the tracks right under 10 Downing Street
, where the explosives-laden train detonates, giving V a Viking funeral
, fulfilling his final request to her in the process. Evey then takes on the mantle of "V."
as V.
In the film, V is a freedom fighter rather than an anarchist terrorist. He is disfigured (a result of burns) instead of being described as being ugly. His abilities are a result of weapons experiments and superhuman reflexes instead of hormonal experiments. At the end of the film, he says that he has fallen in love with Evey.
There are several plot deviations. In the film, he only bombs the Old Bailey
and Houses of Parliament building. It is Peter Creedy who confronts V at the end, instead of Finch. Creedy shoots Sutler (Adam Susan in the graphic novel), but V refuses to take off his mask, and Creedy and his men shoot V. V wore a breastplate to deflect the bullets but was still mortally wounded. He dies in Evey's arms. Evey gives him a Viking funeral, as in the graphic novel. Finch then confronts Evey, but puts down his weapon after learning about the corruption of the Norsefire regime and joins Evey as they watch V's bomb destroy the Houses of Parliament.
Character lists
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,...
, created by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and David Lloyd. He is a mysterious anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
and freedom fighter
Propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed is a concept that refers to specific political actions meant to be exemplary to others...
, easily recognizable by his Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.Fawkes was born and educated in York...
mask and dark clothing. According to Moore, he was designed to be the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, so that readers could decide for themselves whether he was a hero fighting for a cause, or simply insane
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
.
Origin
The background and identity of V is largely unknown. He is at one point an inmate at "LarkhillLarkhill
Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It is a short distance west of Durrington village proper and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury....
Resettlement Camp"—one of many concentration camps where political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s, homosexuals
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, Black people
Black British
Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
, Jews, Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, Indians and Pakistanis are exterminated by Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's new fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
regime. While there, he is part of a group of prisoners who are subjected to horrific medical experimentation
Nazi human experimentation
Nazi human experimentation was a series of medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners by the Nazi German regime in its concentration camps mainly in the early 1940s, during World War II and the Holocaust. Prisoners were coerced into participating: they did not willingly volunteer and there...
, conducted by Dr. Delia Surridge, involving artificially-designed hormone
Hormone
A hormone is a chemical released by a cell or a gland in one part of the body that sends out messages that affect cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. In essence, it is a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one...
injection
Injection (medicine)
An injection is an infusion method of putting fluid into the body, usually with a hollow needle and a syringe which is pierced through the skin to a sufficient depth for the material to be forced into the body...
. Lewis Prothero is the camp's commandant, and a paedophile
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
vicar, Father Lilliman, is at the camp to lend "spiritual support". All prisoners so injected soon die under gruesome circumstances, with the sole exception of "the man in room five" ("V" in Roman numerals). During that time, the man had some level of communication with Valerie Page
Valerie Page
Valerie Page is a fictional character from the comic book series V for Vendetta. She also features in the film adaptation.-In the comic book series:...
, a former actress imprisoned for being a lesbian, kept in "room four", who wrote her autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
on toilet paper
Toilet paper
Toilet paper is a soft paper product used to maintain personal hygiene after human defecation or urination. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as blowing one's nose when one has a cold or absorbing common spills around the house, although paper towels are more used for the latter...
and then pushed it through a hole in the wall.
Although there is nothing physically wrong with him, Surridge theorizes that his mind had been warped by the experimentation. Still, his actions seem to maintain a twisted logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
. The experiments actually yield some beneficial results: he develops Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
-level reflex
Reflex
A reflex action, also known as a reflex, is an involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus. A true reflex is a behavior which is mediated via the reflex arc; this does not apply to casual uses of the term 'reflex'.-See also:...
es, increased strength, and incredibly expanded mental capacity (as demonstrated consistently throughout the novel, V is a genius
Genius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
in the fields of explosives, martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, hacking
Hacking
Hacking may refer to:* Computer hacking, including the following types of activity:** Hacker , activity within the computer programmer subculture** Hacker , to access computer networks, legally or otherwise...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, and, as stated by Dr. Surridge in the graphic novel, gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
).
Over time, the man is allowed to grow roses (violet carsons
Violet Carson (rose)
Violet Carson is a rose cultivar, an uncommon hybrid of the Mme Leon Cuny and Spartan varieties, created between 1963 and 1964. It was named after Violet Carson, the actress who played Ena Sharples in Coronation Street, the British soap opera...
) and raise crops for camp officials. The man eventually starts taking surplus ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
-based fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
back to his cell, arranges it in bizarre, intricate patterns on the floor. He then takes a large amount of grease solvent from the gardens. In secret, the man uses the fertilizer and solvent to make mustard gas
Sulfur mustard
The sulfur mustards, or sulphur mustards, commonly known as mustard gas, are a class of related cytotoxic, vesicant chemical warfare agents with the ability to form large blisters on exposed skin. Pure sulfur mustards are colorless, viscous liquids at room temperature...
and napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
. On a stormy night (Dec. 23rd), he detonates his homemade bomb and escapes his cell. Much of the camp is set ablaze, and many of the guards who rush in to see what happened are killed by the mustard gas. The camp is evacuated and closed down. He adopts the new identity, "V", and dons a Guy Fawkes mask and costume. V then spends the next five years planning his revenge
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
on the fascist government, building his secret base, which he calls the "Shadow Gallery". He then kills off most of the over 40 surviving personnel from Larkhill, making each killing look like an accident. However, he saves Prothero, Lilliman and Surridge, (the three most responsible for the experiments on him) for last, showing only the remorseful Surridge a bit of mercy by injecting her with a painless poison in her sleep.
Identity
V's true identity is a mystery, and he visibly removes his mask only once during the entire story (at Surridge's request), at which point his back is to the reader and his face cannot be seen. Surridge tells him "it is beautiful", in contrast to her personal notes, where she mentions that the man in cell V was ugly.He doesn't even consider "V" his "name", saying "I do not have a name. You can call me V". The only explanation given regarding V's past is Surridge's diary, which V leaves out in the open for the "Finger" (Norsefire's secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
) to find after he kills her. Eric Finch, the head of the "Nose" (the Party's official police division) and one of Norsefire's most powerful officials, reads through the diary, but points out that V wanted them to read it. V also tore out many pages, which possibly left clues to his true identity before arriving at the camp. Finch further speculates that V fabricated the version of Surridge's diary, which he left with her body, just to confuse the police.
In the comic and graphic novel, Delia Surridge states in the diary that he was ugly, although she mentions "Physically, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him. No cellular anomalies, nothing". His confidante Evey Hammond
Evey Hammond
Evey Hammond is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the V for Vendetta comic book series, created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. She becomes involved in V's life when he rescues her from a gang of London's secret police.-Biography:Evey grew up on Shooters Hill in south-east...
speculates in the comic that V might be her own father, who was arrested years before as a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
; V denies it, and Moore has confirmed that V is not Evey's father. There is also some speculation that V could actually be Valerie, the prisoner in the cell next to his whose autobiographical letter inspires V not to give up (and which he later passes on to Evey). However, Prothero and Surridge both describe V as the "man" from room five (V claims Valerie was the "Woman in room four" and also that he did not write Valerie's letter).
As Finch comments on the pages V tore from Surridge's diary "What was on the missing pages, eh? His name? His age? Whether he was Jewish, or homosexual, or black, or white?" He later proclaims to Finch that he is "an idea."
Upon witnessing V's death, Evey declines to unmask him with the conviction that even if he was her father, learning the man's true identity would not be worth diminishing what he endeavored to symbolize. Eventually, Evey takes over V's persona and his mission to consider herself as anarchy
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
incarnate.
The "Villain"
Four years after his escape from Larkhill, V blows up ParliamentParliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day
Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding...
. V then kidnaps Prothero, who is now the "Voice of Fate" on the government's propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
radio, and drives him insane by destroying his prize doll
Doll
A doll is a model of a human being, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have traditionally been used in magic and religious rituals throughout the world, and traditional dolls made of materials like clay and wood are found in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. The earliest documented dolls...
collection in a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of the exterminations that occurred at Larkhill. V kills now-Bishop Lilliman by forcing him to eat a communion
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
wafer laced with cyanide
Cyanide
A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
. Norsefire had infused a perversion of religion into their rhetoric, saying that those who were exterminated were not pure in the eyes of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, and V's black humor was enforcing Lilliman to put some of his religious rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
to the test of transubstantiation
Transubstantiation
In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...
. V then kills Surridge, the one Larkhill official who feels remorse
Remorse
Remorse is an emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act which they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or violent. Remorse is closely allied to guilt and self-directed resentment...
for her actions, by injecting her with a poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
that painlessly kills her. Having thus killed his personal foes, V moves his plans forward.
V stages an attack on the government's propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
broadcasting station, strapping himself with explosives and forcing the staff to follow his orders under threat of detonating them. V then broadcasts a message to the people, telling them to take responsibility for themselves and rise up against their government. Finally, V destroys the government's CCTV surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
buildings, eroding its control over British citizens. However, V is mortally wounded when he is shot by Finch, and he staggers back to the Shadow Gallery, where he dies in Evey's arms. Evey then puts him in state, surrounded by violet carson roses, lilies and gelignite
Gelignite
Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin or simply jelly, is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpetre .It was invented in 1875 by Alfred Nobel, who had earlier invented dynamite...
, in an Underground train
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
that stops at a blockage along the tracks right under 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....
, where the explosives-laden train detonates, giving V a Viking funeral
Viking funeral
Burial customs of Viking Age Norsemen are known both from archaeology and from historical accounts such as the Icelandic sagas, Old Norse poetry, and notably from the account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan....
, fulfilling his final request to her in the process. Evey then takes on the mantle of "V."
Film adaptation
The 2006 film adaptation of the graphic novel starred Hugo WeavingHugo Weaving
Hugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian born, English-Australian film actor and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy, Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, "V" in V for Vendetta, and performances in numerous Australian character dramas.-Early...
as V.
In the film, V is a freedom fighter rather than an anarchist terrorist. He is disfigured (a result of burns) instead of being described as being ugly. His abilities are a result of weapons experiments and superhuman reflexes instead of hormonal experiments. At the end of the film, he says that he has fallen in love with Evey.
There are several plot deviations. In the film, he only bombs the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
and Houses of Parliament building. It is Peter Creedy who confronts V at the end, instead of Finch. Creedy shoots Sutler (Adam Susan in the graphic novel), but V refuses to take off his mask, and Creedy and his men shoot V. V wore a breastplate to deflect the bullets but was still mortally wounded. He dies in Evey's arms. Evey gives him a Viking funeral, as in the graphic novel. Finch then confronts Evey, but puts down his weapon after learning about the corruption of the Norsefire regime and joins Evey as they watch V's bomb destroy the Houses of Parliament.
DC
- V for Vendetta
- Vol. I of X V for Vendetta September 1988
- Vol. II of X V for Vendetta October 1988
- Vol. III of X V for Vendetta November 1988
- Vol. IV of X V for Vendetta December 1988
- Vol. V of X V for Vendetta December 1988
- Vol. VI of X V for Vendetta December 1988
- Vol. VII of X V for Vendetta January 1989
- Vol. VIII of X V for Vendetta February 1989
- Vol. IX of X V for Vendetta March 1989
- Vol. X of X V for Vendetta May 1989
Trade paperback
- United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
- Vertigo Comics (ISBN 0-930289-52-8) - United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
- Titan BooksTitan BooksTitan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
(ISBN 1-85286-291-2)
See also
Concepts and themes- Anarchism and the artsAnarchism and the artsAnarchism has long had an association with the arts, particularly in music and literature. It shares this trait with other political movements, such as socialism, communism, liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism and even fascism....
- Libertarian science fictionLibertarian science fictionLibertarian science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that focuses on the politics and social order implied by libertarian philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and a limited state-- and in some cases, no state whatsoever....
Character lists
- List of comic book supervillains
- List of DC Comics characters
- List of fictional anarchists
- List of fictitious atheists and agnostics
- List of fictional hackers
External links
- Warrior publishing records on qualitycommunications.co.uk
- V for Vendetta publishing records on milehighcomics.com