V (character)

V
V in V for Vendetta #2
Publication information
Publisher	Warrior Vertigo
First appearance	1982
Created by	Alan Moore
In-story information
Alter ego	Unknown
Team affiliations	Evey Hammond
Abilities	Enhanced reflexes, stamina, strength, mental capacity, and cunning. Deadly with daggers or with his bare-hands. Owner of an unlikely array of artifacts, weapons, and technology.

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 iconoclast easily recognizable by his Guy Fawkes mask and dark clothing. According to Moore, he was designed to be both a protagonist and antagonist, so that readers could decide for themselves whether he was a hero or simply insane. A film adaptation of the graphic novel was released in 2006, with James Purefoy and later Hugo Weaving portraying V.

Publication history

Main article: V for Vendetta

V is the central protagonist in the V for Vendetta material, which was originally published in Warrior in the mid 1980s.

After Warrior folded in 1985, several major comics attempted to get a hold of the material, which eventually saw DC Comics obtain the rights, publishing the finished product as a ten part series under the Vertigo label. It was later on collected as a single graphic novel.

Biography

Origin

V's background and his identity are largely unknown. It is known that V was an inmate at the infamous "Larkhill Resettlement Camp", which was actually one of many concentration camps where political prisoners, homosexuals, Jews, Blacks, Muslims and probably all non-Caucasians were exterminated by Britain's new fascist regime, Norsefire. While there, he was part of a group of prisoners who were subjected to horrific medical experiments conducted by Dr. Delia Surridge, which involved artificially designed hormone experiments (possibly research into creating super-soldiers). A lecherous priest, Lilliman, was at the camp to lend "spiritual support". The dozens of prisoners injected with the serum all died horribly, all except for one man: the man in room five ("V" in Roman numerals). Physically, there was nothing wrong with him. However, Dr. Surridge felt that his mind had been warped by the experimentation and that he had become clinically insane. Still, his actions seemed to maintain a warped logic to them. The experiments actually yielded some beneficial results in the man; he developed olympic level reflexes, increased strength, and incredibly expanded mental capacity.

Over time, the man requested to work in the camp's vegetable gardens, which provided food for the guards and the camp commandant, Commander Prothero. He proved to be quite good at it. The man eventually started taking nitrogen-based fertilizer back to his cell, and arranging them in bizarre, intricate patterns on the floor, and soon after a large amount of grease solvent from the gardens also went missing. In secret, the man was using the fertilizer and solvent to make mustard gas and napalm. On a stormy night, he detonated his homemade bomb and escaped his cell. Much of the camp was set ablaze, and many of the guards that rushed in to see what happened were killed by the mustard gas. The camp was evacuated and closed down. He adopted the new identity, "V", and donned a Guy Fawkes mask and costume. V then spent the next four years planning his revenge on the Norsefire government, building his secret base which he called the "Shadow Gallery", and killing off most of the over 40 surviving personnel from Larkhill, making each killing look like an accident. However, he saved Prothero, Surridge, and Priest Lilliman for last.

Identity

V's true identity is a mystery, and he takes off his mask only once during the entire story (at Delia Surridge's request) but his face is never shown. He doesn't even consider "V" his "name," saying "I do not have a name. You can call me V." The only explanation we are given of V's past is a secret diary kept by Dr. Surridge, that V leaves out in the open for the police to find after he kills her. Inspector Finch reads through the diary, but points out that V wanted them to read it, and V also tore out many pages, which possibly left clues to his true identity before arriving at the camp. Finch further speculates that it's a possibility that V fabricated the version of Surridge's diary which he left with her body, just to confuse the police. It does seem to be confirmed that V was actually at Larkhill, but anything the police found out about it from the diary is what V wanted them to know.

V was somewhat disfigured by the experiments, so his appearance under his mask was drastically altered from what it was before he came to Larkhill. Evey Hammond speculated in the comic that V might be her own father, who was arrested years ago as a political prisoner, though V denies it. Indeed, Alan 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 inspired V not to give up (and which he later passed on to Evey). Conceivably, V might actually be a woman whose appearance has been so drastically altered by the hormone experiments that it is impossible to tell while wearing the Guy Fawkes disguise. However, the characters that worked at Larkhill, Prothero and Surridge, both describe V as the "man" from room five, which would seem to dispell this theory.

V's true identity is never revealed even by the end of the story. 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 describes himself to Finch as "an idea". That Evey genuinely takes over the persona upon the death of her predecessor suggests V is something transcending the individual physically donning the mask. Late in the story, Evey-as-V also appears to consider herself "anarchy" incarnate. In effect, V is an Everyman: potentially, anyone oppressed by their government could become a revolutionary avenger like V.

The villain

Four years after his escape from Larkhill, V begins his vendetta against the government by blowing up Parliament on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day. V then kidnapped Prothero, who was now the "Voice of Fate" on the government's propaganda radio, and drove him insane by destroying his prize doll collection in a satire of the exterminations that occurred at Larkhill. V killed now-Bishop Lilliman by forcing him to eat a communion wafer laced with a lethal dose of 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 joke was in forcing Lilliman to put some of his religious rhetoric to the test, because if the host underwent transubstantiation it wouldn't kill Lilliman. V then killed Dr. Surridge by injecting her with a poison which painlessly killed her. Having thus leveled the playing field, V moved his plans forward.

V staged a daring 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 broadcast a message to the people, telling them to take responsibility for themselves, and rise up against their government. Finally, V destroyed the government's CCTV surveilance buildings, causing control over the people to slip away. However, V was mortally wounded when he was shot by Finch, and he staggered back to the Shadow Gallery where he died in Evey's arms. Evey then laid him in state, surrounded by white lilies and gelignite, in a subway train which stopped at a blockage along the tracks right under 10 Downing Street, where the explosives-laden cab detonated, giving V a viking funeral in the process. Evey then took on the mantle of "V". Template:Endspoiler

Portrayal in the 2006 film

File:Vprofile.jpg

V as portrayed by Hugo Weaving in the film adaptation

Main article: V for Vendetta (film)

A 2006 film, V for Vendetta saw the character of V portrayed by Hugo Weaving. In the film, V is a portrayed as a romantic freedom fighter, rather than as an anarchist-terrorist. While he still performs acts of terrorism, they are more in the light of Che Guevara. He is also portrayed as much more human and personable as well. He cooks breakfast for Evey and asks to dance with her. There are strong elements from the Count of Monte Cristo and Phantom of the Opera in V that are not present in the original story. V's history is also very different from that given in the graphic novel. Instead of having his training come from supersoldier experiments, they are an end result of a biological weapons experiment. An intruiging addition to the character's mythos is that prior to his escape from Larkhill, he claims to have forgotten his past in its entirety, including his name. V also seems to engage in more gratuitous violence in the film than in the novel, as there are many cases where he has killed large groups of armed government agents using only his daggers. However, in the film V kills in cold blood less often; essentially he kills only when it is required for his personal defense (or assassinations in his planned vendetta), but when he does resort to violence it is extreme and ruthless.

Bibliography

Warrior

• Warrior #1 - 16, 18

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

Graphic novel

• United States - Vertigo (ISBN 0930289528)
• United Kingdom - Titan Books (ISBN 1852862912)

External links

• Warrior publishing records on qualitycommunications.co.uk
• V for Vendetta publishing records on milehighcomics.com
• V for Vendetta Shrine notable fan site