V For Vendetta

V for Vendetta was a popular graphic novel written by Alan Moore, published during the 1980's. It takes place in an alternate-present, where a nuclear war occurred sometime in the past, and a fascist government rules over Britain, and the rest of the world is assumed to be in tatters. The story focuses mostly on the actions of one "V", a mysterious self-described anarchist.

The world in which V acts is one that carries many similarities to our present day world, in an exaggerated sense. Their government rules with an iron fist, the media airwaves are filled with propaganda, policemen enforce laws with wanton violence and no check on their power, and the morality of the populace is strictly controlled with CCTV monitoring all the people say and do. Even the weather is under the government's precise control. V's ultimate goal is not simply to topple this government, but to shake up the populace, and make them realize what kind of world they have allowed, in the name of safety and security. To do this, V uses bombs and violence against state officials. Yes, in the dominant meaning of the word, V is a terrorist.

The government in the story comes right out and calls him by that name, and it's hard to disagree, though he is taking on a regime that kills or puts in camps people they consider undesirable. But V is a terrorist. He blows up buildings, kidnaps and kills government officials without any qualms. But at the same time, they are officials that were completely corrupt or involved with human experimentation in prison camps. It is a graphic representation of the phrase "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

Whether reader sides with V's tactics or not, we are clearly expected to agree with his goals, and expected to admire him. V is not dressed as an 80's Afghani rebel, or as a soldier. He chooses the guise of Guy Fawkes (something that would mean a lot more to British readers, but then again, the entire series was written by a Briton, and published there), the attempted English Revolutionary. He is the independent, self-reliant hero, who has books in library ranging from Utopia to Origin of the Species, someone who is smarter than those