V for Vendetta began serialization in the British anthology Warrior in 1982, was interrupted by the magazine’s cancellation, and was completed and published in full by DC Comics in 1988-1989. Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd in stark black-and-white (later colored for DC’s edition), it is set in a near-future Britain that has survived a limited nuclear war and descended into fascism — a totalitarian state controlling its population through surveillance, concentration camps, and the suppression of all dissent.
V is a masked figure in a Guy Fawkes cape and mask who wages systematic war against the fascist government — assassinating its leaders, destroying its monuments, hijacking its broadcasting system. His methods are theatrical, symbolic, and extremely violent. He rescues a young woman, Evey Hammond, from the secret police and gradually draws her into his crusade — but also subjects her to a terrifying psychological ordeal that forces her to choose freedom over security.
Moore’s genius is to refuse to make V simply heroic: he is a terrorist, and his methods — kidnapping, torture, murder — cannot be morally sanitized by the justice of his cause. The novel asks whether political violence can be justified against a state that is itself founded on violence, without offering a comfortable answer. The Guy Fawkes mask, adopted decades later by the Anonymous movement, demonstrates the cultural persistence of Moore’s imagery.
Collecting V for Vendetta
Original serialization (Warrior magazine, 1982-1985): Issues #1-26 (incomplete run).
Complete edition (DC Comics, 1988-1989): Ten-issue limited series.
Market values:
- Warrior #1 (first appearance), high grade: $200–$600
- DC #1, near mint: $50–$150
- First trade paperback (DC, 1990): $30–$75