V for Vendetta
Written by Alan Moore
Art by David Lloyd
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What follows are some excerpts from the graphic novel, V for Vendetta.
Quick-Jump
Book One: Europe After the Reign
Chapter One THE VILLIAN
V Quotes Macbath (p. 11)
V:“The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him…”
V:Me? I’m the king of the twentieth century. I’m the bogeyman. The villain. …The black sheep of the family.
Remember, Remember the Fifth of November… (p. 14)
V:“Remember, remember the fifth of november, the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.”
Chapter Two THE VOICE
Alexander S. Peak:Is that a copy of Human Action by Ludwig von Mises on V’s shelf?
About the State’s Eradication of Culture (p. 19)
V:We’ll have to see what we can do about that…
Chapter Three VICTIMS
Eric Finch:…and he slaughtered them like cattle!
Evey Hammond:I’m nobody. Nobody special, not like you.
V:Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody.
Evey Hammond:It was all the fascist groups, the right-wingers. They’d all got together with some of the big corporations that had survived. “Norsefire” they called themselves.
V:They made you into a victim, Evey. They made you into a statistic. But that’s not the real you. That’s not who you are inside.
Chapter Four VAUDEVILLE
V:Admirable concern, commander. Yet it’s deuced odd, isn’t it? How you can show so much concern for porcelain and plastic…and show so little for flesh and blood. Do you remember, commander? Do you remember when it was people gathered in this sordid little enclosure? People half dead with starvation and dysentery?
Chapter Five VERSIONS
Adam Susan’s Ode to Fascism and Fate (pp. 37–39)
Adam Susan:My name is Adam Susan. I am the leader.
Leader of the lost, ruler of the ruins.
I am a man, like any other man.
I lead the country that I love out of the wilderness of the twentieth century. I believe in survival. In the destiny of the Nordic race. I believe in fascism.
Oh yes, I am a fascist. What of it? Fascism…a word. A word whose meaning has been lost in the bleatings of the weak and the treacherous.
The Romans invented fascism. A bundle of bound twigs was its symbol.
One twig could be broken. A bundle would prevail. Fascism…strength in unity.
I believe in strength. I believe in unity.
And if that strength, that unity of purpose, demands a uniformity of thought, word and deed then so be it.
I will not hear talk of freedom. I will not hear talk of individual liberty. They are luxuries. I do not believe in luxuries.
The war put paid to luxury.
The war put paid to freedom.
The only freedom left to my people is the freedom to starve. The freedom to die, the freedom to live in a world of chaos.
Should I allow them that freedom?
I think not. I think not.
Do I deserve for myself the freedom I deny to others? I do not. I sit here within my cage and I am but a servant. I, who am master of all that I see
I see desolation. I see ashes. I have so very much. I have so very little.
I am not loved, I know that. Not in soul or body. I have never known the soft whisper of endearment. Never known the peace that lies between the thighs of woman.
But I am respected. I am feared. And that will suffice.
Because I love. I, who am not loved in return. I have a love that is far deeper than the empty gasps and convulsions of brutish coupling.
Shall I speak of her? Shall I speak of my bride?
She has no eyes to flirt or promise. But she sees all. Sees and understands with a wisdom that is Godlike in its scale.
I stand at the gates of her intellect and I am blinded by the light within. How stupid I must seem to her. How childlike and uncomprehending.
Her soul is clean, untainted by the snares and ambiguities of emotion. She does not hate. She does not yearn. She is untouched by joy or sorrow.
I worship her though I am not worthy.
I cherish the purity of her disdain. She does not respect me. She does not fear me.
She does not love me.
They think she is hard and cold, those who do not know her. They think she is lifeless and without passion.
They do not know her. She has not touched them.
She touches me, and I am touched by God, by Destiny. The whole of existence courses through her. I worship her. I am her slave.
No freedom ever was so sweet.
My love, I would stay with you forever, would spend my life within you.
I would wait upon your every utterance and never ask the merest splinter of affection.
Fate…
Fate…
I love you.
V Speaks to Madam Justice on Anarchy (pp. 39–41)
V:Hello, dear lady.
A lovely evening, is it not?
Forgive me for intruding. Perhaps you were intending to take a stroll. Perhaps you were merely enjoying the view.
No matter. I thought that it was time we had a little chat, you and I.
Ahh…I was forgetting that we are not properly introduced.
I do not have a name. You can call me V.
Madam Justice…this is V.
V…this is Madam Justice.
Hello, Madam Justice.
“Good evening, V.”
There. Now we know each other. Actually, I’ve been a fan of yours for quite some time. Oh, I know what you’re thinking…
“The poor boy has a crush on me…an adolescent infatuation.”
I beg your pardon, Madam. It isn’t like that at all.
I’ve long admired you…albeit only from a distance. I used to stare at you from the streets below when I was a child.
I’d say, to my father, “Who is that lady?” and he’d say, “That’s Madam Justice.” And I’d say, “Isn’t she pretty.”
Please don’t think it was merely physical. I know you’re not that sort of girl. No, I loved you as a person. As an ideal.
That was a long time ago. I’m afraid there’s someone else now…
“What? V! For shame! You have betrayed me for some harlot, some vain and pouting hussy with painted lips and a knowing smile!”
I, Madam? I beg to differ! It was your infidelity that drove me to her arms!
Ah-ha! That surprised you, didn’t it? You thought I didn’t know about your little fling. But I do. I know everything!
Frankly, I wasn’t surprised when I found out. You always did have an eye for a man in uniform.
“Uniform? Why, I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. It was always you, V. You were the only one…”
Liar! Slut! Whore! Deny that you let him have his way with you, him with his armbands and jackboots!
Well? Cat got your tongue?
Very well. So you stand revealed at last. You are no longer my Justice. You are his Justice now. You have bedded another.
Well, two can play at that game!
“Sob! Choke! Wh-who is she, V? What is her name?”
Her name is Anarchy. And she has taught me more as a mistress than you ever did!
She has taught me that justice is meaningless without freedom. She is honest. She makes no promises and breaks none. Unlike you, Jezebel.
I used to wonder why you could never look me in the eye. Now I know.
So goodbye, dear lady. I would be saddened by our parting even now, save that you are no longer the woman that I once loved.
Here is a final gift. I leave it at your feet.
The flames of freedom. How lovely. How just. Ahh, my precious Anarchy…
“O beauty, ’til now I never knew thee.”
Chapter Six THE VISION
A Quote that V Incorrectly Attributes to Dr. John Faust (p. 43)
V:It’s a quotation. A motto…“Vi veri veniyersum vivus vici.” “By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.” Latin.
Bishop Anthony
James Lilliman:And to think that I doubted for even an instant your dazzling loveliness. Mea culpa, my child. Mea culpa.
Chapter Seven VIRTUE VICTORIOUS
Chapter Eight THE VALLEY
Eric Finch:When it reached his abdomen it was still cyanide.
Chapter Nine VIOLENCE
Chapter Ten VENOM
Chapter Eleven THE VORTEX
It’s a Vendetta, Leader (p. 79)
Eric Finch:It’s a vendetta, leader.
Doctor Delia Surridge’s Diary (pp. 80–84)
Doctor Delia
Anne Surridge:And in the yard, I saw him. He had the flames behind him. He was naked… He looked at me. As if I were an insect. Oh God. As if I were something mounted on a slide. He looked at me.
Book Two: This Vicious Cabaret
PRELUDE
Chapter One THE VANISHING
Chapter Two THE VEIL
Chapter Three VIDEO
VTV (pp. 112–18)
Chapter Four A VOCATIONAL VIEWPOINT
V’s Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (p. 117)
V:It was you! You who appointed these people! You who gave them power to make your decisions for you! … You have accepted without question their senseless orders.
Chapter Five THE VACATION
Chapter Six VARIETY
Chapter Seven VISITORS
Chapter Eight VENGEANCE
Chapter Nine VICISSITUDE
Chapter Ten VERMIN
Valerie Page’s Autobiography (pp. 154, 156, 157–160)
Chapter Eleven VALERIE
Valerie Page on Integrity (pp. 159–160)
Valerie Susan Page:I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Except one.
An inch. It’s small and its fragile and its the only thing in the world that’s worth having.
We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.
Chapter Twelve THE VERDICT
Evey Hammond:Thank you…but I’d rather die behind the chemical sheds.
Chapter Thirteen VALUES
The State is One Big Prison (p. 170)
V:You’re in a prison, Evey. You were born in a prison. You’ve been in a prison so long, you no longer believe there’s a world outside.
Chapter Fourteen VIGNETTES
Book Three: The Land of Do-As-You-Please
PROLOGUE
Chapter One VOX POPULI
Girl with Spray Paint (pp. 188–189)
Chapter Two VERWIRRUNG
Eve Hammond:All this riot and uproar, V…is this anarchy? Is this the Land of Do-As-You-Please?
V:No. This is only the Land of Take-What-You-Want. Anarchy means “without leaders”; not “without order.” With anarchy comes an age of ordnung, of true order, which is to say voluntary order. This age of ordnung will begin when the mad and incoherent cycle of verwirrung that these bulletins reveal has run its course. This is not anarchy, Eve. This is chaos.
Chapter Three VARIOUS VALENTINES
Rosemary Almond:And then, in ’92, you joined the party. Mrs. Rana next door loaned us food all through the war years. When they dragged her and her children off in separate vans we didn’t intervene.
Chapter Four VESTICES
Eric Finch:Why can’t I? I look at this pattern, but where are the answers? Who imprisoned me here? Who keeps me here? Who can release me? Who’s controlling and constraining my life, except…me?
Chapter Five THE VALEDICTION
Always, Always Romance (p. 218)
V:…And romance. Always, always romance.
Chapter Six VECTORS
Chapter Seven VINDICATION
That We Need Bigger Government is Always a Lie (p. 234)
Rosemary Almond:Yes, because your kind led us to hell and now you say our only hope is sterner leaders…
Ideas Are Bullet-proof (p. 236)
V:Did you think to kill me? There’s no flesh or blood within this cloak to kill. There’s only an idea. Ideas are bullet-proof.
Chapter Eight VULTURES
Chapter Nine THE VIGIL
Eve Without Leadership (p. 249)
Eve Hammond:You never told me what I’m supposed to do.
V’s Face is Irrelevant (p. 250)
Eve Hammond:If I take off that mask, something will go away forever, be diminished because whoever you are isn’t as big as the idea of you.
Chapter Ten THE VULCANO
Finch Will No Longer Take Orders (p. 252)
Eric Finch:I lost my family, and thought following orders could heal that. It can’t. I’m following my own orders now.
The New V Speaks (p. 258)
Chapter Eleven VALHALLA
You Gored Their Ideology (p. 260)
Eve Hammond:How purposeful was your vendetta, how benign, almost like surgery… Your foes assumed you sought revenge upon their flesh alone, but you did not stop there…you gored their ideology as well.
Copyright © 1988, 1989, 2005 by DC Comics.
All rights reserved. All characters, their distinctive likenesses and related elements featured in V for Vendetta are trademarks of DC Comics.
