V for Vendetta is written in a rather unusual format – that of a graphic novel. While it may dissuade some from the work, since they may dismiss it as a “comic book”; it also grants it distinct advantages – succinctness and suspension of disbelief.

The Hours took an entire novel to follow a little over three days. Imagine then, how much text would be required to accurately describe V for Vendetta. V’s first appearance alone would require a chapter of its own to do it justice. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the text version of V for Vendetta would require thousands of words per panel, tens of thousands for every page. Reproducing every detail from V for Vendetta would make the work absurdly long – but condensing it would lose much of the detail that makes the work so entertaining. There’s no need to spend half a page describing the way that V’s cape flaps as he moves – it can be accomplished in one panel.

If V for Vendetta was written as text, it would seem a bit ludicrous – a political activist with superpowers and trick gadgets, fighting for anarchy in apocalyptic Britain? Preposterous! Yet that same premise seems real and wholly believable when we can not only hear about it, but see it as well. We can look down the London streets, peek over the Leader’s shoulder, and follow the Fingermen. V would sound ridiculous should you try to describe him – a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, dressed in period clothing? Yet when we can see him, he looks sinister and deadly serious.

A graphic novel may have been an unusual choice for a political commentary, but I doubt that this work could have been written as well in any other printed form. Alan Moore is a master of this genre, and V for Vendetta foreshadows his many other masterpieces, such as Watchmen and Tom Strong. I can’t wait to read the rest.