V for Vendetta and other Works by Alan Moore

Cafe Society
1

I did a search in Cafe Society and came up with nothing. Which is surprising since this graphic novel is considered one of Alan Moore’s best.

I have been a huge fan of Watchmen for years, and have recently been catching up on Moore’s other works. Here is my initial take:

Watchmen - still deserving of the reputation as the greatest comic story ever.

From Hell - still reading, can’t comment, but seems excellent so far.

V for Vendetta - only okay. We never learn much about V, only the “bad guys” he deals with and their maneuvers to gain power within the corrupt government. Compared to Watchmen, The League, From Hell (so far) and Top Ten, not nearly as satisfying to me.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - a fun romp more than anything. I really respect the idea and the work that went into staying true to the concept. Also, the characters are interesting and the series is wonderfully drawn. The plot is pretty straightforward and simple - it seems to there more to provide a framework for interesting characters and the subtle plot twists (ooo - Hyde can see the Invisible Man! Cool! How will that be used later? And what is Miss Murray’s secret? yes, I know the secret, but in the first series, it is played for intrigue…)

Tom Strong - sorry, doesn’t really to a lot for me - not bad, but doesn’t have that stamp of “wow this is really a notch above” that Moore’s best work has

Promethea - Haven’t read - on order

Swamp Thing - read years ago and thought the few I read were okay, but I was never a Swamp Thing kinda guy and just remember the series was a sort of excuse for writing almost a “Twilight Zone”-like set of tales of mystery and horror. Fine, but not my cuppa tea.

Top Ten - a personal fave - really love it, almost as much as Watchmen (but let’s not get carried away). I found the universe created to be incredibly well-realized and the characters compelling. I wish this series would continue.

Tomorrow Stories - haven’t read…

Whaddya think?

2

I went back and did a search on “Moore” and found a few threads about his work, but the only one that discussed a variety of his titles and how people liked them was this one

So the question remains - what do you think of his titles? How would you rate or even rank them?

3

I wasn’t so keen on V for Vendetta. I’m a big fan of Moore, but something about it just didn’t come through for me.

I suspect its dated - it was written mid-Thatcherism.

4

I like V for Vendetta. I think it is an excellent work but not one of Moore’s elite.

Watchmen is definitely the standard, but I’ll defend Swamp Thing. I think it was used as a vehicle to tell horror stories. I see nothing wrong with that because he told EXCELLENT horror stories. I think Swamp Thing is on par with Sandman (perhaps a slight notch below).

But it is definitely Moore’s second best work in my rankings.

But I have found his ABC work (including Top Ten which I enjoyed most) to be decent but not spectacular.

I am currently reading his work on Liefeld’s Supreme (Story of the Year). More comments to come on that.

From Hell was difficult for me to enjoy because: (A) The mysticism angle is not as interesting to me as it is to Moore and others (a knock on Promethea as well) and (b) the art was so terrible that I couldn’t follow the sequential progression.

5

If you read the collected V for Vendetta all at once, you won’t get the same sense of mystery and wonder that you would have gotten reading each issue one month apart.

That was what me and my buddies did when it first came out in the late 80s. We’d get together over pizza and beer and discuss what was going on in the storyline. Then one day I had an epiphany…

VALERIE IS THE WOMAN IN ROOM 4!!!

and called everybody up and hollered “ALAN MOORE IS A FUCKING GENIUS!!!”

As far as Swamp Thing goes, I consider these treasures I can dig out and read every few years and find something I never noticed before. For instance, there’s a storyline where Swampy is travelling from planet to planet trying to find Earth. He does this by starting a new plant form on an arable planet, then attempts to work out where he is.

However, on one planet, the plants are sentient and live lives just like mundane humans. When Swampy assumes plant form, his brain gets overloaded with every plant-person’s life on the planet and he goes insane. There’s one page in that story that’s divided into 9 panels, showing each little subset of plant-people and what they were experiencing at that moment. I didn’t notice until years later that each scene on that page was a part of Swampy’s FACE!

ALAN MOORE IS A FUCKING GENIUS!!!

6

My God, we’re talking about works by Alan Moore and no one has mentioned Miracleman? That was his greatest work, afaik.

(And I liked V for Vendetta, and I think Watchmen is a little bit overrated.)

7

Am I the only person who liked Halo Jones?

8

I am also surprised that Miracleman(Marvelman in the UK) wasn’t mentioned in the OP.

While it is excellent, I do think Watchmen is better and not overrated(like the Dark Knight Returns).

Promethea is a beautiful book that deals with metaphysics and the collective unconcious, among other things.

His work is always worth checking out, IMHO.

9

Ooops - sorry davidw and Mockingbird for not mentioning Marvel/Miracleman in the OP. I read the first run of MM stories in comic book form 10+ years ago when I was over at a buddies house and remember liking them a lot. I have recently tried to get the trade paperbacks, as part of my reading more of his work, and discovered that MM is out of print and the TP’s are hard to come by. But I will perservere and get them soon enough…

and davidw? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but Watchmen overrated? Really? I just don’t see it - it holds like under re-readings like few novels I know…

I agree with Mockingbird though - Dark Knight Returns was more style than substance (although at the time - what style!). But it is far more simplistic than Watchmen and doesn’t hold up nearly as well.

and watsonwil I am reading From Hell for the first time right now, and can see how the artwork is an acquired taste. There are some drawings that seem quite effective - I am thinking of the panels dominated by architecture, or ones showing carriages moving through the city, with cross-hatching showing twilight or darkness. But many are obscure and it can be hard to differentiate characters. Given Moore’s dense writing and the black and white drawings, it is a harder read than I thought it would be…

10

I’ve been a big fan of “Affable Al” since 1963.*

Miracleman is not very well known in the US, thus it get overlooked.

I liked V for Vendetta a lot, but I’m also a big fan of his 1963. Its obviously quite obscure (no one’s mentioned it, and it hasn’t been collected into a graphic novel), but it’s a terrific deconstruction of Marvel Comics of the 60s, with a vicious parody of Stan Lee. It was also leading to a fascinating conclusion comparing the heroes of the 60s to those of the 90s, but Image Comics pulled the plug.

*Well, actually before that . . . I mean after that . . . no, before . . . and I just couldn’t pass up the line.

11

Don’t misunderstand me. I loved Watchmen, and I’ve re-read it multiple times. But there are other Moore titles that I think are better (From Hell), and there are others that I enjoy more (Miracleman).

12

I also recommend Moore’s new TPB collecting his miscellaneous works from DC. These works, not epic per se, are great examples of how a wonderful story can be told with a beginning, middle and an end in 6 to 12 pages.

Some of his other work that needs mention: Killing Joke and What Ever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Both excellent story telling.

Question: Do you get the feeling that Moore is writing his new stuff with a nostalgic, Silver Age, throw-back flavor (1963, ABC, Supreme) as some sort of self-imposed pennance for inspiring poor imitators in the grim and gritty school of comics?

Think about it. Though Watchmen was g&g, it was intelligent and complex. However, it inspired the Image gang (Liefeld especially) to toss out the intelligent/complex component and just craft G&G comics.

13

No, you most certainly are not …

14

While I love Watchmen I’m also fascinated by Moore’s ability to make genre comics that don’t transcend their genre but are nonetheless the apex thereof. Tom Strong is the best example of this – Doc Savage is very much not my cuppa, but I really enjoy Tom Strong because it is so well done and inventive.

I haven’t read V since 1989, so I’m going to reserve comment.

Top Ten I thought was a fun frippery, but it was no more than that. The only thing really excellent therein was the robot gangsta rap.

As to 1963, I found it amazing – it was not only a vicious satire of Stan Lee’s Marvel Age of Comics! it was a loving tribute thereto at the same time! Masterful.

–Cliffy

15

I think V for Vendetta is Alan Moore’s finest work. The pacing, the suspense, the atmosphere, the characters, the art. Eveything is just perfect. Watchmen, while being a fine, fine story, just doesn’t hold a candle, in my opinion.

I’m watching Promethea very closely, however, and its stock was rising in my estimation with every issue…until the latest where Tom Strong had to burst onto the scene. “Uh oh,” thought I. Not a good sign, but I have eternal faith in Moore to tell a great story.

Too bad Big Numbers never went anywhere. Maybe it’ll be revived at some point.

ALAN MOORE IS A FUCKING GENIUS!

16

What do you people think of his Captain Britain run? I think it was on writen in the same period of Marvelman (read the first 2 or 3 issues and didn’t think it was special) / V (which I love despite its lack of unity in the ending third) / Swamp Thing (have read just a couple of issues and loved them, I Intend to buy the paperbacks).

I liked it a lot. It really set the scene for Excalibur a decade later and had some great ideas and very nice villains. I wonder why more people don’t talk about it.

There’s no bad thing that can be said against Watchmen’s writing but, altough I understand the need for this type of art in this story, I wish the drawings and collors were more subtle.

From Hell is a masterwork in my opinion. I loved the concept, the art, everything. It is however a bit tireing (sp?) so it’s not as easy to re-read as the rest.

I basically liked everything from ABC but haven’t read most of it. The League was a special high-light along with Top Ten and made the picture an even bigger disappointment.

Also, has anyone read his book? Voice of the Fire if I remenber correctly. Is it any good?

17

Knowed, hope you don’t hate me but…

V for Vendetta, Issue VII, page 17
“Valerie wrote the letter in her own hand while she lived. I delivered it to you as it was delivered to me…”
(Evey is looking at poster for The Salt Flats, Valerie’s big movie (mentioned in her letter))
“V, she’s beautiful. Who was she?”
“She was the woman in room four.”

I’m not providing links to anything here for certain reasons – wait, actually this hasn’t even officially gone up yet – but I’ve done a… tasteful pin-up style photo shoot which involves me reading V for Vendetta (the single issues), and a few other Alan Moore works whilst looking quite surprised. Good fun, that.

V for Vendetta is my favorite Alan Moore work. I don’t know, I think I’m just touched by the clarity & simplicity of its message, combined with the dangerous allure of the amoral protagonist. The artwork’s quite appropriate, as well.

18

I’ve heard Moore is retiring when he turns 50. Anyone know if that is true?

19

Yep, that’s the buzz in his biography, Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraoridnary Gentleman. He’s set on becoming a magician (as in Crowley, not Copperfield) and do performance art based on his studies.

Maybe his daughters will carry the torch for him. They wrote a pretty funny macabre piece for the book.

20

Unfortunately, I can’t comment directly on your hypothesis, in terms of citing some interview or critical review. However, I see your point, along two lines:

  1. Watchmen and Dark Knight did “artfully” expand the boundaries, and now many titles go “there” and use the sex and violance aspect without the artfulness. It is the same thing with TV - Some show/miniseries will cross a boundary in an artful way and it leads to mostly crap - such is life - and it is not as if video games have done anything to numb teens to an increasingly high level of sex and violence within imaginary play…

  2. Moore clearly loves older characters and stories - witness the League, Tom Strong, Watchmen, etc. - all of which directly used older characters or adapted the framework of a character to suit his purposes.

I guess the only comment I would make would be on your choice of the word “pennance” - can’t Moore just like the ideas and characters put forth in these stories and want to write within that context? The fact that the industry as a whole has upped the level of s&v, and that Moore was at the forefront of expanding the boundaries of comics, doesn’t mean that he isn’t doing just what he wants to do. I don’t get the impression he is paying pennance for anything…