James Gunn Courts the Wrath of Alan Moore, Greenlights V for Vendetta Series

To our knowledge, legendary comic figure Alan Moore hasn’t weighed in on Superman, Peacemaker, or any of the other projects James Gunn has made for his DCU. But we can probably guess that he doesn’t like them. The master author behind Watchmen, The Killing Joke, and other superhero classics has long had a (well-earned) skepticism of the major publishers in general and DC Comics in particular, taking his name off of even well-done works like HBO’s pseudo-sequel to Watchmen.

So it’s hard to imagine that Moore is thrilled at the Variety-reported news that Gunn and co-head of DC Studios Peter Safran have signed on to produce an HBO series based on V for Vendetta. Attached to write is Pete Jackson, he of Somewhere Boy and The Death of Bunny Munro, not Lord of the Rings.

Written by Moore and illustrated primarily by David Lloyd, V for Vendetta released originally between 1982 and 1985 as a black and white feature in the anthology Warrior, before being finished and collected as a 10-issue color series released by DC Comics in 1988 and 1989. Set in an alternate 1990s in which a fascist party called Norsefire controls England, V for Vendetta focuses on teen Evey Hammond, who gets captured and becomes the eventual associate of V, a freedom fighter/terrorist in a Guy Fawkes mask.

The story has made it to live action twice, in very different ways. The more conventional adaptation came in 2005, in a film directed by James McTeigue and written by the Wachowskis, which starred Natalie Portman as Evey and Hugo Weaving as V. The far less expected adaptation came in an actual TV show that exists called Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler. In addition to being a prequel series about Alfred (Jack Bannon), the man who would become the Dark Knight’s trusted aide (specifically, the version played by Sean Pertwee in Gotham), Pennyworth deals with England’s slide into fascism. By the second season, the Norsefire government has been formed and characters are fighting against it wearing Guy Fawkes masks.

Different as these two approaches certainly are, neither has lived up to the original work by Moore and Lloyd. In addition to just the pure power of the duo’s craftsmanship–the incredible storytelling and panel rhythms from Lloyd, the florid language from Moore–V for Vendetta has a level of thematic complexity neither adaptation has matched. While all three versions clearly understand fascism is evil, the two live action takes more or less understand V to be a hero. Moore and Lloyd let the question linger, making us wonder if anyone who would treat Evey the way he does is not just another byproduct of fascist destruction, even if he’s a byproduct that also harms Norsefire.

If the new HBO take on V for Vendetta is going to be worthwhile at all, it will need to attempt for that level of complexity, something that may not be needed or welcome during a period of real rising fascism in the West. And even if they do pull it off, Alan Moore’s still not going to like it anyway.