"V For Vendetta" (the graphic novel) Quiz

Answer: David Lloyd

Only David Lloyd gets a credit, as co-creator of the original story. Alan Moore notoriously dislikes Hollywood's handling of his stories, and that included the film version of "V For Vendetta." He refused to allow his name to appear in the credits, and assigned all payments due him for the rights to David Lloyd.

Answer: World War III

The third world war seemed to involve limited nuclear exchanges (so that there is someplace left for the story to occur in), with England cut off from most of the world. There are references to chaotic social collapse in the US and parts of Europe, with the implication that the death and destruction were far greater beyond England's shores.

However, disruptions in weather patterns, food shortages, and outbreaks of disease make conditions in England bad enough, and the promise of "normalcy" by Norsefire is enough to gain them the support of most of the population.

Answer: She was trying to work as a prostitute.

Evey is an orphan (her mother died of cholera, her father was taken by the secret police), raised by the state and working for starvation wages in a factory. On her first outing as a would-be prostitute, she propositions a man who turns out to be a member of the Finger.

He and his associates are about to exercise their "prerogative" to rape and then kill her when V appears and kills them instead. He takes Evie under his wing.

Answer: Yes

When V kills Dr. Delia Surridge, who was the camp doctor and main researcher at Larkhill, he uses a slow but painless poison. She wakes to find him in her room, and when she asks if he is going to kill her, he replies "I did it ten minutes ago" and shows her an empty hypodermic.

She asks if she may see his face, and he removes his mask (the point of view of this panel only shows the back of his head). A single tear slides down Delia's face as she murmurs "It's beautiful." After V's death, there is a sequence where Evey imagines removing his mask, several times, each time revealing a different face, including her own.

But in reality, she draws her hand back from the mask, and never removes it.

Answer: Storm Saxon.

Storm Saxon is a character in a popular TV adventure show created by Norsefire. The character is an idealized Aryan hero, fighting off hordes of blacks who have taken over Britain in the far future. With his faithful Laser Luger, he blasts away at the "cannibal filth" intent on raping his very blonde girl-friend Heidi.

Answer: Almond's gun isn't loaded.

Earlier that evening, Mr. Almond was expressing his affection for his wife Rosemary by snarling abuse at her, jamming his gun in her face, and pulling the trigger. Click. Just a bit of fun for Derek. Immediately after this touching domestic scene, Almond is called to the scene of V's latest escapade, and in fact catches him as he is heading down a stairwell.

He levels his gun at V, pulls the trigger, and ... click. He had forgotten to reload it after threatening Rosemary.

Answer: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."

Moore used a number of references to the works of Aleister Crowley in "V For Vendetta", including punctuating that speech with "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." A doorway at the Shadow Gallery has VVVVV engraved above it. Besides reinforcing the theme of V and fives that runs through the comic, V explains to Evey that the letters stand for Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici ("By the power of Truth I, while living, have conquered the Universe").

This was one of Crowley's "magical mottos." And in a later scene, Evey demands that V explain his actions, and snaps "And DON'T just quote Aleister Crowley to me!"

Answer: Fate

On several occasions, we see Mr. Susan expressing love for Fate, the supercomputer he uses to manage resources, monitor surveillance cameras, make political plans...basically to run the whole show. At one point, guards stationed outside Mr. Susan's office rather nervously and studiously ignore moans coming from the room which imply that Mr. Susan is expressing his affection in very physical terms. Unfortunately for Susan, V has hacked into Fate, and feeds it false information to lure the government into doing what he wants it to, in order to undermine its rule.

After he gets over the shock of this betrayal, Mr. Susan murmurs to Fate that he forgives it.

Answer: She was a lesbian.

Any of these reasons would have been enough for Norsefire to arrest Valerie, and dispose of her any way they saw fit. There was a general round up and mass extermination of homosexuals, non-whites, and political dissidents. But she was in fact a lesbian.

She and her partner Ruth survived the war, but Ruth was arrested by the police while out looking for food, and shortly thereafter, so was Valerie. She was sent to Larkhill, and used as an experimental subject. She died in cell #4, next to V (cell #5, roman numeral V).

Her manuscript, written in pencil on a sheet of toilet paper, sustained V in his ordeal, as it does Evey in hers.

Answer: Sympathy For The Devil.

V appears in Lilliman's bedroom singing "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste," the opening lyric of The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil." He then ends a discussion of transubstantiation by forcing the bishop to take a communion wafer made of cyanide.

As the police pathologist reports, it was still cyanide when it reached Lilliman's stomach. Prior to his elevation to bishop, Lilliman was the camp chaplain at Larkhill, and thus was on V's hit list.

Answer: He takes LSD before entering Larkhill.

Finch drops a hefty dose of LSD so that he can search Larkhill for clues with his mind cleared of any preconceptions, and view the site with a consciousness similar, he thinks, to V's own. He does indeed end up stark naked, in the middle of Stonehenge, at dawn, by the end of his quest for V's origins.

Answer: The Vicious Cabaret.

As an interlude at the beginning of one issue of "V For Vendetta," Moore wrote a set of lyrics called The Vicious Cabaret (a rock band later took the name Vicious Cabaret as an hommage to the comic). It both recaps the action up to that point, capturing the situations of various characters in the storyline, and exploring thematic elements of the overall V saga.

Answer: Rosemary Almond

Rosemary is the widow of Derek Almond, a Fingerman killed by V. After his death, she is more or less cast off by the government, apart from being "dated" for a short time by one of her husband's political rivals. With no means of support, she ends up becoming a showgirl (and, it is implied, a prostitute) at a sleazy night club.

She buys a gun - not sure if she wants to shoot herself or someone else. At a virtually random public appearance by Adam Susan, she walks up to him, passed through security as the widow of a high-ranking party member, and puts a bullet in his head.

Answer: A Violet Carson rose.

V grows "Violet Carson" roses and leaves one of the flowers at the scenes of his killings. There really is a Violet Carson hybrid (but no Scarlet Carson variety), named after a well-beloved English character actress, best known for her lengthy run on the popular soap opera, "Coronation Street". References to roses occur throughout Moore's story. Valerie's letter mentioned that her partner, Ruth, sent her roses on Valentine's Day, but "In 1988 there was the war, and after that there were no more roses.

Not for anybody." At one point, V asks Evey if there is anyone for whom she wants him to pluck a rose - that is, anyone she wants him to kill for her. Evey gently refuses the offer. When V is sent on his "viking funeral," his body is surrounded by the roses.

Answer: One.

Evey Hammond dons V's mask and costume and appears, as V promised he would, at midnight, proving to the rioting Londoners that V is still alive and fighting. She finds a young man, wounded in the riots, and spirits him away to the Shadow Gallery. She introduces herself to him as V, and the saga ends as it began.