V FOR VENDETTA was a personal podcast for me. As the resident anarchist in ComicsVerse’s stable of commentators, I was both one of the people advocating for an episode about it and one of the most well-prepared on the panel to discuss its political inspiration.

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Justin jokes early on that our open discussion is “the strangest of all podcasts,” but to me, as an academic, this discussion felt familiar. V FOR VENDETTA is a sprawling, intellectually dense work that has to be engaged with from a scholarly perspective to be fully appreciated. It’s packed with allusions, political theory, and musings on human nature. We tried our best to meet it on its own terms. Therefore, what makes for one of our most heady podcasts is also one of our most interesting. Those of you who’ve got near the end of your BA or past it will probably find it similar to a seminar in which the professor has an even more dry sense of humor— Justin’s sense of humor —than professors tend to have. Connor, as a Princeton graduate, is able to seamlessly move into our seminar-style discussion. Naturally, ComicsVerse editor Jake Grubman’s post-graduate education in law prepared him well for such a discussion, and of course, Gabby Beans’ reputation as a thinker precedes her, so her thoughtful contributions come as no surprise.

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Part of why I hoped that we would do a podcast on V FOR VENDETTA is simply that I love Alan Moore’s work, but I also thought that it was doubly relevant in the present US political climate. It’s relevant to a topic that’s been making the rounds in the news for years: the hacktivist organization Anonymous. And it’s relevant to a much newer topic: the accusation that Donald Trump and his rise are fascistic. Especially with some small degree of confrontation between Anonymous’ and Trumps’ organizations themselves, the questions of whether Trump is a fascist and of whence Anonymous’ inspiration comes are worth asking and discussing. We touch on these topics, and I hope the groundwork that I lay for them myself by attempting to define fascism and anarchism is helpful to listeners. In this way, we hope this podcast allows you to continue these discussions yourselves!

For your convenience, this podcast is also available on iTunes!