Retro Comic Book Review – V The Visitors 1984 DC Comics
When DC Comics launched their V series in 1984, the first and only season of the TV series was still airing. This put the writers of the comic between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they were free to use whatever was already covered in the 2 mini-series and the current series, which is a great sandbox to play in, but on the other, they were constrained by the TV series still being on the air. They did not know where the TV writers were going with the plot, but since the TV producers had certain plans in mind, DC had to get permission for just about everything.
You can’t radically change or kill off any characters, or take any chances when the producers have their own agenda.
Sadly for the V comic, this often means that the missions of the resistance and the villainy of the Visitors are a bit subdued. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, but it is often little more than short story arcs that are wrapped up quickly. Ham Tyler, Mike Donovan, Julie, Willie, Kyle, the Starchild, they’re all here. And this 18 issue series is a fun read.
But for the reasons described above, it is far from perfect. I would say about half of the issues really capture the feel of the original two mini-series, while the other half is just kind of blah. Being that I am a hardcore V fan, I loved it all despite these flaws.
The art is at times great, at times not so great. It’s not that the art is bad in itself, it’s mostly that the characters do not look like the ones we love.
Interestingly the comic gets canceled right after the TV series does, so it never got the chance to stand on its own and spread its wings. Which is sad, because I feel like the team here could have made a very special book. One that might have lasted at least 100 issues. It just wasn’t meant to be.
Gonna keep this review short, but the bottom line is that it’s a great comic series if you have a special place in your heart for V. It’s fascinating to read through and see how the writers and editor chose to handle the constraints that they faced and it was fun reading the letters pages to see what folks thought of it back when these issues were new.
