Adam Susan

Adam Susan
Adam Susan in V for Vendetta #2
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo imprint of DC Comics (Originally Quality Communications)
First appearance	Warrior #1 (March 1982)
Created by	Alan Moore David Lloyd
In-story information
Team affiliations	Norsefire Party
Notable aliases	The Leader

Adam James Susan is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the comic book series (later graphic novel) V for Vendetta, created by writer Alan Moore and illustrator David Lloyd. He is renamed Adam Sutler in the film adaptation, in which he is portrayed by John Hurt.

Character's background

Adam Susan is the leader of the Norsefire party, and the ruler of the dictatorship that holds Britain in an iron grip. A firm adherent of pure fascism, he values order above all else and sees civil liberties as unneeded luxuries which are ultimately threats to a secure society. He states early in the novel that he believes in "the destiny of the Nordic race",^[1] and subsequently despises anyone who is not white, Christian and heterosexual. Despite the latter, he disdains all sexual contact as "brutish coupling", and has subsequently remained a virgin his entire life.

The graphic novel establishes his backstory. A former police chief constable, upon his entrance into politics he gathers a select few like-minded right-wing extremists and corporate executives into his inner circle, and then exploits the poverty, chaos, and panic that follow a worldwide nuclear war to seize power. Once in control, he gives himself the title of "Leader," and bans all art and literature that conflict with the views of the party, criminalizes political dissent, and puts Jews, Arabs, Pakistanis and homosexuals into concentration camps.

In order to further monitor the state, Susan takes control of the intelligence departments known as the Eye and the Ear, the military police departments called the Nose and the Finger, and the propaganda department called the Mouth. These are run by his subordinates, Derek Almond (later Peter Creedy) at The Finger, Conrad Heyer at The Eye, Brian Etheridge at The Ear, Eric Finch at The Nose, and Roger Dascombe at The Mouth. The leaders of these departments run the day-to-day affairs of government.

From his inner sanctum, he forsakes virtually all human contact, resolving to be feared and respected if he cannot be loved. He reserves the closest thing he can manage to human feeling for Fate, the super-computer which both surveys security and maintains the bureaucracy of his government, loving and worshipping the machine as a goddess; in one scene, it is strongly implied that he masturbates in its presence.^[2] He is not without human qualities, however; his last few moments in the novel reveal him to be a timid, socially inept man who is eager to somehow connect with his people. He recounts his past, including glimpses of his childhood; it is suggested that he was a lonely child who developed an inflated sense of his own power and importance by embracing fascism. He also shows signs of solipsism, claiming that he and Fate are the only "real" beings in existence.

His rule begins to crumble when a masked terrorist calling himself "V" blows up the Houses of Parliament on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day), and begins systematically killing Susan's lieutenants. His defiance gradually inspires the public to rebel against Norsefire's reign. Susan tries desperately to capture and kill the mysterious vigilante, but remains increasingly powerless to stop him. Susan eventually finds out that V has been manipulating the Fate super-computer to express the forbidden emotion of love, driving him further into insanity.

At the end of the series, Susan is shot and killed during a publicity parade by Rose Almond, the widow of Derek Almond, Creedy's predecessor. Creedy immediately takes total control of London for a short time before he too is killed by one of his underlings, soon resulting in the total collapse of the government.

Film adaptation

High Chancellor Adam Sutler (played by John Hurt) addressing his subordinates in a scene from V for Vendetta.

In the film adaptation, the character is named Adam Sutler (a portmanteau of "Susan" and "Hitler"), and is portrayed by John Hurt. His title is "High Chancellor". The Fate super-computer subplot is not featured in the film version.

Sutler's story is described as that of "a young and upcoming politician" and "a deeply religious man and a member of the Conservative party". After the founding of Norsefire, he is mentioned briefly as Under-Secretary for Defence during the "Saint Mary's crisis", thus implying a coalition government between Norsefire and a stronger party. Sutler is elected Prime Minister by promising to restore order to the country after terrorists supposedly killed 80,000 people with a self-ignited bioweapon that created a viral epidemic (it is later revealed that Norsefire had actually launched the attack). He then uses the supposed terrorist threat as a pretext for genocide, along with an ongoing propaganda campaign in the state-run media, to cow the public into silence and appoint himself High Chancellor, turning the country into a single-party state with himself as an autocrat.

As in the graphic novel, Sutler lives in an underground bunker in self-imposed exile and leaves the day-to-day operation of his empire to his lieutenants. For most of the film he is only seen on television, until the end when he finally appears in person.

A decade later, when Sutler discovers he is being lampooned in a farce on a talk show, he is enraged and orders the show's host, Gordon Dietrich, arrested in the dead of night and executed (the official story is that Dietrich was killed only after a Qur'an was discovered among his belongings).

Sutler blames Creedy for the failure to stop V and threatens to fire him. In order to secure his own power, Creedy subsequently makes a deal with V to assassinate Sutler. Creedy and his men kidnap Sutler from his bunker and bring him to V in the London Underground, where Creedy personally executes Sutler, shooting his hated boss in the head at point-blank range.

Notes and references

1. ^ V for Vendetta, book 2, page 5
2. ^ Moore, Alan. Lloyd, David. V for Vendetta (Vol. VIII). New York: DC Comics, 1990.