I'm having trouble believing that nobody got here before I did. But multiple searches (forum's own and through Google) tell me that there are zero posts about it. So here goes...

Good old OotS #635, V's rise to power. In addition to the evil laughter and the faux-Latin chanting, there are cool magicky runey symbols circling around V in the first panel.

I couldn't help noticing that the symbols weren't just random scrawls; the same symbols were used several times, like letters of an alphabet. And as one of the many who went in for Haley's cryptograms, I couldn't resist trying to figure out whether this too was a hidden message.

Unfortunately I failed, mainly because I mixed up some of the symbols. (All those variations on "3" confused me, okay?) But then today I came across a font called "Dark Arts", from Blambot. 2.8 seconds later, I realised where I'd seen those symbols before.

And finally I was able to decode the message. It says...

Spoiler
Show
BET YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD FOUND A SECRET MESSAGE IN THIS DIDN'T YOU
Well yes, I did, and really I was right. It's a hidden message telling us there's no hidden message, but it's still a hidden message!


Now why do I get the feeling that I've seen these symbols show up somewhere else in the comic?