by Sanjay Shah

This column is about great comicbooks runs that deserve to be collected for more widespread future reading.

The Question. DC Comics, 1986.

36 Issues and 2 Annuals.

The Start.

The Question was Zen Buddhism, well choreographed fight sequences, hard boiled pulp with a new age ideology, a blank faced seeker of the truth, utterly corrupt institutions, a comic unafraid of complex issues and an exploration of evil and the weakness of man.

The question really was how did veteran writer Denny O’Neil and artist Denys Cowan cram all this in successfully within their 36 issue run?

The character was originally invented by original Spiderman artist Steve Ditko in the 1960s for Charlton Comics and was a sounding board for his personal views on objectivism and moral absolutism. He was a TV reporter who went out and fought various crimes as a faceless (thanks to a special mask) vigilante. He only made some limited appearances and the character wasn’t used again until the mid-eighties when Charlton was bought by DC.

Alan Moore initially wanted to use him and the rest of the Charlton heroes for what eventually became reworked into The Watchmen. Ditko’s Question was a large influence on Moore’s sociopathic character of Rorschach, a man of absolute and uncompromising morals. But Denny O’Neil, who started out at Charlton, had other plans for him.

The Change.

Denny and Denys reintroduced The Question, a.k.a. Vic Sage, in the first issue of his title. It was without the comics code and later DC felt they needed to have a mature readers warning on the cover due to the contents of more sophisticated themes of sex, and violence. Cowan was inked by Bill Magyar who nicely softened some of Denys’ crosshatching and complimented his art. Malcolm Jones III took over on inking from issue #22.

Denny decided to change everything about the Question, he implemented his own eastern philosophical ideas which were in some ways a complete turn to the ones Ditko had for the character. Denny was an editor on the now legendry Frank Miller run on Daredevil, Miller had made the character his own and brought in ideas of Daredevil’s catholic childhood, infused hardboiled characters within the superhero genre, strong influences of Will Eisner's The Spirit comic, martial arts and beautiful choreographed of fight sequences. These all may have influenced O’Neil when he reworked The Question.

After I found out about the Ditko version, I did wonder why Denny O’Neil didn’t just make a new character up rather than change this one so drastically. But upon rereading the series recently it’s interesting to see why O’Neil did what he did by putting a character with absolute ethics into the moral ambiguities of the, then, modern 1980s. The character development alone made for interesting reading.

I found these in the back issue bins when the run was nearing its end. It was the fantastic Bill Sienkiewicz cover for the first issue that made me pick it up and it was the cliff-hanger ending and complex characters that made me seek out more. Denny even had a recommended reading book at the end of each issue.

The First Year

1 - The first issue introduces us to the Ditko version of The Question, violent, arrogant and absolute in his beliefs. Even his other role of TV reporter Vic Sage (a.k.a. Charles Victor Szasz) he comes across as an unsympathetic bastard. He works out of Hub City, a place that makes Gotham seem as bright as Metropolis. We are also introduced to Vic’s girlfriend Myra, he’s also pretty callous in his relationship with her. Vic shows a slightly warmer side with his scientist pal and the creator of The Question’s mask, Aristotle Rodor, who seems to be the only person that Vic really opens up to.

O’Neil understood that in order to really shake things up they must be destroyed and reworked. The end of the first issue The Question is beaten senseless by Lady Shiva (hired by the power behind Hub City, Reverend Hatch), then Hatch’s goons beat him with a metal pipe, shoot him in the head and then he’s dumped for dead off the Hub City docks. And that was only his first issue.

2 – Vic is such an asshole that you almost cheer when you think he’s been killed. The series may have been very short livied though if we didn't find him waking from a coma in a hospital. He's been rescued and saved by Lady Shiva, who felt him worthy enough to be trained to fight properly. When out of hospital, he meets Richard Dragon, who’ll tutors him, we have the compulsory montage of training, learning and healing (hell, even Rocky had a montage!) He studies under Dragon for a year until he is ready, Lady Shiva then turns up to test Vic to see if he’s improved before he gets to go back to Hub City

3 - We learn more about the corruption in Hub City. This issue focuses on Junior, a bullied kid of an abusive criminal, attempting to blow up a school bus full of orphan kids just to show his dad he’s not a wimp. Vic gets to the bus in time, a fight in the snowy weather ensues as the kids are saved but Junior gets away. O'Neil also gives Cowan space with the action sequences in this issue.

4 – Vic sees Myra after being away for a year, she’s reveals that she’s been forced to marry the mayor by Reverend Hatch who is really running things. He is utterly mental and decides to sacrifice Myra to the devil. Vic attempts to stop him killing Myra, she instead delivers the killing blow to Hatch.

5 - This issue focuses mainly on various citizens of the city, a rape and then subsequent suicide of the rapist, a corrupt cop deciding if he can do the right thing, a forgotten old woman named Maude is saved by the Question from a mugging and then wonders if her life is actually worth living.

One of my favourite Question issues. O’Neil shows us that there is no pure good and evil from justified killings of criminals, to rape and rapists and cops and bad guys. This issue physically shows us why the Ditko’s Question of absolutes wouldn’t have been able to exist for too long in 80’s America, O’Neil shows us the very need for The Question to change.

6 – Junior, the bullied criminal kid is back, and is sporting a bandaged up face, having poured acid over it. Now looking anonymous to everyone, including his father and his gang of criminals, he takes them all on and they mistake him for The Question. After taking on the gang, Vic gets to the scene but it’s too late. Junior reveals his burnt up face and his identity to his father after fatally shooting him.

7 - The Question teams up with a gambler called Volk as they both go up against the mob. Turns out Volk has some wolf like abilities. These are played down thankfully as overt superpowers would have looked out of place in this book of mostly talking faces (and no-faces).

8 – The Mikado, a vigilante killer is dressing like a Gilbert & Sullivan character and exacting fitting revenge on his victims. The horrifying elements are done well and some of the characteristics of the Mikado remind me of John Doe in the film Se7en. Myra tells Vic that she can’t be with him, now she's married and taking on the duties of the very alcholic mayor. The Question investigates the murders and the identity of the killer is revealed as he is stopped.

9 - 11. These three issues have Vic tracking the kidnappers of his friend Aristotle. Vic finds them in a place called Santa Prisca. The Question soon finds this becomes an unusual search and rescue.

12 – Vic and Myra realize they need each other and begin an affair. Their relationship is well handled by O’Neil and is realistic for the time in its examination of both conflicted characters. Vic puts a stop to a mentally deficient killer, who’d been eating the polluted soil of Hub City. Before a fight happens, the killer collapses from poisons in his body. We leave the Question as he decides whether to get a doctor or let the killer die.

Highlights for part 2 – The Question spends an entire issue buried up to his neck. He reads the Watchmen and wonders what it is to be Rorschach. Teams up with Green Arrow. Confuses the Riddler and takes on Lady Shiva again!

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