Writer: Jeff Lemire
Pencils: Denys Cowan
Inks: Bill Sienkiewicz
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Willie Schubert
Cover: Cowan, Sienkiewicz & Sotomayor
Variant Cover: Jeff Lemire & Marcelo Mialo
Assistant Editor: Maggie Howell
Editors: Chris Conroy & Molly Mahan
Cover Price: $6.99
On Sale Date: November 20, 2019
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
Well, well, well. If it isn’t one of the characters
that DC screwed up royally during the New 52. Something about having ushered
forth from the primordial ooze or some such? I don’t believe DC Comics ever
developed the character enough to speak about. There’s been an appropriate cooling
off period, and now he’s back for the first time in the prestige format The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage,
and I’ve reviewed book one of the series right here!
Explain
It!
The Question is a crazy, mixed-up character.
Conceived by Steve Ditko as a sanitized version of his Ayn Randian hero Mr.
A—another suit-wearing man dispensing high-minded critique of the world, he has
come to represent a kook following conspiracy theories, as best exemplified in
the Justice League Unlimited cartoon from…*shudder*
two decades ago. Then there’s Rorschach from The Watchmen, who was a
combination of The Question and Mr. A, and a dirty smellbag besides, and that
well-revered The Question series by
Denny O’Neil and the artists of this book. And don’t forget the immortal god or
whatever he was meant to be during the New 52…point is, The Question has been
interpreted differently by many different creators during different eras, and
what Jeff Lemire is attempting here is to create the All-Question, a character
that respects the disparate elements of his re-interpreted personality
Much of the late-Silver Age character as depicted in
the pages of Charlton Comics is intact: Vic Sage is a revered television
personality in Hub City, who investigates crime and dispenses justice as The
Question, a faceless guy who puts on the mask and changes his suit and hair
color with the help of a special gas, provided by his pal and former professor
Aristotle “Tot” Rodor. But then there’s the other stuff…the stilted, curt
nature of his voice-over; the overtly conservative views of right and
wrong—literally described as “black & white” in the comic; the
quasi-mystical aspect of him tripping balls when he finds another mask like his
with a bullet hole through it…this is all of ‘em. All The Questions. They’re
being shoe-horned in here to validate everything that came before.
Which, if you’re already a fan of The Question, might
be right up your alley. But if you’re lukewarm on the character, it might be
tough to stay attentive until the very end. So after he sends his buddy, the
police chief, up the river, The Question finds the aforementioned mask and
starts having crazy visions. After investigating the police chief’s lawyer due
to a funny ring on his hand he…I don’t know, really. I think he’s coming to
terms with his other iterations, which, let’s be frank, has been done before.
I could be off-base, since I don’t have a doctorate
in Ditko characters, but this feels like a celebration of The Question that
will resonate with extant fans. The artwork is terrific, completely evocative
of that late 1970s/early 80s noir style that was prevalent in comic books of
the time, which may be a factor in dating the thing and making it feel “old.”
It does feel old, but not insignificant. Whether it holds your attention or not
will depend on what you already know about and feel for this character.
Bits and Pieces:
An expertly-executed but somewhat dry story that pays
a lot of gratitude to the versions that came before. Indeed, that seems to be
all there is here.
7.5/10
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