Customer Reviews

The Question, Vol. 1: Zen and Violence

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After being re-established in the pages of 52, The Question's classic series from Denny O'Neil is now in TPB form, and be glad it is. Investigative reporter Vic "Charlie" Sage, AKA the enigmatic, arrogant, faceless would-be superhero known as The Question, finds himself in a bit of a predicament. When he stumbles upon a deadly plot involving crooked politicians in his hometown of Hub City, The Question is defeated in combat with Lady Shiva and thrown into the river for dead. After he is rescued, he begins being re-trained in body and mind by Richard Dragon, and soon enough, he's back on the prowl looking to set things right, and maybe get a little bit of revenge on the way. Classic superhero writer O'Neil really captures what The Question is all about with Zen and Violence; the first in the TPB collection of the series which originally debuted in 1986. After reading this initial collection, you'll get the feeling that 52 authors Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, and Greg Rucka in particular, really nailed the character down and paid wonderful homage to O'Neil's work. The artwork from Denys Cowan and Rock Magyar is solid enough, and really starts to come together in the last issue which finds the creation of a new, scarred foe for Charlie to contend with. All in all, Zen and Violence is an excellent introduction for new fans to one of the most underrated heroes in DC's stable, and worth picking up for old fans as well.

I first heard of the Question when the Justice League cartoon became Justice League Unlimited. He was introduced in "Fearful Symetry", and although his name was not mentioned, and he had no powers to speak of, I knew he was incredibly cool. I began researching his character, and my hopes of finding any comics about him dwindled. He was such a minor player, how could he ever get a compilation like Batman or Superman?

I don't know what triggered it- maybe Question's role in 52, or the sudden resurgeange of interest in Watchmen -but Question got his compilations, and thank God I found them.

Question is not like most super heroes. He has a simple costume, and lacks over-the-top themed enemies. He lives in what could be deemed "the real world" and fights real criminals. Now, I normally prefer some fantasy elements in my comics, but the setting fits the Question incredibly well. He needs no Joker, nor Brainiac, nor Gorilla Grod. He needs corrupt politicians, street thugs, and gangsters. This, coupled with excellent writing and stylish art, allows the book to transcend being silly, and so it becomes film noir told in panels.

If you ask me, the Question needs his own movie. Who knows? Pending the success of The Spirit and Watchmen, it might happen. For now, though, we have the source material of the comics, and they are so amazing, you can't go wrong.

One of the highlights of DC's recent '52' series, The Question was originally created in 1967 by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko for Charlton Comics. DC Comics obtained the rights to the character and published this series starting in February 1987. This trade paperback collects the first six issues, each 28 pages long with a 1987 cover price of $1.50.
Vic Sage is an KEBL-TV investigative reporter in 1980s Hub City where 'the social contract is a shambles and the city's in chaos'. He uses the guise of 'The Question' by applying an artificial skin that bonds to his face but allows for normal breathing and speaking. Lacking faith in the law enforcement and judicial systems, Sage uses both identities to pursue horribly corrupt Hub City politicians and criminals.
The first story arc focuses on a sinister cabal that has hijacked the Hub City government from a pathetic, drunken mayor. After an initial setback (beaten and left for dead on a river bottom at the end of issue 1) Sage trains in martial arts and Eastern philosophy and returns to Hub City to resume his battles with thugs and demagogues. Writer O'Neil explores moral and philosophical issues through the violent but introspective plot.
The series lasted for 36 issues (plus annuals and a separate quarterly series) so I'm hoping to see future volumes. I've read praise for the original letters columns (some even featured reading recommendations from O'Neil) but unfortunately they are not reprinted herein. One suggestion for DC: include these in Volume 2.

Whether you see Denny O'Neil's zen interpretation of The Question as a departure from Steve Ditko's (the artist / writer who created the character to be an adherent of Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophies), there is little doubt that this new line of DC publications is exactly what comic-industry trade paperbacks are made for: bringing back an incomparable run of stories to current readers who missed (like me) or weren't around for (like my children) the original series. Everyone benefits from the reason upsurge of interest in The Question's appearance in 52 and its aftermath, as well as his highly-touted appearances in the Justice League Unlimited cartoons. This tpb collects issues 1-6 of stories written from 1986-1987 by Denny O'Neil, drawn by Deny Cowan, and inked by Rick Magyar. Something also needs to be said for colorist Tatjana Wood who is able to dip out of the 1980s era palette dominated by bright pinks, blues, oranges, greens types of hues. (One of my favorite color-divergences, for instance, is in issue #2 when The Questions body is floating up from the water and looks very surreal because it is rendered completely in various shades of black and white.) If you like lots of action with a sharply-honed intellectual edge, you'll appreciate The Question. These stories are centered around the deterioration and corruption of The Question's hometown, Hub City. Another moment of reinvention here is the newly-created origin of the character as an orphaned child who grew up in a Catholic orphanage and becomes a television journalist named Vic Sage, aka Charles Victor Szasz, aka The Question. This becomes all the more meaningful when a young girl is being used as a potential religious cult's sacrifice as well as a hostage for bribery and blackmail. It truly irks The Question. Although he can deal with horrible ethics and immorality, it doesn't mean he's going to let a child be the plaything of them. There's lots of things like that to like here. You get to see Vic make fun of the police; when asked by one of the big blue, "If yer so smart, why don't you join the force," he cooly responds -- while holding up a criminal that he had to go catch for them --, "They wouldn't let me. I passed the IQ test." You get to see Batman dress The Question down after he, for all intents and purposes actually dies, for being an "obscenely lucky," "arrogant dilettante" who simply doesn't understand that his life is so extremely valuable it shouldn't be risked unwisely. You get to see scenes of utmost violence drawn as accurately as textbooks for martial artists as well as being illustrated as beautifully as choreographed dances. And although there is a lot of violence here, it is not violence for violence's sake. The violence is taken seriously, and it is used as a cautionary device. O'Neil's Question is different from Ditko's Question and Mr. A in that, in these tales, he only commits acts of violence when he is left no other choice and only after he is aggressed upon. In a telling scene, after being nearly knifed and holding his aggressor in a position that could cause him serious problems, The Question asks him if he wants his arms broken; the man responds in the negative, and he is told to "then collect your buddies and go." `And, heck, O'Neil kills The Question off in the very first issue. I mean, the villains have got the upper hand from page one! Some of the themes investigated are loss and recovery, childhood and innocence, lack of family and children abused by parents, betrayal and revenge, corruption and righting wrongs, destruction of the environment, and, in two particularly sad threads, the way in which we never see how tragic other's suffering is when they are simply allowed to die alone, forgotten, uncared for. I think these stories and issues are extremely timely and, well, timeless. Earlier, I talked about saving your original issues. If you buy this tpb and like it, I would highly encourage you to collect the originals. There are 36 issues, each of which has O'Neil's recommended reading list as well as probably the most intellectually stimulating series of letters-columns discussions that I've ever read. The readership of The Question was one of a kind, from the creators all the way down to the fans. No one pulled punches. The editors allowed both letters of praise as well as letters of severe criticism as well as letters of serious, intellectual dispute to be printed there. But, if you can't get those, these tpbs serve brilliantly as your beginning to the world of The Question.

While I didn't read this series in the '80s, I was more than willing to give THE QUESTION: ZEN AND VIOLENCE a shot due to the reputations of writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Denys Cowan, as well as all the recommendations from others. I was somewhat let down. I can't give this book, which collects issues 1 - 6, as high of a rating as I thought I would, as it gets the series off to such a shaky start. This series was released soon after DC acquired the rights to the Charlton Comics characters, one of which was the Question. It seems that they assumed everyone was familiar with The Question, as the issues collected here provide no clear backstory on him. As a result, I felt as if I walked in at the middle of a movie, with all character introductions long gone. Any info on them is provided through horrendously clumsy expository dialogue. Also, every resource I've ever seen on The Question gives his alter ego as Vic Sage, TV reporter; however, these stories add another alias - Charles Victor Szasz. Huh? Color me confused, especially when Batman has an enemy named Mr. Zsasz, whose first name is Victor. I assume this just an oversight rather than an actual connection, but it is odd.

Anyway, the first 4 issues of this series are the problem for me. Both Vic Sage and the Question are cleaning up Hub City, starting with the mayor's office. Sage does it through a series of investigative pieces, and the Question does it with his fists. Led into a trap and beaten within an inch of his life, the Question is seemingly left for dead; however, after a super-duper training montage (that's the '80s for you) under the guidance of Richard Dragon, the Question is back and better than ever! Yaaaay, gonna fly now! The villains for this particular story are straight out of Stereotyping 101: a puppet mayor controlled by various criminal interests, and an evil and insane reverend that is easily identified by his wildly distorted face and black eyeballs. Thankfully, the last two stories contained here, "Cityscape" and "That Small Rain Down Can Rain" are excellent and are hopefully an example of better work to come. They build off of events in the first 4 issues and feel like something Frank Miller might have written during his tenure on Daredevil.

While Cowan's art is good, it doesn't always do a good job of representing what is going on in the story, especially when transitioning between panels. In a couple of instances characters are standing still or talking to someone - in the next panel, they're lying on the ground after apparently being shot. No sound effects, no actual pictures of them being shot, just a good faith use of dialogue. Still, this is early work from Cowan, and from what I've seen of random later issues, his style improves greatly on this series.

Bill Sienkiewicz contributes the cover to the collection, as well as inks for the covers, where his style really comes through. I would love to see how his inks would have complemented Cowan's penciled interiors, but regular inker Rick Magyar does an excellent job. I will keep my eyes open for the next volume in this series of reprints, as it seems O'Neil and Cowan really hit their stride with the last half of this collection.

I usually shy away from this kind of novel, but I went for it this time because I love The Question. This is really a great read for anyone wondering how that hero of 52 got that way. It's a little primitive, but it's also insightful and interesting and way ahead of its time. I thouroughly loved it.

After reading this starting volume, I can't wait until more are released. I know I'll be purchasing them the moment they hit the Amazon shelves. Excellent material.