I’ve been wanting to read some of the old Question comics before Death of Vic Sage comes out, but I don’t know which to read. Can any recommend the best starting place or run on the character?
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Oh boy, @HubCityQuestion will have a couple of recommendations. I would actually like this too, though. After my first episodes of JLU last week during the Saturday Evening Cartoons Watch Along (we watched one that featured The Question), I thought it’d be a good idea to delve a bit deeper into the character.
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Hi there! HCQ here, Resident Question expert. Here’s my recommended primer to all DCU members on where to get started with The Question.
READ:
The Question (1986-) #1-36
Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood
52
WATCH:
Justice League Unlimited
“Fearful Symmetry”
“Double Date”
“Question Authority”
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They are killing off The Question again? Poor Vic can’t get no respect.
It sounds Luke it’s a sort of murder mystery where Vic is dying, coming back, and he’s trying to figure out how and why.
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O’Neil & Cowan. Definitive.
Rucka’s stuff is good too.
I mean, aside from a brief miniseries in the 2000s that I haven’t heard anyone mention ever, Denny O’Neil is the only one who ever actually wrote any Question series, namely the '86 one, The Question Quarterly (continued from the '86 series, but it’s not on DCU), and The Question Returns oneshot (which DCU filed under the '86 series). As HCQ noted, Greg Rucka used the character heavily in Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood and 52 (which had four writers, but if you’re familiar with their work, it’s obvious who wrote which parts, and the Question stuff has Rucka’s fingerprints all over it), so his work is the closest thing we have to a post-O’Neil “Question run,” and is also very good.
I say “post-O’Neil” because Steve Ditko created the Question as a backup feature for the Ted Kord Blue Beetle before either of them were integrated into the main continuity. That series is also not on DCU.
If you like him from JLU, I’ll actually also direct you to Watchmen. The characters are based on Charlton heroes like the Question, and JLU’s Question is as much a somewhat friendlier take on Rorschach as he is an adaptation of the comic Question.
The 2005 Rick Veitch series is… interesting. But I would not recommend it as an entry point.
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I’m not really a Question fan per se, but here are a couple of Questions that leap to mind.
Where are his original adventures? He was a Charlton character. Did he have his own series? How’d that stack up to this because I know DC recreated those characters when they brought them to the DC universe. Is any of that stuff on DCU?
Is 52 really a great representative of Question. I’m just now reading 52 all the way through, and I’m struck by how bland Question is to me. He’s in a good number of the stories, but he doesn’t actually do all that much to reveal his character. Basically, (spoilers) he’s paid Renee to do her thing, they teamed-up and fought crime together and now he’s dying of cancer. There haven’t been a lot of character establishing motives. I don’t even know why he’s after Intergang in particular other than he likes “Asking Questions.” I haven’t seen a lot of the Objectivism that he’s supposed to represent, and I feel like he had more personality in the one episode of Justice League Unlimited than in 60% of 52.
The premise of dying and coming back is pretty cool and researching his own death is pretty cool.
I’ll take these.
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The Question never had his own series before DC got the character. He first appeared in 5 issues as a back up to Charlton’s 1967 Blue Beetle series, then in the first issue of a series called “Mysterious Suspense” which never took off, and then in two issues of the “Charlton Bullseye” anthologies. These are not currently available on DCU, but they’re quite interesting. Pulpy adventure stories that often deal with Ditko’s own conceptual ethics.
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52 is a LOT more satisfying if you’ve read The Question (1986) first. His whole story in 52 is basically a payoff to the long narrative arc established in O’Neil’s work.
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That said, O’Neil examined Vic’s personality and motivations more than Rucka did. Rucka handled the Question as more of a mysterious, mentor-ish character.
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Thanks for the info.
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I have only read the Veitch series. Which I think is pretty bad actually. It seemed to want to make him into Rorschach by being a psychopath.
52 was my suggestion should’ve known hub city would get there 1st lol. It’s such a good read for question, Montoya & whisper O’ Daire fans not to mention plenty others.
I recommend Denny O’Neil run on question
Would it be recommended to just binge read the O’Neil run?
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The best and fullest Q run is Denny O’Neil’s.
A great place to start and his JLU did a really good job on him as well.
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The ONeil Cowan series is where you’d likely want to start. Its really the only solo Question full series. Then check out 52. Renee Montoya is a pretty decent Question herself but other than the Crime Bible stuff (which is an awesome read and brings the Specter to the table) I’ve only ever found her as a bonus story in the back of Detective Comics when Batwoman was the main focus. I really wish they’d given her a real series. Hell, I wish Vic Sage had gotten a longer/another run.