By Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar & various III (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-328-5
The Question, created by Steve Ditko, was Vic Sage, a driven, obsessed reporter who sought out crime and corruption irrespective of the consequences. This Charlton ‘Action-Hero’ was purchased by DC when Charlton folded in 1983 and was the template for the compulsive Rorschach when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons first drafted the miniseries that would become the groundbreaking Watchmen.
An ordinary man pushed to the edge by his obsessions, Sage used his fists and a mask that made him look utterly faceless to get answers (and justice) whenever normal journalistic methods failed. After a few minor successes around the DC universe Sage got a job in the town where he grew up.
Hub City (purportedly based on East St Louis) was a hell-hole, the most corrupt and morally bankrupt municipality in America. Mayor Wesley Fermin was a degenerate drunken sot and the real power was insane cleric Reverend Jeremiah Hatch. When Sage started cleaning house as The Question he was “killedâ€, rescued and resurrected by the inscrutable Shiva – the World’s deadliest assassin.
Crippled, he journeyed into the wilderness to be healed and trained by O’Neil’s other legendary martial arts creation, Richard Dragon.
It’s a new type of hero who returned to Hub City, philosophical rather than angry, but still cursed with a drive to understand how things universally go bad. The city has degenerated even further. Sage’s girlfriend is now Mayor Fermin’s wife, and crime and chaos are everywhere…
This fourth collection (reprinting issues #19-24 of the seminal 1980s series) brings to a head many of the dark plot threads that have been with the series since its inception. With Fermin permanently drunk and oblivious Sage has renewed his affair with Myra, even whilst she is running for her husband’s job.
Closet racist Royal Dinsmore has better ways of winning the race than smearing his opponent, but thanks to an extremely disturbed good citizen those plans are exposed in ‘The Plastic Dilemma’ (illustrated by Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar) and Myra refuses the financial support of a particularly unwholesome millionaire backer, whilst the emotional impact of her affair with Sage is revealed in ‘Send in the Clowns’ (an all-Magyar art job) a brutal tale of freaks, greed and prejudice.
Dick Giordano inks Cowan in ‘Rejects’ as psychopathic Junior Musto, returns (see The Question: Zen and Violence) to take a hospital hostage, demanding a heart transplant for the father who abused and tried to destroy him. That Greek tragedy leads into the main event…
‘Election Day (by Cowan & Malcolm Jones III): The Fix’ begins an agonising comedy of political errors as Dinsmore’s plan to steal the election is thwarted and he resorts to hiring a gang of Bikers to prevent the populace from voting – a t least those who can be bothered to turn out.
All the while Myra is having heartrending second thoughts. She doesn’t want to win but can’t afford to let a monster like Dinsmore gain control of her city. In the background her sot husband lurks; drunk deranged, bitter: clutching a bottle and a gun…
Some disquieting historical facts about Hub City are revealed in ‘Election Day: Welcome to Oz’ as the situation worsens. Open warfare in the streets is compounded by the arrival of a tornado that smashes most of the city to rubble, and the terrible conclusion ‘Election Day: The Dark’ sees Dinsmore defeated by a last-minute Machiavellian masterstroke from Vic Sage.
Mrya becomes the new Mayor of the biggest, most corrupt pile of rubble in America. A shot rings out…
Even ending on such a painful cliffhanger is grudgingly acceptable when the work is of such sterling quality and these eccentric epics are as readable now as they ever were. Complex characters, a very mature depiction of the struggle between Good and Evil using Eastern philosophy and very human prowess to challenge crime, corruption, abuse, neglect and complacency would seem to be a recipe for heady but dull reading yet these stories by one of the American industry’s greatest wordsmiths, and especially the mythic martial arts action delineated by Denys Cowan are gripping beyond belief and constantly challenge any and all preconceptions. So grab this book; absorb, enjoy and then move briskly on to the next volume.
I’m going to…
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