The Question: Pipeline


By Greg Rucka, Cully Hamner, Laura Martin, Dave McCaig & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3041-8

The Question, as created by Steve Ditko, was Vic Sage, a driven, obsessed journalist who sought out crime and corruption irrespective of the consequences. The Charlton Comics “Action-Hero” was purchased by DC – along with a host of other cool and quirky outsiders – when the B-List company folded in 1983, and became the template for the compulsive loner Rorschach when Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons first drafted the miniseries which would become the groundbreaking Watchmen.

An ordinary man pushed to the edge by his upbringing and obsessions, Sage used his fists and a mask that made him look faceless to get answers (and, consequently, 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. When Sage started cleaning house as The Question he was promptly killed, rescued and resurrected by the inscrutable Shiva – “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.

Eventually a new type of hero returned to Hub City, philosophically inquisitive rather than merely angry and frustrated, but still cursed with a drive to understand how and why things universally go bad. Aligning himself with his old intellectual mentor and sounding board Professor Aristotle Rodor, Sage set about cleaning up “The Hub” and finally getting a few answers…

Spinning out of DC’s 52 (2006-2007) and Countdown to Final Crisis (2007-2008) mega-series, disgraced Gotham City cop Renee Montoya was groomed to take up the faceless mask and obsessions of the shadowy hero as Sage slowly succumbed to cancer.

First as his disciple and then as his heir (and after being masterfully schooled in martial arts by Richard Dragon) she took up Sage’s quest and was soon drawn into a secret war with the passionate adherents of a malign gospel of All Things Evil alternatively known as the Books of Blood or the Crime Bible.

This legendary tome was said to counter all that is good in the world and justify and codify all that is wrong. Driven by a need to understand the evils she fights and stop the spread of this monstrous belief, the new Question hunted down the remaining copies of the book and the distinct factions which protected them and promoted the terrible teachings.

Her path eventually pitted her against the secret master of the “Dark Faith”: the immortal Vandal Savage, believed by many to be the human species’ first murderer…

Collecting the stunning back-up series from Detective Comics #854-865 (August 2009 to July 2010) this globe-girdling saga of corruption and depravity by writer Greg Rucka, illustrator Cully Hamner and colourists Laura Martin and Dave McCaig begins in the aftermath of that apocalyptic confrontation, with Montoya and “Tot” Rodor ensconced in their desolate lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

They are looking for a new case; sorting through emails from a “help-offered” website they’d set up when a particular message catches Renee’s eye.

Hector Soliz is an illegal immigrant who has been searching for his sister ever since she went missing. He foolishly trusted the “coyote” who originally smuggled him into America to do the same for Louisa, but never took into account that, for men like Varga, pretty young girls have a value far beyond simple cargo to be smuggled across a closed border…

Taking the case, Renee is soon breaking into the flesh peddler’s home and dealing harshly with Varga’s brutal thugs where she finds a bed with chains and a camera set-up…

After undergoing some especially intense enquiries the coyote gives up the name of the man he eventually sold Louisa to: millionaire shipping exporter Gordon Chandless.

Breaking into the businessman’s palatial HQ isn’t much harder, but overconfidence soon costs The Question dearly as she is surprised and overpowered by hulking bodyguard Mr. Bolt and his handy tasers…

Unable to get any answers from his faceless captive, Chandless opts for her quiet removal, but by the time The Question escapes a watery death-trap and returns in a very bad mood, the wily human trafficker is already gone…

Painfully aware that she’s tracking an evil enterprise of vast proportions, Renee uses Tot’s data-mining skills to track the mogul of misery to his luxury Hollywood lair and goes in blazing, disdainful of his army of heavies. They might be utterly unable to stop the implacable Question, but two of them are capable enough to kill their own boss at the clandestine command of his master…

Despite being back at square one in regard to the criminal hierarchy, Renee does now have a location on a certain container vessel ready to ship out with a new cargo of slaves. Righteous indignation, cold fury and a lucky intervention by the FBI soon finds all of the victims safe and free – including little Louisa Soliz…

‘Pipeline: Chapter Two’ moves the story on as The Question continues her crusade to destroy the trafficking empire, slowly and violently working her way up the chain of scumbags and crushing individual enterprises whilst inexorably zeroing in on the major player behind the network of sin and misery…

Of course such costly interventions prompt the mystery leader to fight back, and during her raid on a top-of-the-range hot car franchise the bad guys retaliate with a devious and deadly ambush of their own. That’s when Montoya’s secret weapon makes her presence known and the crooks all end up maimed or worse at the hand of the relentless unforgiving Huntress…

Helena Bertinelli was mob royalty but, following a massacre considered an occupational hazard in “The Family” line of work, she disappeared. The only survivor of a major hit, she trained to become a masked avenger ruthlessly punishing all gangsters whilst sticking up for innocent ordinary folk. She especially despises those who prey on children…

Huntress and the Question continue busting rackets all across the world, methodically dismantling the network as they climb the ladder to the big boss, and finally provoke an overwhelming response in the form of super-assassin Zeiss.

It was all part of a far deeper plan conceived by the vengeful vigilantes who promptly co-opt the mercenary killer to give up his unassailable paymaster. Their tactics however revolt Tot and the elderly scholar resigns.

Undeterred but now deprived of crucial technical support, the determined duo head for Gotham City where Helena introduces The Question to the top-secret leader of the all-female super-team known as the Birds of Prey. Former GCPD detective Montoya cannot believe that Commissioner Gordon‘s mousey dweeb daughter Barbara was once Batgirl and is now covert anti-crime mastermind “Oracle”…

Her irresistible cyber-probing soon has the dynamic duo invading an underworld server-farm in Odessa which – after the studied application of maximum force – provides a money trail to the Pipeline overlord. However when they sneak onto Oolong Island they walk straight into a trap…

The rogue state is the ultimate expression of Capitalism: peopled by criminals and the mad scientists of many nations, it maintains its precarious independence by selling proscribed technologies to anyone with money, proudly free from the annoying oversight of law or hindrance of morality…

President-for-Life Veronica Cale starts by torturing her captive heroes but after debating with The Question soon sees that the most profit doesn’t necessarily stem from staying bought…

Before long, Montoya and Bertinelli are on the final stretch: sneaking into Syria and invading the stronghold of the man who has turned humans into commodities and exported sin and horror on a global scale.

Unfortunately the wickedest man alive is ready and waiting for them…

The cataclysmic final confrontation is as much theosophical debate as brutal beat-down and in the final reckoning the allies must become enemies for the best possible reasons before finding anything approaching an acceptable answer to their dilemmas…

Moody, fast-paced, challenging and astoundingly action-packed, this stylish trade paperback edition also offers a hugely engaging ‘Sketchbook’ section from Cully Hamner offering developmental peeks into his evolution of the characters, a fascinating eight pages of layouts and roughs and some of his amazing set designs for story-locations which will delight and amaze all lovers of comic art.

Compelling and breathtaking, Pipeline exposes the dark underbelly of mainstream Fights ‘n’ Tights comics and proves that you don’t need graphic excess to tell hard-hitting tales or captivate lovers of adventure blockbusters.
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