Capping off 3-years of storytelling, “The Question” #33-36 manages to do something I didn’t think possible with this series — it left me unsatisfied and disappointed. Not much, mind you, but enough to close the run on a bit of a sour note.
Spoilers ahead
Written by Denny O’Neil
Pencilled by Denys Cowan
Inked by Malcolm Jones III & Carlos Garzon
Colored by Tatjana Wood
Lettered by Willie SchubertMeet Harold—he can’t speak or tie his shoes, but he’s willing to help anyone, including Myra and Vic. Introducing a new Batman character!
The final four issues of “The Question” are an odd bunch but before getting into why, let me set the stage for where O’Neil, Cowan, Jones III, Wood & Schubert have placed us.
Hub City is absolutely fucked. There is nothing resembling peace or comradery in the streets, only violence, destruction and death. The government is useless, the city abandoned by everyone, and the person trying her damnedest to bring even a modicum of bleach to the stained institutions of the city is unable to do so because those stains fight back and they fight dirty. Vic takes a back seat to the city and Myra has come to the fore, realizing the same things that Richard Dragon did almost four years prior: it is time to leave Hub City, nothing remains for them there.
By the end, Vic has realized it too and is all set to fly away when Myra turns, unable to abandon the city she was sworn to lead. It is a destructive cesspit that may not be salvageable but dammit, she was chosen to try and she’s done running from her problems. She’s the woman who acts. She’s the one who will do what others are unable or unwilling to do. If the city is going down, she needs to go down with it, trying to save as many as she can.
I think what gets me is not the contents themselves, although “The Question” #34 is not the strongest issue in terms of clarity of storytelling, but instead the knowledge that these are the final issues. The story doesn’t remotely feel over, the ending nowhere in sight. Issue #36 just kinda ends a page too soon while the arc itself is mild and meandering versus something like ‘Election Day,’ which was tense and driving and had a clarity missing from these issues. I know what O’Neil was trying to do. He was trying to drive home to us and Vic the incompleteness of his training after the end of issue #2.
Vic may have come back a changed man, more at peace with himself and less angry, less self-absorbed, but he was still arrogant, he was still lightly misogynistic and he was only playing at peace. He didn’t want peace; he wanted violence without the anger that made him sloppy. That’s why he starts to slip as the city is tossed farther and farther into chaos, after the shooting and near death of Myra, and even after her recovery. Tot constantly berates him for this, for leaving his identity as Vic Sage behind in favor of all night vigilantism that is less about protecting people or doing things he can’t do as a reporter and more about beating others up to make himself feel more in control.
Control is a central theme of “The Question,” specifically of the self variety but also of a political variety. Who controls the city? What “element” is responsible for the conditions on the ground where the people are? Is it the mucky-mucky buying positions and people? Is the “organized” crime bosses looking to consolidate power via buying positions and people? Is it the opportunists at all levels who want to take advantage to line their pockets and feel superior to others? Or is it the desperate, looking to exert what little power they have in an attempt to feel like they aren’t being controlled?
We see it all and we see those who fight back and win, those who fight back and lose, and those who don’t fight at all. Some run, some hide, some organize and some join those they find distasteful.
Continued belowVic thinks he is in control of himself, that he determines it all. By taking him out of the narrative in an active way, O’Neil shows that this is a fallacy; it is the illusion of control. It can be a powerful illusion, a projection others believe, but eventually the illusion falters and reality must be faced. For Vic, the reality is that Hub City is bad for him. If he truly wanted to be reborn, to find himself and move on, he would never have returned after being “killed.” He would have given himself the space to heal away from the city that harmed him at every turn.
Instead, he rushed back into the awaiting arms of a vice that has almost killed him time and time again. Yet that rush isn’t examined close enough and it constantly felt like, instead of driving down to the start of something new, even if that newness was the end of the series, we were given the start of a journey abruptly cut short.
My other complaint comes in the form of the ableism at play in these issues. It’s another quirk of this being an older comic, trying to chastise people for prejudice and assumptions, but the way it is portrayed when it comes to Richard reads as ill conceived nowadays. It’s the language they use to talk about Richard being able to walk but choosing to utilize a wheelchair and present the image of requiring it to be mobile. That and the use of an ableist slur multiple times by the muggers, which has the desired effect and was, I presume, a far more common occurrence than now.
I also wanted to mention Harold, before I forget. Harold is a character not many people are familiar with, and I certainly wasn’t, but “The Question’ #33 was built to introduce him. He was a Batman supporting character who specialized in electronics, think Bat-gadgets, and lasted in the comics from here until the end of the ‘Hush’ storyline by Jeph Loeb in 2003. He has not been seen since. Not in the New 52. Not in Rebirth. He is gone like Orpheus and many other supporting characters written out by a need to “simplify.”
Where, then, does that leave us? Is this the last we’ll hear from Charles Victor Szazz until “52?” Not exactly. Aside from the five quarterlies that follow this series, there are a few appearances of The Question outside of his named series, from “Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood” to “Living Assault Weapons” to some special guest appearances. The Question remained a DC mainstay for many years and even had a special in 1996 “The Question Returns.” We won’t be looking at any of those, mostly because I don’t have access to Quarterlies #2-5 yet and might want to save them for another time.
Instead, join me next week as we close out our look at “The Question” as we jump some 20 years, and three crises later, all the way into the midst of a strange, strange event with “The Question” #37.