Sunday, October 14, 2018

The Question, Vol. 3: Epitaph for a Hero

The Question, Vol. 3: Epitaph for a HeroThe Question, Vol. 3: Epitaph for a Hero by Dennis O'Neil
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While Myra Fermin runs for the mayor of Hub City, Vic Sage takes on a racist killer, a para-millitary group, and gun runners Butch and Sundance as The Question!

The Question continues his quest to clean up Hub City but he might as well be using a spoon to drain the Atlantic Ocean. While Vic Sage battles a wide range of foes, his true enemy is the apathy that let corruption infest Hub City. Myra Fermin's campaign for mayor has a lot of parallels with recent politics. People will do whatever they can to drag her name through the mud. Meanwhile, Vic Sage may be the last good man in town.

This book had a "Suggested for Mature Readers" label slapped on it when it was published and it's easy to see why. There is cursing, but more importantly, the threats The Question takes on are way more real than the things Batman goes after. Whereas Batman hauls the bad guys off to jail, the Question has to deal with the root of the disease rather than the symptoms. It's not nearly as escapist as most comics and the good guys don't always win.

The last story in the book was my favorite, a team-up with Green Arrow during the time period when he was also Suggested for Mature Readers. The Question reads Watchmen and wonders about Rorschach, funny since the Charlton version of The Question was the character who inspired him.

Something that I've never mentioned before about The Question is how smooth the transitions are between scenes. Also, Denys Cowan's art has improved quite a bit since the first volume. Vic Sage's mullet is thankfully gone.

While a lot of comics have been grim and gritty since Watchmen, The Question did it in an intelligent way. Dennis O'Neil and Denys Cowan crafted a groundbreaking series in 1988 that still holds up today. Four out of five stars.

View all my reviews

No comments:

Post a Comment