The Question Omnibus

The Question Omnibus by Dennis O'Neil and Denys Cowan Vol. 1 by Dennis O'Neil
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Question Omnibus volume one collects The Question #1-27 plus The Question Annual #1, Green Arrow Annual #1, and Detective Comics Annual #1.

It hasn't been that long since I read Denny O'Neil's run on The Question in trades but I had some money in my pocket after hauling a bunch of crap to Half Price Books so I picked this up.

Along with Green Arrow, The Question was one of the corner stones of DC's Mature Readers line that was a precursor to Vertigo. The Question fights crime in Hub City, a stand-in for Denny O'Neil's home town of East St. Louis, Illinois. Vic Sage, TV reporter, fights crime both in his daytime career and by night as The Question, a faceless crusader for justice. Hub City is a cesspool of corruption and Vic's battle is uphill both ways.

Denny O'Neil, with Denys Cowan and others on art chores, puts a Charlton character with 64 pages of story to his name through the wringer and turns him into a bonafide headliner. There aren't many comics that have the main character get shot in the head and dumped in the river to end the first issue. Vic Sage learns at the feet of Richard Dragon and becomes a much better crime fighter, the last good man in a city full of shitheads.

Sage goes up against drug dealers and other criminals but his biggest enemies are corrupt politicians and a culture of incompetence and negligence. Much like Green Arrow, intrusions from the rest of the DC Universe are kept to a minimum, apart from the three part Batman/Green Arrow/Question crossover.

While this was from the mid to late 1980s, the themes of corrupt cops and douche bag politicians never go out of style, unfortunately. Vic has an unfortunate haircut for a lot of the book but for the most part, it aged perfectly well. The mayoral campaign near the end of the book, in particular, has a perennial quality.

The Question Omnibus volume 1 is an easy five star read for crime fiction fans who also like comis.
DC, don't leave me hanging. Where's volume 2?

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