Bill Blank
Apr 22, 2005, 12:24 am
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/dc/0405/TheQuestionCv6.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/dc/0405/TheQuestionCv6T.jpg" align=left alt="Question #6" hspace="10"></a>Reviewer: Bill Blank blank_william@yahoo.com
Story Title: "Devil's in the Details" part 6 "Falling in Place"
Superman: And what happened to all these Subterraneans?
the Question: You don't want to know.
Superman: Try me.
the Question: Let's just say they've seen the light. And their future in this city is assured.
Writer: Rick Veitch
Artist: Tommy Lee Edwards
Letterer: John Workman
Editor: Ben Abernathy
the Question Created by: Steve Ditko
What an amazing series. Rick Veitch has brought forth a completely different vision of the Question than his last incarnation made so popular by Dennis O'Neill and Denys Cowan during the 1990s. The earlier book anchored the Question using martial arts as a path to wisdom, mostly through disciple. Here Vic Sage's martial arts mastery seem more a subset of his seemingly self-taught mastery of Chi, which at its core is about listening and recognizing the true world around oneself. This new grounding works well with the Question because it combines the character's innate curiosity and journalistic career with a warrior mission to fight for higher causes.
In Devil in the Details, the higher cause has been Metropolis, and the Question's mission is to save Superman.
What's interesting is that Veitch has been able to reintegrate back into the Question's makeup a big heaping helping of Rorschach, the fan-favorite Watchmen character ironically enough inspired by the classic Charlton comics character created by Steve Ditko, the Question himself! In this issue, the Question certainly shows he can be a Rorschach-like homicidal maniac, dispatching murderous justice in a brutal and chilling manner. The city tells him to kill, is it a higher-order understanding of greater needs, or is it just vigilante insanity?
The long-anticipated final interaction between the Question and Superman this issue is good fun, with the Question out-manuevering the Man of Steel at every key moment. But the Question knows who wears the tights in this town! :yeah:
Tommy Lee Edwards puts in another fine art performance, although you get the feeling he was struggling a little in the end to reach the finish line. The opening battle is spatially confusing. Overall, however, Edwards does great work. All the characters seem so different from each other visually throughout this series; the stark Question punctuating the urban backgrounds, the colorful otherworldly Superman, the everyday baby-faced Vic Sage, the hovering benevolent train conductor: Edwards brilliantly populates his visual landscape.
This book occupies a space somewhere between Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Frank Miller's Daredevil. I think readers who are fans of Seven Soldiers, a good Batman, or Superman fans who'd like to see a different take on Lois and Supes, might want to give this book a read. I strongly recommend buying the collected series, which I assume will be out soon, to readers who haven't been reading this book.
ART:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcnone.jpg">
STORY:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dchalf.jpg">
OVERALL:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dchalf.jpg">
'Put on your overcoat and order the Question online at X-World and Save!' (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1600&cat=QUESTION)
Story Title: "Devil's in the Details" part 6 "Falling in Place"
Superman: And what happened to all these Subterraneans?
the Question: You don't want to know.
Superman: Try me.
the Question: Let's just say they've seen the light. And their future in this city is assured.
Writer: Rick Veitch
Artist: Tommy Lee Edwards
Letterer: John Workman
Editor: Ben Abernathy
the Question Created by: Steve Ditko
What an amazing series. Rick Veitch has brought forth a completely different vision of the Question than his last incarnation made so popular by Dennis O'Neill and Denys Cowan during the 1990s. The earlier book anchored the Question using martial arts as a path to wisdom, mostly through disciple. Here Vic Sage's martial arts mastery seem more a subset of his seemingly self-taught mastery of Chi, which at its core is about listening and recognizing the true world around oneself. This new grounding works well with the Question because it combines the character's innate curiosity and journalistic career with a warrior mission to fight for higher causes.
In Devil in the Details, the higher cause has been Metropolis, and the Question's mission is to save Superman.
What's interesting is that Veitch has been able to reintegrate back into the Question's makeup a big heaping helping of Rorschach, the fan-favorite Watchmen character ironically enough inspired by the classic Charlton comics character created by Steve Ditko, the Question himself! In this issue, the Question certainly shows he can be a Rorschach-like homicidal maniac, dispatching murderous justice in a brutal and chilling manner. The city tells him to kill, is it a higher-order understanding of greater needs, or is it just vigilante insanity?
The long-anticipated final interaction between the Question and Superman this issue is good fun, with the Question out-manuevering the Man of Steel at every key moment. But the Question knows who wears the tights in this town! :yeah:
Tommy Lee Edwards puts in another fine art performance, although you get the feeling he was struggling a little in the end to reach the finish line. The opening battle is spatially confusing. Overall, however, Edwards does great work. All the characters seem so different from each other visually throughout this series; the stark Question punctuating the urban backgrounds, the colorful otherworldly Superman, the everyday baby-faced Vic Sage, the hovering benevolent train conductor: Edwards brilliantly populates his visual landscape.
This book occupies a space somewhere between Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Frank Miller's Daredevil. I think readers who are fans of Seven Soldiers, a good Batman, or Superman fans who'd like to see a different take on Lois and Supes, might want to give this book a read. I strongly recommend buying the collected series, which I assume will be out soon, to readers who haven't been reading this book.
ART:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcnone.jpg">
STORY:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dchalf.jpg">
OVERALL:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dcfull.jpg"> <img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/dchalf.jpg">
'Put on your overcoat and order the Question online at X-World and Save!' (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1600&cat=QUESTION)