Aw, it's the one with "Do You Want to Build a Snowman," not the one with "Danny Boy."

So, the song "Danny Boy" was in a playlist of songs for the Preacher TV show, but the YouTube video for it referenced Miller's Crossing, which I somehow don't think I had seen until recently: the below scene isn't really a spoiler, and the rest of the movie isn't as violent, but god that scene's cool. But when I think of that song, I'm thinking of the Question, but that reference was in the first two issues, not this one! From 1987, the Question #3, "Suffer the Children..." Written by Dennis O'Neil, pencils by Denys Cowan, inks by Rick Magyar.

In the previous issue, singing "Danny Boy," the faceless Question confronts Reverend Hatch, who had ordered his death in the series opener. Hatch seems broken, but the Question's concentration is broken by the sudden appearance of his ex, Myra, who had been forced into marrying the drunken Mayor Fermin. Hatch cracks the Question in the shoulder with a fireplace poker, then gets kicked into said fireplace, and goes out a fairly high window while on fire! It would be a dramatic escape for Batman, but Hatch merely seems to be put out and wrapped in a blanket by cops later; as Myra calls him a monster, and the real power in the scheme. Myra explains to Vic, not knowing who he really was, that Hatch had ordered a busload of kids blown up, to discredit the mayor's enemies. Myra shows serious grit, as she gets the Question past her drunken incompetant of a husband and the cops; while Vic was in shock from seeing her, and the revelation that she had a daughter, currently living in the same orphanage he grew up in.

Hatch had outsourced the bombing to freelance terrorist Benno Musto, who needed the cash to finance getting back at another client that had stiffed him: feels like that's good money after bad, but I suppose he had to maintain his rep. Not helping his rep or his temper, was his son Junior; whom he mocks as gay and weak. Which Benno claims would make his late wife "puke," but blowing up a school bus, that was fine? Benno tells his man Pedro, Junior would do this job, or shoot him. Meanwhile, Vic has a consult with his mentor, the coffee-swilling Tot; who notices the changes in Vic since his return.

While Vic runs down clues, luckily it was MJK Day, so not a lot of buses to choose from; Pedro and Junior were running late, since their van wouldn't start in the recent snow. Pedro suggests, maybe he wasn't cut out for the family business of terrorism, but along with the bomb already planted, Junior also brought...a very cartoony bundle of dynamite, in case there was a problem with the bomb; he could blow the kids up like Wile E. Coyote. Before they could set it off, Vic recognizes their van, mostly subconsciously, and hits them with his souped-up Volkswagen. Too close now to blow the bomb, Pedro attempts to fight it out with the Question, and gets knocked out. Junior tries his dynamite, but had about a foot of fuse on it, giving Vic time to get it away from the kids. Only later would he think, why didn't you just pull the fuse...? Idiot. Still, the issue ends with a little light in Hub City, as Vic visits Myra's daughter Jackie in the orphanage, as they build a snowman. Live in the moment, man. But, he would face Junior again... Read more!

...when do we ever see Vic handcuff anybody? Feels like a Spirit cover.

I am unusually ahead in posts, as I type this; meaning I'll probably slack off again any minute now; but this maybe came up on BlueSky not too long ago, and I just so happen to have a spare copy handy! From 1989, the Question #26, "Riddles" Written by Denny O'Neil, pencils by Bill Wray, inks by Malcolm Jones III. 

I didn't read this new off the racks, so I'm trying to put it in historical context, a bit: this issue came out February 28, 1989: thirty-five years ago, tomorrow! Batman wouldn't yet have to be referred to as "Batman '89," since it wouldn't be widely released until June 23. And although I read it first, this issue predates Neil Gaiman and Bernie Mireault's "When is a Door" from the Secret Origins Special. But at this point, I think the Riddler, had very much lost his mojo. A lot of the Riddler's angrier, more murder-y tendencies from the Frank Gorshin version in the TV show, were being folded into the Joker, leaving the Riddler...with what? There had also already been a few stories where the Riddler's well-established modus operandi wasn't showboating or grandstanding, or a means to obfuscate the real target of a crime; but rather a sickness, a compulsion, and one he found impossible to resist. His riddles...had become a joke.

Case in point: in jail, Eddie Nygma is visited, not by the Caped Crusader, but by Commissioner Gordon. Who's figured out his riddle, which we don't hear, but it doesn't matter: the arresting officer didn't read Eddie his rights, so they're kicking him loose, because he's not worth the effort to prosecute. Gordon's trying to be kind, but tells Eddie he needs to quit: he was "a minor-leaguer with a gimmick...a small time has-been." Not even worth Batman's time, and he was only going to get himself hurt. (Gordon is also puffing away on his pipe like crazy, that seems like a lot of smoke! That would be phased out in a few years as well. I've never smoked a pipe, but I wish I had one of my grandpa's old ones; it'd make me look like I was thinking or something...)

Meanwhile, the Christmas season is a busy one in Hub City for the Question, as he beats up a pusher Santa and then a carjacker that tries to rob Vic Sage. Later, his mentor Tot lectures him for not taking enough care of himself, but Vic points out there's like one good cop in that part of the state, so he was kinda busy. He promptly collapses shortly thereafter. Elsewhere, Eddie was on a bus, riding through the snowy countryside, chatting with a fellow passenger: a woman who introduces herself as Sphinx Scromulski. Well, that's the name she used to strip under, anyway; but of course Eddie loves it. She asks if he wants in on something, showing him a fair-sized gun...(That looks like an Uzi, which was somewhat ubiquitous in action stories of the era!)

In his Volkswagon, Vic complains he didn't faint, while Tot tells him he absolutely did, so he's driving him to a cabin in the Hampshires until he heals up. Vic doesn't want to leave Hub, less because of duty, but because Myra was still in a coma: Tot points out, there wasn't anything he could do about that. Tot's plan then hits a snag, since he didn't gas up Vic's car before they took off. Not ideal, but at least they can catch a bus to the next town, so they won't freeze to death. Yay? Tot advises, they'll just have to make the best of whatever's available, just in time for Sphinx to start robbing the passengers, after she guns one down for trying to scold her back to her seat. Sphinx forces the driver to make a detour, and the bus is stuck in short order, but that's perfect for what she had in mind. Gotta say, while it doesn't seem like a lotta risk, robbing a passenger bus to Hub City doesn't seem like a high-value target.

About an hour's walk away, across an old bridge, was a small town, with food and a hotel: Sphinx tells the passengers, the Riddler will ask them a riddle, and if they get it right, they could stroll to safety. And if they get it wrong...she guns the first contestant down, and asks for a volunteer, then picks a guy; but Vic masks up, to try and "outsmart 'em." He's able to keep talking long enough to distract them by not having a face, and knock the gun from Sphinx's hands.

Sphinx makes a break for it, but falls through a rotted board in the old bridge, into the icy river. Riddler, Vic, and Tot continue their philosophical discussion by a garbage can fire; and Vic wonders what to do with him: it was Christmas, after all. Maybe let him loose if he could answer a riddle...? 

After this and the Secret Origins Special, I think that was it for Riddler until his comeback in Milligan and Dwyer's Dark Knight, Dark City, which made Eddie more violent and insane again. Well, it worked for him. Also, in both this and the Secret Origins Special, the Riddler seems to have fallen into the same trap as Dick Grayson but not weathered it as well: where Batman was portrayed as basically an unchanging 29, while the Riddler and Robin both appear to have aged like 15 years! I wondered before, if we've never seen the Question face a game-shape, formidable Riddler; what would that be like? Or has the Question already seen right through Eddie, and would the results be largely the same...?

Read more!

We previously saw the Question take the lead in Justice League Unlimited #36 some time back, but I'm not positive I had read this before, or just seen it on the internet. From 2005, Justice League Unlimited #8, "The Island" Written by Adam Beechen, pencils by Carol Barberi, inks by Walden Wong.

The Question explains this issue, that he had a pretty good reason for joining the Justice League when they asked: because it would've looked suspicious if he hadn't. He keeps his teammates at more than arms' distance, but also makes a role for himself there: while the League might be great against big threats, little sneaky ones may not be their forte. During his routine sweep of the Watchtower's ventilation ducts, he finds a bomb filled with a nerve gas that would kill just about everyone, from Kryptonians to Martians. Looks familiar, too...Unwilling to risk confiding in the wrong person, the Question continues to work the case alone, but is that the right tactic?

Lex Luthor isn't the prime suspect, but he's up there: he suggests to the Question, "No man is an island, but you're trying to prove them wrong." Worried he's missed something, the answer could be right in front of the Question... A fun little issue I won't spoil! Dig it. Read more!

I was happy to find a Question story I hadn't read in the quarter bin; even if it comes with an Eradicator and a Primal Force/Claw story. From 1995, Showcase '95 #3, featuring "Homecoming" Written by Dennis O'Neil, art by Rick Burchett; "Reunions" Written by Steven T. Seagle, pencils by Shannon Londin-Gallant, inks by Tom Simmons; and "No Mercy!" Written by Karl Kesel, pencils by Greg LaRocque, insk by Stan Woch.

The Eradicator story is set during his post-Return of Superman status, where what remained of the Kryptonian artifact was now inhabited by S.T.A.R. scientist Dr. David Connor: he had been trying to finish studying it before he died of cancer, but ended up projecting his consciousness into it. Unfortunately, shades of Robocop here, this now estranged him from his wife and kids; the latter of which were threatened today by terrorists trying to extort super-powers out of S.T.A.R. Labs. Even with David in the mix, he still acts like the Eradicator, merciless and harsh; but is shamed by his own kids as "all you do is hurt people." Eradicator would be part of the Outsiders for a brief stretch, where this may or may not have been followed up on.

I know I've read an issue or two of Primal Force, but was not as familiar with their version of Claw as the earlier, fantasy character. One of his teammates asked why he was avoiding the cops in Hong Kong, triggering a flashback, but he's not going to own up to anything right yet.

The Question story is, as expected, the best of the lot; with the surprise of Rick Burchett on art. I knew him mainly from Batman Adventures, so this was like Question: the Animated Series. Vic Sage returns to Hub City, to visit the orphanage where he had been a foundling. As he remembers catching whacks from a nun's ruler after a tattletale rats him out for tracking in mud; said tattletale has returned for his own reckoning: he hated that the nun had scared him as a kid, making him a "pukey teacher's pet." As the Question, Vic beats him down and saves the nun; but it's hardly as satisfying for him as he would've hoped.
Read more!

I almost considered giving DC's Convergence a tag, then I got pissed off at it again, it'll stay under the tag "crossover debris." Was there a point to that whole thing, besides buying time for DC's move to California? I know they maybe tried a spinoff or two, but Telos only ran six issues, less than the crossover itself! And there were no consequences to anything--even less so than usual for comics. I bitched and bitched about Travis Morgan dying in Convergence #5, and the Warlord returned in Trinity #18 this year! (Wait, I'm not complaining about him coming back.) And all the fights between Elseworlds or old continuity versions of characters, seemed utterly pointless. Even if, say, the Gotham by Gaslight or Red Rain Batmen lost, do you seriously think we're never going to see them again? Or a book like today's, with two continuities I'd like to see return, that haven't been seen since! From 2015, Convergence: Blue Beetle #2, "Legion of Doom!" Written by Scott Lobdell, art by Yishan Li.

(By the way, I rarely like variant covers, but I absolutely hate the "design variants" for this event. They not only seem really pretentious, but also meant like 80 covers to order and sort through!)

This was the pre-Crisis, classic Charlton versions of Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, and the Question; defending their Hub City...against the post-Zero Hour Legion of Super-Heroes. That's a tough draw, not just because they're seriously outnumbered, but only Atom actually had any powers. Still, they have one advantage: even fighting to defend their future Metropolis, the Legion wasn't by nature killers. While the Question and Atom scuffle with the team, Beetle--having already hacked the Legions' rings for info--works out a plan: Sensor, Saturn Girl, and Kid Quantum create the illusion that Hub City is destroyed, giving Telos a 'winner.'

I don't know if anyone here showed up for the last issue of Convergence--38 covers for 9 issues, including a #0. Ugh...But I do like that somewhere out there in the Multiverse, these guys are all still out there. Pity Beetle is too old to talk his way onto the Legion, though...
Read more!

The subtle difference between "free" and "not trapped."

We looked at the concluding chapter...some eight years ago, and I know I have the second part somewhere, but today we finally have from 1988, Detective Comics Annual #1, "The Monkey Trap" Written by Dennis O'Neal, pencils by Klaus Janson, inks by Tony Dezuniga.

In Manchuria, 1895, a Japanese army captain faces off against a Chinese monk, waiting for their moment to strike. Waiting so long that one of the captain's troops takes the initiative and shoots the monk; infuriating and dishonoring the captain, who makes the dying monk a promise: to take his place. That captain would go on, over the decades, to become the Sensei. In the present (of 1988...) the Sensei and Lady Shiva set sail with smugglers for America, where he will seek out three of whom Shiva had told him, to give them a gift, to help him fulfill a promise, before he died. Shiva goes to one of those three, the Question, to set up a meeting with the second: Batman.

Meanwhile, Batman is about to have his hands full, as R'as al Ghul sends his daughter Talia to America, to deal with the Penguin, assuring her she wouldn't encounter Batman on this trip. Sure...Penguin, for his part, was working on a meet with an African chemist, for an "innnn-teresting drug," a poison that attacked the kidneys, but only killed women and children, since testosterone stopped it. Penguin seems unusually bloodthirsty today, which I have to admit I think I say every other Penguin appearance we see around here. But Batman gets the message from Vic Sage (a "very good mask on a bad crimefighter," since he wasn't impressed on their first meeting) and meets Sensei and Shiva on the docks. Shiva does take a couple swipes at him, unable to resist the temptation to test herself against him, before the Sensei tells her to stop, and gives Batman his gift, a parable:

Batman is completely, almost violently, unimpressed; declaring himself "one of the freest men on earth" and "an expert on getting out of traps." Those two things may not be directly related, though...

The Penguin purchases the formula, which has the added bonus of driving birds almost rabid, and infected ones could spread it. (Wait, it's described as a virus here, but I thought it was a chemical formula? Those aren't the same things!) Penguin has his trained birds Shoe and Perfesser kill the chemist, but examining the body in the morgue, Batman is able to figure out where Penguin is hiding out. Before leaving the morgue, Talia greets him, saying they need to work together here, even though Bats is still pissed at her from the last time they met. (And he says he already knew the drug, since he was "afraid somebody would figure that out sooner or later," indicating it was a chemical mix again!) As Penguin injects some birds and prepares to ask for his ransom, Batman and Talia storm his hideout, and while he's fighting the birds, she gets injected with the poison. Batman scolds her slightly, since the poison wouldn't have hurt him, but seems to appreciate the thought as he gets her to the hospital for a testosterone shot to save her.

In her hospital bed, Talia asks if she can say something to Batman: she offers to go with him, forsaking her father and under whatever conditions he chooses. Batman shuts her down cold, saying he could never forget who's daughter she was, but more importantly, "I would have to stop being who I am." He leaves her without as much as a kiss goodbye, then in the Batcave has a message sent for the Sensei, acknowledging the debt now owed.

As I write this, the Batman/Catwoman wedding is still coming up; although it's probably even money as to if it actually happens or not. Can there be a happily married Batman? Or is a certain baseline of misery necessary for him to function? Only a couple days will tell! And we'll get to the second chapter of this little crossover, Fables, later. Hopefully within eight years.
Read more!

A definite improvement on that coat...

I know I read the 1986 Blue Beetle series more often then not when it came out, but I don't remember having the three issue Question story. And today, I just have the first one: Blue Beetle #5, "Ask the Right Question!" Written by Len Wein, pencils by Paris Cullins, inks by Bruce D. Patterson.

Vic Sage is investigating the new hero in Chicago, the Blue Beetle, when he's given a new assignment: look into a new surge of youth gangs. (This being an eighties DC comic, the "youth gangs" dress, look like, and even call themselves the Wild Ones: DC was not all about relevance at the time...) The gangs have backup, though, that they call Big M; who plans the jobs and backs them up with a rocket launcher. He even manages to to cover a getaway from the cops and Blue Beetle and his Bug airship. Mob boss Vincent Perignon is furious that the Wild Ones would hit one of his operations; and puts his son Richie on the job of stopping them.


Separately, Beetle and the Question track the Wild Ones to a junkyard; which leads to a fight, but the Big M covers the gang's escape again. The heroes plan to team up on the case, unaware they're being observed by Big M, who actually goes by the far worse name of the Muse. Who I'm pretty sure was the son, Richie; which makes it look like a good chunk of this issue is swiped from old Spider-Man stories; and there's a lot of pages devoted to subplots as well. There's two with Ted's terrible girlfriend Melody Case, and one for the cop that suspected Ted Kord in the disappearance of Dan Garrett, the original Blue Beetle: that one would go on for about a year.

The Question barely resembles the version that would be seen in his own series, but the basics are there. I'll probably have to keep an eye out for the next two issues...

Read more!

"Questionable Content."

I'm on vacation this week--a week earlier than I usually go, or maybe I'm a week lazier than usual. So, I wasn't sure what I was going to have up. Then I remembered: I had a mess of homemade strips, from back in the day when I did a few for Articulated Discussion. (Wes was posting over at Plastic Graveyard as well!

We're going to run a bunch of those old strips this week, then; so if you haven't seen them, well, they'll be new to you. I think production values have actually increased incrementally since some of these, but hope you like them!
Read more!

Some things only I want:

The other week at the Comic Book Shop, as I picked up a pile of quarter books, they gave me a batch they couldn't really sell, like the old Official Marvel Index to the Amazing Spider-Man and the first thirty-plus issues of Marvel Age. (Which isn't being accepted at the GCD, so that link doesn't really help...and you miss out on some interesting covers, here and there.) Unfortunately, I didn't get #31, the Nightcrawler issue with a Dave Cockrum cover.

So, I put in an order to My Comic Shop.com, and got a few things I hadn't been able to dig up before. Like the Question Returns #1, one of the few Question issues I didn't have. Except I kind of hated it: there's a sweet Dan Brereton cover, but returning writer Dennis O'Neil goes all over the place storywise, and much as I like Eduardo Barreto's art, this time it didn't do it for me. (The Question's eyes are visible through his mask, which shouldn't be.) Disappointing, especially since the issues of Question Quarterly I had been missing were great.

Then, there's 2000 AD Presents #15, which features a Dan Dare story with Dave Gibbons art, and the conclusion to the space prison serial Harry Twenty on the High Rock, written by Gerry Finley-Day, with art by Alan Davis. Is it the greatest story ever? Well, no, man; but I had most of the rest of it and not the dramatic conclusion! It's a fun adventure yarn, although like a lot of space prison stories, it does beg the point of why the hell you would go to the trouble of launching convicts into space in the first place...I haven't seen the movie Lockout, but I'd be willing to bet there's some overlap with Harry Twenty.

Anyway, got a couple more 80-pagers, that can wait for a Thursday sometime. Have a good weekend!
Read more!

Losing face:

Even though I have a few more homemade posts than usual done, I'm a bit behind right now; just dealing with some assorted real-life stuff and swamped at work. Still, I have been re-reading, once again, the Dennis O'Neil/Denys Cowan (and others) run of the Question. It's a series I love to death, even if I really discovered it only in recent years, getting most of it in one chunk from the quarter bins.

I wouldn't have got to read it at the time, although I was interested from a preview with a Batman guest-spot. The only issue I read when it was published--1987 or so--was the Question #6; "...That Small Rain Down Can Rain..." Written by Dennis O'Neil, pencils by Denys Cowan, inks by Rick Magyar. As the Question tracks down the terrorist/gangster Benno Musto (which ties into a failed arms deal and a dioxin-contaminated real estate deal) Benno is more disappointed than usual at his son Junior. Benno sees Junior as a "sissy," a wimp, and now a failure; the Question stopped Junior from blowing up a school bus in issue #3.

Ignoring his failure, Junior jumps to the conclusion that maybe his dad would love him if he looked tough, instead of like a mama's boy; and proceeds to pour acid on his own face. To his credit, Junior takes his disfiguring injuries stolically; wrapping his face in bandages and rushing off to see his dad. This leads to a bit of confusion later with both the "No-face" Question and Junior out to stop Benno from murdering an old man.

Although this issue came out in 1987, I associate it with 1991's Alice in Chains classic "Man in the Box." Although some of the lyrics could easily apply to Junior--the "dog who gets beat" for example--it's geographically related, in my mind: I remember seeing the video, on some daytime talk show complaining about it? The same place I kept this comic. And the song, the video, and the comic all end with a sudden, sharp shock.

This wasn't the end of Junior and Benno's story, either; and to the Question's credit, he feels pity for Junior. I saw the preview cover for Trinity War with the Question; sight unseen, I'll tell you this issue is better...

Read more!

"Reuse, reuse, and recycle."

Got John Constantine a week or two back, and I've got a strip planned with him for Wednesday. Without the "Trenchcoat Brigade," I'm afraid.

Rorschach, the Question, Constantine, and Commissioner Gordon aren't all the same body; but pretty close.


Read more!

"Watching the Defectives."

Does Clark Kent get to do a lot of investigative journalism anymore? The Question and the Creeper get to on occasion, anyway.


Read more!