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...