To me, when a title goes quarterly, that isn’t usually a good sign. This is especially true when the title was once monthly or even bi-monthly. Unlike Justice League International, which had a quarterly title while the main two titles were ongoing, Dennis O’Neil’s Question was rather different. The original title by O’Neil and Cowan ran for 36 issues before reaching its conclusion. From there, the title was relaunched on a quarterly schedule with no other Question titles. I mean, I don’t know if sales were bad or the management or editorship at DC were just getting sick of the book, but it remains a mystery to me why they changed it. Perhaps O’Neil wanted to spend more time editing the Batman titles. This may be true as Batman: Knightfall was coming up. This could also explain why some issues of the quarterly titles were massively delayed. Seriously, in one or two cases there would be a whole six months in-between issues. It just feels inconsistent. That being said, O’Neil had wrapped up most of the key plot elements of the title. The quarterly issues (the first two anyway) feel like a natural continuation to the main title, before issue three onwards focuses on individual stories, some of which work and others which just don’t…
In this review of Dennis O’Neil’s run on The Question, I will be reviewing:
Any Man’s Death --- The Question Quarterly 1
Gomarrah Homecoming --- The Question Quarterly 2
Hell in Hub City --- The Question Quarterly 3
Outrage --- The Question Quarterly 5
The Question Quarterly was published quarterly (as the title suggests) from October 1990 to June 1992. All stories were written by Dennis O’Neil (with the exception of parts of Question Quarterly 5) with art mainly by Denys Cowan and Joe Quesada. I have read these stories in their original issues. I have also missed out Quarterly 4, a
story not written by O’Neil, but by Maddie Blaustein. It does feel rather out of place, but it’s a fairly average comic book. Therefore, I’ve missed it out.
Any Man’s Death --- Written by Dennis O’Neil with art by Denys Cowan
THE STORY
Some months after leaving Myra in Hub City, Vic walks through a tropical jungle in Brazil. Suddenly, he runs back to the village where he is staying, finding it has been raided and Jackie (Myra’s daughter), who is critically ill, has been taken. Vic then wanders through the jungle, finding a group of drug dealers. They quickly discover him and although he fights back against them, he is shot with a poison dart, knocking him out. Later, Vic wakes up in a cabin, tied up and confronted by the drug gang leader who cuts trees down for growing coco plants. Vic admits that he was searching for Jackie and he wants her back. The gang leader tells Vic that nearby, a rival of his in the drug business, named Janice, is becoming an issue and that she must be killed. If Vic kills her, he can leave with Jackie. Vic then asks to see Jackie, which he does before giving her medicine for her illness. After Vic is given a car and directions to Silva de Plata, where Janice is, he begins his long journey, thinking about the times he came close to killing back in Hub City. Suddenly, two soldiers shoot the windshield, but Vic manages to escape on foot away from them. Then, Vic arrives at Silva de Plata, a town where everybody is partying and celebrating. Vic investigates the town and steals a hat, a coat and a mask, becoming the Question once again. He then finds Janice, who seemingly accepts that she is going to die. At first, the Question cannot decide whether to kill her or not, but once she attacks him with a knife, he fights back. Suddenly, two gangsters appear and knock the Question out, before Janice stabs them to the death and leaves. When Vic awakens, he finds the house on fire and Janice escaping in a van. The Question follows her to a shack, where he breaks in, takes out the guards and finds Jackie, rescuing her. Then, The Question and Jackie find Janice, who reveals herself to the very same person who sent Vic on the mission, explaining that he didn’t want his enemies to have the satisfaction of killing him. Janice then orders Vic to shoot her as she takes Jackie as a hostage. Vic reluctantly shoots Janice, and he falls into the river, dying.
MY THOUGHTS
After reading just the first few pages of this story, you would undoubtedly have a few questions. I know I did. Well, let me briefly explain Green Arrow (vol 2) Annual 3, also by O’Neil. Essentially, Green Arrow and Black Canary go on a mission in Brazil to search for a flower. The Question and Jackie just tag along, and they don’t have much relevance to the main story. However, the only important aspect of that story for them is explaining where they go after leaving Hub City. I do think O’Neil should have made that clearer, because when reading this the first time I had no idea what was going on. Regardless, this is the first quarterly issue and it’s great to see the quality of the core run still being maintained here by O’Neil. The tone and appearance of the story is very different to anything we’ve seen before. Gone is the gritty grey setting of Hub City and replaced by… gritty grey jungles. Well, it’s a change. In theory, while I’m much less opposed to the Question appearing in places that aren’t his natural habitant unlike Batman in Gotham, the jungle setting does feel strange and out of place from what came before. This could be due to the lack of explanation here of how the Question got here though. Yet, when in practise, the Question somehow works in a Brazilian setting, possibly due to its dangerous nature as shown here. In terms of the story, it is a fairly simple hunting story, but it’s O’Neil’s grasp of character which really makes this story great. You realise at this point that the Question has never really killed anybody before, at least, not intentionally. There have been a number of times in previous issues where he has come close, but he resists against it. Here, this is the first time he shoots and kills somebody, creating a powerful moment which haunts the Question forever. Like I said earlier, the story is fairly regular in its events, until the very end anyway. This raises multiple questions for me, but the twist works incredibly well as I didn’t see it coming. The persona of Janice is incredibly clever, and its reasoning is intelligently written, yet it’s never really made clear why Janice wants to die? Is it to ensure then and there that his rivals won’t have the satisfaction of killing him? That much is clear but it’s the speed in which it happens which bothers me slightly. Overall, though, this feels very much like a natural continuation to the Question storyline. The setting may be different, but the premise is the same and more importantly, the mood is the same. As always, O’Neil’s depiction of the Question shines here, and O’Neil continues to plant the seeds for future stories.
Now, in the core run, Cowan’s art very much suited the mood of the book. Even though it was scratchy and usually unattractive, I didn’t mind it too much. That is primarily down to the great inks by Rick Magyar. Here, Cowan is inking himself and simply put, it is a train wreck. Genuinely, it is some of the worst art I’ve ever seen from a comic book in a long time. Sure, tonally it still works, but everything else just sucks. The storytelling is there, but ultimately buried under messy lines which ruin the page. The presentation of the story is woefully terrible, and you can’t even decipher some panels. This is the Cowan art that we could have got from the core run. I’m glad we didn’t…
Story: 9/10
Art: 2/10
Gomarrah Homecoming --- Written by Dennis O’Neil with art by Denys Cowan
THE STORY
Still in Brazil, Vic learns from a fortune teller that Jackie will die in two weeks. Arriving home, Vic finds Jackie still in bed dying. She tells Vic that she wants to go home and although he tells her that they will, he has less than forty dollars and they are thousands of miles away from Hub City. Upon leaving the house, Vic becomes victim to an attempted kidnapping, but, with the help of a local named Marco, they defeat the kidnappers. Afterwards, Marco tends to Vic’s wounds and tells him that he has to fight him to death. Vic asks why and Marco tells him that he is best the martial artist in Brazil, and he needs someone else to beat. When Vic tells Marco about Jackie, he tells him that his cousin has a truck. Meanwhile in Hub City, Myra is woken up by a criminal and she easily takes him out. At the same time, Marco’s cousin stops the truck after hours of driving with Vic, Jackie and Marco. A group of bandits then appear, confronting Marco, who tricks them by telling them that Vic is rich. As they walk towards Vic, Marco takes out the bandits. With one left, Vic grabs a gun and threatens to shoot him with it. Remembering his previous experience of killing (Janice), he backs down. As they get back in the truck, Marco tells Vic that his cousin has let them have the truck. Meanwhile, Marco’s cousin walks through the forest naked. Later, Marco sells the truck and gets tickets for a train. Back in Hub City, Myra meets with O’Toole, asking him why he stayed in the city and wondering if the Question will ever return. Meanwhile, Marco tells Vic that he once fought against Lady Shiva, but he was defeated and she recommended to him Richard Dragon, who taught him. Vic tells him that she killed him once, but it wasn’t fatal. Then, the train arrives in Hub City and Vic gets off with Jackie and Marco. Finding Myra, Vic tells her that Jackie is very ill. They take her to a doctor, who tells Myra that he can keep her alive for a few days, but the chance is that she will die. After he and Marco agree to go to the hospital get some supplies, Vic tells Myra about what he did to Janice. Myra tells him to go to the hospital as someone else: The Question. He does so with Marco and in the hospital, they take out a group of gangsters and obtain the medicine. However, once they leave the hospital, Vic finds Myra crying. They are too late. Then, Marco offers Vic the chance to fight once more. He agrees to it.
MY THOUGHTS
Without a doubt, this is the most important of the five quarterly issues and ultimately makes for one of the most memorable Question stories and, arguably, one of the best as well. Jackie has been a character who has been featured in the run several times, more so towards the end which explains why she is with Vic. O’Neil has also been writing her illness as developing, to the point where now this is the last issue she features in. I don’t know if its because I know the ending now, but from looking at the very start of the story, it becomes obvious that Jackie will die. Knowing O’Neil’s style of plotting, he wouldn’t just make her better by the end and leave it there. O’Neil knows how to write a story in an emotional and dramatic way. Therefore, her death, if very sad and troubling, makes sense from a storytelling point of view. Yet, the real point of the story isn’t about Vic fighting some criminals or fighting Marco (who I’ll get onto in a minute). It’s about fulfilling the last wish of a little girl. From the start, Jackie tells Vic that she wants to go home to see Myra. Vic doesn’t have the money to do it. But he does it. In doing so, he becomes Jackie’s father figure. We see Vic in a different way, a much more caring one. Finally, we see his human-side, something he has been concealing for so long since his childhood. In some respects, it makes Jackie’s death feel conclusive, knowing Vic has cared for her in her last days. That is one of the key elements to the story. The next is the appearance of a character who appears very similar to Vic, that being Marco. It does feel rather late to being adding new supporting characters to the cast list, but Marco feels different. He is a strange cross between Vic and Richard Dragon. He is still learning but he possesses the knowledge which Vic doesn’t hold yet, that being about spiritualism and all that zen stuff. His character has a no-nonsense attitude and is basically Vic without the jokes, which actually works very well when the two of them team up together. The story allows for the two to converse numerous times and it makes for interesting reading, while also allowing for moments of combat to energise the story. The second half of the story isn’t as great as the first, mainly due to the scenes in the hospital which feel very much like filler because Jackie dies anyway. But that being said, this is another classic and one of my favourite stories from the run.
For the last time (for a whole issue anyway) Cowan comes into pencil and ink his final Question story. Sure, he does pencil The Question (vol 1) 37, but that’s years later. For now, though, this is it and despite it being a fantastic story, the art is still awful. Yeah, since he is inking it, everything looks incredibly messy and the storytelling is just buried by Cowan’s rough scratchy inking style. It’s a shame that the editors didn’t learn from the last issue…
Story: 9.5/10
Art: 2/10
Hell in Hub City --- Written by Dennis O’Neil with art by Joe Quesada, Mickey Ritter, Bruce N. Solotoff and Joe Rubinstein
THE STORY
In Hub City, a man in white named Rudy shoots a group of communists, Arab terrorists and agronomists. This is revealed to be a cut of a film, with the creators arguing with each other over its direction. Meanwhile in Myra’s apartment, Vic and
Marco arrive back after their fight. Myra tells them that the movie creators want to make a movie in Hub City about Randy McDainger in one of his Rudy Fist films. Meanwhile, the film creators discuss Hub City as a filming location, but despite the high crime rates and the obvious danger, they ignore it. Back in Hub City, Vic watches Marco take out a group of thugs. Afterwards, they head into the cemetery where Myra stands over Jackie’s grave. At the same time, Cathy (from The Question (vol 1) 33) takes out two people after watching a move at the cinema before deciding to go back inside and watch the movie again. Later, Myra speaks with Vic during his training, telling him that the production company will arrive in a few days and that Vic and Marco will be used as security guards for the film. As you’d expect with the filming, the director has a fight with the cameraman and Vic has to intervene just to save the camera from being broken. Afterwards, Myra finds Vic and tells him that she has seen Cathy. Although they are both confused about how he escaped from the elevator from their last encounter, Vic decides to take him on as the Question. With the help of Marco, the Question takes out Cathy and the gangsters who raid the filmset. From the huge fight, the film creators get everything they need, and the film becomes a hit… somehow.
MY THOUGHTS
Now, this is where things change. The first two issues of the quarterly series clearly are a continuation to O’Neil’s core Question run. In some ways, it ended in the second issue, so what happens next? Well, perhaps after two pretty grim stories O’Neil wanted to have some laughs. However, as opposed to the previous issue which I thought was one of the best in the run, this story is perhaps the worst story in the whole run. Why? Well, it links back to my hatred of a previous story, specifically The Question (vol 1) 28-30, featuring a gang war. This story is very similar due to its comedy and how the characters are depicted to be greedy and idiotic. The huge problem for me is that it just isn’t funny. I don’t disapprove of the humour at all, but I just don’t find it funny. If anything, it can become repetitive and ultimately make the story bland and borderline unreadable. In fact, that links to why my plot synopsis for the story is relatively short. The story is flat out terrible and makes the issue incredibly dull and boring. For starters, due to the humour, I don’t feel invested in the characters involved in the film, explaining why many scenes in the story just bored me no end. Particularly after something as dark as the death of a child, this story feels out of place, especially since Myra visits her grave in this issue. Plus, the whole idea of the Question and Marco being security guards for an amateur film and the coincidence ending that the Question’s fight gives them the film just feels like a bad Hollywood film from the 1990s. I suppose the return of Cathy means something, but he isn’t in the story enough to make a lasting impression, nor does he feel like much of a threat. So, yeah. The story feels incredibly dated and tonally, it doesn’t feel like a Question story at all. This feels like something you’d read in Ambush Bug or even Animal Man, but for the darker titles like the Question, this just doesn’t work.
With Joe Quesada becoming the main artist on the book, you really wouldn’t think things could get worse. For the most part, they don’t, but Quesada’s art style doesn’t work with the tone of O’Neil’s writing. Maybe here it does due to the questionable tone of this questionable story, but I really can’t imagine his style working with the more gritter and common stories. It’s far too cartoony and while it certainly looks better than Cowan, its nothing great.
Story: 2/10
Art: 4/10
Outrage --- Written by Dennis O’Neil, Kelley Puckett, Mike Gold and Mike Baron with art by Joe Quesada, Jan Harpes, Mike Mignola, Denys Cowan, Mike Manley, Mark Badger and Shea Anton Pensa
THE STORY
After being punched by The Question, O’Toole takes Myra to her apartment, before Marco arrives. Marco tells his version of events, explaining that the Question was (continued)
fighting a tough criminal, who revealed himself to be Pino Andolini and during the fight, he went into great detail about his past, before the Question punched him in the face. Andolini then took Myra hostage and to get to Andolini, the Question punched her in the face, injuring Andolini as well. Noticing flaws in Marco’s story, O’Toole tells his version of events. He explains that he took Myra in his car to meet the Question, who was nearby taking on a group of thugs. However, Myra was confronted by another group of criminals, but she manages to take them out. Nearby, Vic arrives at the meeting spot, but he finds O’Toole, asking him where Myra. They then find Myra after taking out the thugs and Vic and she begin to have a huge argument, ending with Vic hitting her. Chazz, a criminal, tells his version of events, telling his friends that the Question wears a mask because when he was in reform school, he stabbed somebody and the other people in there carved zodiac symbols on his face. From there, he got into martial arts and he started shooting morphine in his anger. After giving up the drugs, the Question then confronted a drug dealer named Rogaine, telling him to give him all the needles and he’ll make Hub City into his own personal supermarket. The deal was agreed Some time later, Myra wandered into a bar looking for sex, but she was nearly kidnapped. The Question then saved her, but he disappeared after taking morphine, angering her. Afterwards, Chazz himself was confronted by the Question, but Myra appeared and tried to shoot him, resulting in the Question punching her. Back in the present, O’Toole speaks with Myra, who tells her version of events. Two days ago, she was visited by a lawyer named Dubayze, who wanted to put over a million dollars into Hub City’s bank account so he could lease a section of the riverfront, with a guarantee that he and his business wouldn’t be disturbed. Myra then worked out that he was a drug dealer and told him to leave. However, she admits to O’Toole that she was thinking about the offer due to the homelessness and poverty in Hub City. She then met with Vic, who told her that it would cost her all her integrity and that she couldn’t live with herself afterwards. Suddenly, a child appeared who had been bitten by a rat and she took him home, discovering that his mother was a drunk. From that, Myra completed the paperwork for Dubayze. Afterwards, she was confronted by the Question, but his attempts to stop her failed. Due to that, he punched her in the face. When she woke up, the papers were gone, making her believe that the Question took them and threw them in Dubayze’s face and defeated him. Suddenly, the Question appears as Myra finishes her story and he tells her that fifty-thousand dollars has been placed in the Hub City bank account since that is the only amount of Dubayze’s money which is legitimate. After Myra asks whether she was close to knowing the truth through her story, the Question tells her that she got it all wrong.
MY THOUGHTS
This final quarterly issue is rather strange. At this point, similarly to what happened with Justice League Quarterly around the same time, after the first few issues, it simply becomes a title for short stories or one-offs. Weirdly, this falls under both. Despite a number of writers being involved with the story, O’Neil is in charge with the main parts and ultimately, he, along with Puckett, Gold and Baron, write an entertaining and intriguing detective-like story. From the very beginning, O’Neil creates an engaging and interesting start: why did the Question punch Myra? While that in itself isn’t enough to carry a forty-page story, it’s the method in which the story is told which makes it good. The use of different viewpoints feels refreshing and new, as does the use of different writers and artists. The story can be both funny and tragic at the same time, reflecting the different characters who tell their version of events. Speaking of that, one of the most interesting aspects of the story is the depiction of different characters in the different versions of events. For example, in O’Toole’s version, Myra is depicted to be much more attractive and younger, while in Chazz’s version, the Question looks demonic. It’s a nice touch from both the writers and also the artists. I am particularly fond of Marco’s and O’Toole’s version of events, not just because of their differences but because they are both entertaining reads. On the other hand, Chazz’s version is much darker. I don’t really know why they included a story from his viewpoint, particularly since this is his only appearance in the run. But that being said, I like it due to its contrast from the previous versions and it depicts different versions of the characters we know. In fact, that is where this story shines. In some regard, the versions of the characters including the Question and Myra are all based off of aspects of their characters, something which also shows that the story can work as a character study of sorts. Lastly, the conclusion to the story when the truth is revealed is slightly underwhelming, mainly due to the lack of mystery behind what really happened. However, O’Neil places that mystery right back into the story with the last page, in which the Question tells Myra that she is wrong about what happened. This adds further mystery to the Question and makes for an engaging and fantastic end. Apart from that, I would argue at points that the writing styles between the writers are naturally different, sometimes making the story feel disjointed, but it isn’t anything to be too critical about. Overall, it’s an imaginative and engaging story, one made even better by its strong format and sense of storytelling.
With multiple writers, we get multiple artists, all of whom add something to the story with their very different art style. As I mentioned earlier, the different style can be very beneficial for reflecting aspects of different characters. However, I wouldn’t really say any of the art styles are fantastic. Quesada’s scenes look decent with Mignola and Harpes inks, but it still isn’t anything great. Cowan’s art looks utterly terrible with Mike Manley behind the inks, who himself is a great penciller but not a great inker. Then, Mark Badger’s art is pretty forgettable and unsurprisingly, Shea Anton Pensa is just plain crap. Like I said, I do like what they bring to the story with the different interpretations, but visually, things aren’t looking great.
Story: 8/10
Art: 4/10
VERDICT
Overall, The Question Quarterlies by Dennis O’Neil aren’t bad. The first two stories are fantastic as they continue the story from the core run. However, the third issue is absolutely awful and proves to be one of the worst stories of the run. That being said, the fifth issue is a huge improvement, mainly due to its imaginative way of storytelling. The art is very mixed throughout really, with Cowan’s art being terrible and Quesada and friends ranging from awful to just about average. With that though, this is where it ends. Well, sort of. It took a few years after the fifth quarterly issue for O’Neil to return to the character and thank god he did.
Stories: 7.5/10
Art: 3/10
Next Week: Infinite Crisis (Infinite Crisis 1-7). Written by Geoff Johns with art by Phil Jimenez, George Perez, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis, Andy Lanning, Oclair Albert, Marlo Alquiza, Marc Campos, Wayne Faucher, Drew Geraci, Jimmy Palmiotti, Sean Parsons, Norm Rampund, Lary Stucker and Art Thibert. Expected by 13/12/2020.
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