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Question #1
"Devil's in the Details"
Posted 2005-01-15
Writer: Rick Veitch
Artist: Tommy Lee Edwards
Letters: John Workman
Publisher: DC Comics
3.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Louis Vitela
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Perhaps only widely known by the more mature generation of readers, The Question was originally created by comics great Steve Ditko (co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange) for the now-defunct Charlton Comics. DC Comics acquired Charlton’s characters in 1983 (resource: the Fact Index at http://www.fact-index.com), and since then The Question has only appeared a few times. Now he’s back for a six issue mini written by Rick Veitch (Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset) and drawn by Tommy Lee Edwards.
This latest interpretation of The Question is appealing in that the book has a somewhat indie flavor. Edwards' art has a sketchy, surreal feel which proves a good match for this story and its metaphysical overtones. A theme The Question thrives on is the notion that a city is an entity, that it has a spirit which talks to Question, he says, the way a mountain talks to a native. Interestingly, Edwards' work in this book is similar to that of Daniel Zezelj's work in Superman: Metropolis, a story where Metropolis really is a living entity with a spirit and a conscience.
Rick Veitch's writing deftly jumps from the poetic to solid, realistic dialogue. The poetic passages are very interesting. Extra care was taken to cram together series of words that don't often accompany one another in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence. At times I wasn't certain whether the writing was intended to be serious or funny. Try this on for size: “Feed me Chicago. / Let your secrets nourish me. / We are fungible, you and I.” I'm not too proud to admit that “fungible” sent me scampering to the dictionary. (It means “interchangeable.”) But wait, it gets better: “Oh, paint chip peeling over bare schizophrenic light bulb...” I won't give it all away, but I haven't shared even half of The Question's eloquent self-talk. It's effulgent, to say the least.
The story itself is worthwhile and compelling enough to draw readers in for the next issue, where Question will implore Metropolis to speak its own brand of civic poetry.
—CCdC— Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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