Can You Guess Why I'm Happy Today?

Should be arriving this week.

:)

Drew

UPDATE SEPT. 11-

It got here last night.

Kat was giggling over how happy it made me; she said she got a real good glimpse into how I was as a kid.

Hey, sometimes it's the littlest things, you know?

Why I'm Happy Today: A Question Figure for the JLU Line!

Happiness is an Action Figure
Okay, you've seen the blog (else you wouldn't be here reading this) so you know I'm a fan of The Question. (That's the faceless guy in my blog's header, lovingly designed by Kat.)
Created by legendary Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko for Charlton Comics, The Question was Vic Sage, two-fisted radio journalist and investigative reporter. In his original incarnation, as written by Ditko, Sage was a relentless, rigidly moral crusader who believed that "A is always A" and that evil must be punished ruthlessly. He was an embodiment of Objectivism, a philosophy created by novelist Ayn Rand. (I won't go into the details here but the Wikipedia entry makes for interesting reading.)
This version was the inspiration for Rorschach from Watchmen by Alan Moore.
Other versions followed. Denny O'Neil reconstructed Sage from the ground up in the 1980s in his "The Question" series for DC Comics (DC had acquired the Charlton characters and this was part of an effort to make use of them). This version of Sage was more philosophically complex, casting him as a seeker of truth, including his own murky origins as an orphan prone to trouble and having boundless curiosity. This series achieved considerable success but eventually trailed off into guest appearances in other books.
(Are you sick of reading this yet?)
Anyway, the Justice League Unlimited animated series reinvented The Question once again. Voiced by the peerless Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), this Question was a conspiracy theorist and borderline nutcase (or at least, that's what his fellow heroes thought) who was willing to take the fall when he exposed a horrific plot. He also had the Huntress as a girlfriend, giving him a couple of the best JLU episodes ever.
Mattel had not made a figure of The Question--apparently there were some rights issues around him and Captain Atom, another Charlton hero who had appeared in the show. But it appears those issues are resolved.
Glory be!
The Question and Captain Atom (the latter of which is now available) are Target exclusives, now that Mattel has forged a retail pact with the bullseye retail giant, along with many more to come.
I could not be happier. I have no idea if I will ever be able to find this figure on the shelves--seems like the toys are ALWAYS gone by the time I get there--but I can always hold out hope for eBay. But if anyone from Mattel is reading this post... hey, I'll plug the toys from here till Doomsday if you send one my way!
Of interest: Wikipedia on JLU toys and The Question

New "Ask the Question" Column Coming on Monday

Hey folks, I know it's only Tuesday but there'll be a brand new "Ask the Question" column on BPD this Monday. It's definitely-- different-- but I hope you'll give it a look.

Costume Pictures!

Last Wednesday was kind of special at Ye Olde Big Monkey Comics. See, a couple of us had the bright idea to take advantage of it being Halloween and come in costume.

So Kat snapped a couple pictures.

Hopefully someone else at BMC also got a few snaps...?

Bugle's Planet Daily- a Must-Read

Hey everyone, check out Bugle's Planet Daily RIGHT THIS SECOND! It's the best thing on the web. Sure, I helped create it but that has absolutely nothing to do with my impartial and unbiased claim that it is BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU WILL EVER READ IN YOUR LIFE.

Just check it out. See if I'm lying. The Question wants you to.

Favorite Superhero: The Question

Radio reporter by day, faceless crimefighter by night.
Vic Sage. Charles Victor Szasz.
The Question.
Created by Steve Ditko in the pages of Blue Beetle #1 (1967), published by Charlton Comics, this backup character was a shadowy vigilante whose approach to crime was ruthless, judgmental and entirely dispassionate. Vic Sage, crusading radio reporter in the hopelessly corrupt urban jungle of Hub City (located somewhere in southern Illinois), erases his features with a mask of "pseudoderm" (a fake skin created by his friend and ally, Dr. Aristotle "Tot" Rodor), which bonds to his skin with a binary gas secreted from his belt buckle. Garbed in a trenchcoat, fedora and retro-looking suit, the Question gets answers Vic Sage could never hope to find.

The Question represented artist/writer Ditko's interest in objectivism, a philosophy popularized by Ayn Rand. His moral judgments were absolute and admitted no gray areas; black was black, white was white, and crime was crime. Criminals received what they deserved, no more and no less.

The character made only a few appearances but retained a loyal, fascinated following. He was revived in 1987 by writer Denny O'Neil and artist Denys Cowan, after Charlton went out of business in 1986 and sold their characters to DC Comics. His blunt, forceful approach in the first issue led to his apparent death; however, he survived and was trained in a more Zen philosophy by Richard Dragon, martial artist extraordinaire. He also learned martial arts, enough to become a skilled hand-to-hand fighter.

Sage's personal life endured several ups and downs, particularly when he learned his true love, Myra, had married the corrupt and alcoholic Hub City Mayor Wesley Fermin. Nevertheless, he sought to uproot the criminal element infesting the city's politics, step by step.

More recently, the Question has appeared in Justice League Unlimited, where he was a featured character in the show's first season. Rather than a political vigilante, The Question here was portrayed as a conspiracy theorist with a dubious reputation among his fellow superheroes. His love interest was The Huntress, with whom he defeated a massive crime boss named Steven Mandragora, and his biggest contribution to the League was discovering the truth behind the Justice Lords--a tyrannical alternate Justice League. He attempted to murder Lex Luthor to head off a looming crisis, but that did not turn out very well; he was captured and tortured for information by Luthor's confederates in Project Cadmus. He had a final appearance in the JLU's series finale, alongside the other Charlton characters brought into the larger DC (animated) Universe.

In 2006, Denny O'Neil wrote "Helltown," a paperback for the DC Universe line. This presented the origin story for Vic Sage, helped along in his quest by the Batman, the assassin Lady Shiva and the aforementioned Richard Dragon.

In 2006-2007, the Question was a featured character in "52," DC Comics' year-long miniseries showing how the world fares without Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. The Question was one of a handful of heroes to learn about and fight against a pervasive, world-threatening set of menaces; he enlisted former Gotham City detective Renee Montoya in his initial investigations, coming to rely on her more heavily as the series progressed. Together, they exposed Intergang's plot to take over Gotham City, as well as their illegal smuggling of Apokoliptian weapons.

[SPOILER WARNING: Invisotext in use]

As of the conclusion of "52," Vic Sage has died and Renee Montoya has become the new Question.

Okay, so why do I like The Question?

In 1986, I had just graduated from college and gone to work for the Asbury Park Press. By 1987, I was in that post-college daze where you think "what am I doing? is this what I want from life?" And along came The Question. As written by Denny O'Neil, the character took on issues of identity and philosophical exploration, while also trying his best to redeem Hub City from hopeless depths of political corruption. Vic Sage was willing to explore all different possibilities, unlike his original "my way or no way" absolutism. He was a more complex and interesting guy than most superheroes, and his "cases" rarely ended with a clear-cut victory.

It was that kind of moral complexity, search for self-knowledge and willingness to fight authority gone sour that appealed to me. If you can, look for O'Neil's books in the back issue bins at your local comic book store-- the appearances made after his own series don't hold up very well, especially the recent miniseries by Rick Veitch that turned Vic into a sort of "urban shaman" in Metropolis.

The Question. Not the most famous of DC's heroes, but absolutely one of my favorites.

The Question is copyright DC Comics, all rights are reserved. Above artwork is copyright DC Comics and Warner Brothers Animation. The first illustration is The Question #34 by Denys Cowan, the second is The Question from "Justice League Unlimited."

Featured links:
The Question: Wikipedia entry
VicSage.com (unofficial fan site of The Question)