Thursday, November 20, 2008

Trade Marks: The Question - Zen and Violence

If you're at all like me, you love the Question but missed most the 80s series so you've been waiting/praying for it to be reprinted. Well, you're prayers have been answered - although I'm still not 100% satisfied. O'Neil does a nice job bringing us into the world of Vic Sage/The Question, as it's actually refreshing to see the 'hero' run into some serious trouble so early on in his career. The reintroduction of Richard Dragon was freakin' brilliant, and I think the Question's return was handled quite well. O'Neil struggles at times with Sage's staccato Randspeak, but it's effective. I'm still on the fence about Denys Cowan. At times I've really enjoyed his work (Detective Comics #598-600), but it's really inconsistent here. It works in some of the moodier scenes, but really falls apart in the action sequences. They can be tough to follow, and the anatomy (tiny hand striking giant head) is distracting. These TPBs aren't cheap and I really wished that this series had been given the Showcase treatment. An intro by O'Neil re. bringing Ditko's creation to life would have been appropriate. Trade Mark: B

No comments: