Saving What Is Lost With The Question: The Deaths Of Vic Sage #1
by Josh Davison
Mild Spoilers Ahead
The Question busts a Hub City brothel which employs underage girls. There he finds a city councilman by the name of Ford. He makes a point of recording that Ford was there before leaving as the police arrive. Later, Vic Sage confronts Alderman Myra Ferman about this during his nightly pundit talk show. He also confronts her on her brother’s not-so-secret corruption and mob ties, which Myra flatly denies. However, she is shocked by the news about Ford and the brothel, but she’s angry at Vic for ambushing her about it. Her special counsel stops Vic from questioning her further. Vic then goes to Tot to inquire about a ring with a strange symbol he found on Councilman Ford and on Myra’s special counsel. Tot isn’t familiar with the symbol, so Vic investigates it himself…and it takes him to a dark and secretive part of Hub City history as well as Vic and the Question’s own obscured past.
The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1 brings back the faceless vigilante in his home town of Hub City. In his war against political corruption, he has stumbled upon an old cabal which is rearing its ugly head once again–and he may have a forgotten connection to it.
It’s a dark and compelling noir tale, the kind of which the Question specialized during the Dennis O’Neil and Denys Cowan days. Of course, The Deaths of Vic Sage is greatly helped by the return of artist Denys Cowan.
The comic has all the grease, grime, and grit of those O’Neil and Cowan stories, and Vic Sage is as hard-nosed, obsessive, and angry as he should be.
Cowan’s artwork, aided by inking from the great Bill Sienkiewicz and colors from the talented Chris Sotomayor, paint a Hub City that looks barely habitable. Corruption and violence seem to leak from the very buildings. The Question and Vic Sage are the scarred and frightening man who stands as the lone bulwark against it all. It’s a gorgeous book.
The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1 is the gritty and brutal detective story I had hoped to see from this DC Black Label comic. Vic is back and as pissed off and dedicated as ever, and Jeff Lemire shows that he thoroughly understands what makes this character great. This one gets a strong recommendation. Give this one a read.
The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1 comes to us from writer Jeff Lemire, artist Denys Cowan, inker Bill Sienkiewicz, color artist Chris Sotomayor, letterer Willie Schubert, cover artist Denys Cowan with Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Sotomayor, variant cover artist Jeff Lemire with Marcelo Maiolo, and dedicated to Steve Ditko and Dennis O’Neil.
Final Score: 9/10
