The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1: Any Other Questions?

I’m sorry, Vic, but I’m excited to see your deaths. The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1 definitely grabbed my attention. Even the cover grabbed my attention. The series boasts one hell of a creative team with Jeff Lemire writing, Denys Cowan doing pencils, Bill Sienkiewicz inking, and Chris Sotomayer doing colors. Cowan and Sienkiewicz both worked on The Question in the past but they, including The Question, have come a long way since then. The art thrives in closeups where every line seems perfectly placed by Cowan and Sienkiewicz, while colors by Sotomayer are subtle but perfectly accent the shadowy panels.

The story so far is pretty easy to get: there is corruption in the Hub City and Sage wants to expose it. You can’t go wrong with a plot like that. With whispers of a cult or secret society, I was pleasantly surprised with the twist of Sage finding a skeleton of himself from a past life. What I thought was going to be a noir detective story turned into a time-traveling psychedelic murder mystery. The series seems to be playing with the idea of a serial figure and its lasting presence in a medium. The character was created in the late 60s, like many comic book characters, so it is interesting when they generally stay unchanged over the decades. Lemire and company are exploring that very concept by seeing The Question in different settings and times.

I am interested to see how the series will be received. Other than Sandman Universe, The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage is the first series that I’ve read from DC Black Label. It seems that some of the other series released from the DC imprint are superhero based so it will be interesting to see what the team are able to do with The Question. It seems like the team is staying true to the character while pushing to see what they can do with him under DC Black.

The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1 is a noir that looks and feels pulpy. The use of shadows, narration, and pacing stick out in issue #1 and feels appropriate for a Question story.  With issue #1 ending with Vic in the wild west, I am interested to see what issue #2 is like. Will it feel like a noir? Will it feel like a western? Will it feel like both? How will Cowboy Question die? How many Vic Sage/Questions are there? These are questions that can only be answered by The Question in The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #2.