Who is the Question? Explaining DC's masked crimefighter and her ties to the Justice League and Blue Beetle

The first issue of DC's hotly-anticipated Justice League Unlimited is just a week away. The new series, by Mark Waid, Dan Mora, and Tamra Bonvillain, is both a fresh start for the premiere superteam and will be central to the future of the mainstream DC continuity.

Before that, however, we have The Question: All Along the Watchtower by Alex Segura and Cian Tormey – a new series that is both linked to the Justice League series in its setting, and a revival of the classic Steve Ditko character introduced in the 1960s. The first issue is in comic stores now and it focuses on Renee Montoya, the current incarnation of the masked investigator, as she works her new beat: the Justice League's outer space headquarters.

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In The Question: All Along the Watchtower #1, we learn that someone is trying to weaponize the Watchtower. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have figured this out and they turn to Montoya/the Question to track down the culprit. She has a team on hand to help her too: Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, Animal Man, and Batwoman Kate Kane. The latter is a little tricky for Montoya: Kate and Renee used to be a couple...

The first issue of All Along The Watchtower is really strong, offering a useful catchup on what's been going on with Montoya recently (briefly: she was Gotham's Police Commissioner in her day job, but has been booted off the force to make way for Vandal Savage), introducing the supporting cast, and ending on a pretty solid cliffhanger that we won't spoil here. Bringing in the likes of Batwoman and Blue Beetle is a smart choice too: the Question is a beloved character, but not as well known as those other heroes. 

Which brings us to the main point of this article: answering the question of the Question. Who is this masked crimefighter and what do they want? It all starts back in 1967...

The first Question

Renee Motoya is not the first character to inhabit the persona of the Question. That honor goes to investigative journalist Vic Sage, who debuted in a back-up strip in 1967's Blue Beetle #1 from Charlton Comics. Similar to another Ditko character, Mr A, this first Question was a tough, even ruthless figure – a masked crimefighter and martial artist who was utterly merciless when faced with evil and corruption. Alan Moore would later look to both Mr A and The Question for inspiration when creating the brutally uncompromising Rorschach for Watchmen.

Charlton Comics went out of business in 1986, but DC had already acquired many of its characters, including the Question. He pops up briefly in Crisis On Infinite Earths and again in DC's relaunch of Blue Beetle, starring Ted Kord, but it wasn't until 1987 that Vic Sage got his own solo series, written by Dennis O'Neil and (mostly) drawn by Denys Cowan. Here the Question, ever paranoid and convinced of conspiracy at the highest levels of government, focused his efforts on taking down the corrupt officials of Hub City, while also coming up against the villainous likes of Lady Shiva, who eventually became an unlikely ally.

That series ended in March 1990, but the character continued to appear in other comics over the next few years before his next solo book from Rick Veitch and Tommy Lee Edwards. This six-issue series made some tweaks to Sage's character, casting him as a more spiritual figure (albeit one who was now willing to outright kill villains) and took him to Metropolis where he helped save Superman's life and revealed a long-term crush on Lois Lane!

A major shift in the character's backstory came in 2018's The Question Annual #2, where it was revealed that Vic Sage is not his birth name. In fact, he was found on the steps of a church and named Charles Victor Szasz by the local nuns. Despite the similar sounding names, Charles Victor Szasz and Batman villain Victor Zsasz are not related.

Renee Montoya is the Question

Vic's time as the Question came to an end in 2006's 52 – a year-long weekly series published by DC that revealed what happened in the wake of the Infinite Crisis event. In that comic, the dying Sage recruits Renee Montoya to help investigate the criminal Intergang and eventually take his place as the Question. Montoya is troubled by his lethal methods, but eventually agrees to take on the role.

Since then the character has been a pretty regular fixture in DC comics. She studied the Crime Bible in Greg Rucka's limited series of the same name in 2007, and, worried about her sanity, announced her retirement from superheroics in Final Crisis. That didn't last long, however – in 2009's Blackest Night she came face-to-face with Vic Sage once more, briefly reanimated as a Black Lantern.

Of course, DC's continuity was officially reborn in 2016, and that lead to the latest wrinkle in the character's long history: there are now two Questions currently in operation. Renee Montoya is the main Question, but a resurrected Vic Sage (who was briefly drafted into the Suicide Squad and later teamed up with the Dark Knight in Batman: Urban Legends #14) is alive, well, and still doing his paranoid thing.

The new All Along the Watchtower series seems to be concentrating on the Montoya version for now. That's probably for the best given that it's re-establishing the character for a new era, but it's nice to know that the original Question is still out there somewhere. Perhaps someday Montoya and Sage will fight together side-by-side once more. For now, however, she has a murder to solve – and everyone in the Justice League is a suspect...

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #1 is out now from DC.

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