??? Facts

Are you a fan of The Question? Then here are One Dozen Question Facts!

1. The Question was created by writer/artist Steve Ditko in 1967. Ditko was also the co-creator of Spider-Man and the creator of the second incarnation of The Blue Beetle/Ted Kord. Before The Question was created, Ditko created a self-owned character named Mr. A early in 1967. Like The Question, Mr. A was a hard-boiled detective who wore a fedora and trench coat. He also wore a mask to hide his face and had a strict belief that people were either good or evil, with no in between. When Ditko wrote The Question, many of Mr. A's traits were carried over to The Question.

2. While the identity of The Question became known as a vigilante detective, Victor Sage was an outspoken and aggressive journalist. While it is commonly assumed The Question has always had dark, black hair, he originally was a redhead. He would hide his red hair under his mask, which had a layer of black hair atop it.

3. The mask Vic wears isn't a stocking that bank robbers typically use, but rather a failed medical tool. Vic is given the mask by a scientist who claims he and an his associate were working on a medical graft that could accelerate the bodies healing process. It was supposed to be used for soldiers, but the experiment was never successful so they just had this material lying around that could completely mask the features of someone's skin/face and still allow the person to see, smell, hear, speak, and breath without any issues. The mask, of course, plays to Vic's theme of being a complete mystery.

4. Whereas The Question was inspired by Mr. A, Rorschach was inspired by The Question. When Alan Moore was writing the graphic novel "Watchmen", he originally wanted to use characters DC Comics had acquired from Charlton Comics in his story, but DC Comics didn't allow it. So Moore created allegories to Charlton characters. The character of Rorschach is Moore's version of The Question, only pushed to the extreme.

5. Due to them being created by the same writer and published from the same comic book company, Vic Sage/The Question and Ted Kord/The Blue Beetle both operate out of the fictional Hub City. When Dennis O'Neil began writing for The Question in 1987 he portrayed Hub City as being a city with corrupt cops, corrupt socialists, and organized crime rivaling that of Gotham City. It was the perfect environment for a character like The Question who fights crime in a more secretive way. Near the end of his run on the book, O'Neil claimed his version of Hub City was based on East St. Louis, Illinois. O'Neil likely used this city as inspiration because he was born in St. Louis, Missouri which is across from East St. Louis, Illinois, over the Mississippi River.

6. O'Neil also establishes a Zen-like mentality to The Question. Vic had trained under DC's greatest martial arts teacher Richard Dragon and-along with martial arts-Vic is taught Eastern philosophy. He can even use "chi" to locate people, using it to find Superman once.

7. O'Neil's final spin on the book was given Vic a new origin that tells us he grew up in Hub City as an orphan. As a teenager he was a criminal, taking pride in the beatings he took in the Catholic orphanage he grew up in. Despite his criminal activities and short-temper, he went to college for journalism where his temper smoothed out. Shockingly, he legally changed his name to Victor Sage, and his birth name was Charles Victor Szasz. This means The Question's birth name is eerily similar to the name of a serial killer named Victor Szasz from Batman stories.

8. In the "Justice League Unlimited" animated series The Question is portrayed as a conspiracy theorist, believing cell phone signals, pop-music boy bands, and the plastic ends of shoe laces to be connected to a larger government plot. When he helps Green Arrow and Supergirl, he begins to link several occurrences together. Throughout the few episodes he makes major appearances in, he slowly connects the events of those episodes which seemingly are unrelated into a revelation that effects the entirety of the series. It is also in "JLU" that The Question is paired up with Huntress, another vigilante who's methods land her in hot water with The Justice League. Their relationship would be carried into the comics in 2005's "Huntress" series.

9. Two versions of The Question exist in the current DCU. One version is a bureaucrat who assists Amanda Waller in running a New Suicide Squad. The second is an unnamed man who is held on trail along with Pandora and The Phantom Stranger for crimes against humanity. As punishment served by "The Seven Wizards", the man loses his memories and his face and is sent o Earth to redeem himself. This version of The Question would free Superman from government containment in "Trinity War".

10. The Question temporarily carried a device that emitted a special gas that recolored his hair and clothing. This was a device carried over from another Ditko character, the Spider-Man villain The Chameleon. He would also use playing cards that emit gas as letters after a set amount of time. This way he could signal he had gotten to the crime scene before police or send a hidden message to his allies. He would often use gas to shroud himself and even scare criminals, telling them enough time in the gas would melt their face of like it did to him.

11. In an episode of "Batman: The Animated Series" a character named The Creeper breaks into a clothing store called "Ditko's Vintage Clothing" where he knocks over a mannequin wearing The Question's wardrobe. Like The Question, The Creeper was also created by Steve Ditko. The character Renee Montoya was invented for "Batman: The Animated Series" and was brought into the comics a few years after. In 2007, Vic would give the mask of The Question to Renee (who was let off the GCPD and was living a broken life) so that she could recover her crime-fighting spark and become the new Question.

12. In Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Strikes Again", Vic Sage and Oliver Queen share anti-government, liberal stances on the country and discuss them on national TV. Vic is also shown to be a technophobe, preferring to do all his writing on a typewriter.

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