The Question: Zen and Violence
The Question #1
Cover Date: February 1987
Subtitle: The Bad News
Writer(s): Dennis O'Neil
Artists(s): Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar
Storyline:
Charles Victor Szasz, known as Vic Sage to Hub City's television audience and the Question to it's underworld, donned his mask and went in for some action. After taking down some criminals, he secured his goal - a video tape.
Sage got to the studio and broadcast his findings - a recording of corruption within the government of Hub City. Later, he visited "Tot," (Aristotle Rodor) his partner. Tot told him his mask may have slipped due to him returning to his smoking habit.
While checking with one of his sources, a cop was shot. The bullet was meant for him. He grabbed the shooter and handed him over to the police.
Vic got his tip and followed up on it, knowing it was a trap. Lady Shiva, who'd stood by while he beat on her employers while stealing the video, was asked to take him down. She did so with little effort. The Question was then shot and thrown into the river.
The Question #2
Cover Date: March 1987
Subtitle: Butterfly
Writer(s): Dennis O'Neil
Artists(s): Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar
Storyline:
Charlie (as Tot called him) awakened six days later in a familiar, but unfamiliar place. He remembered very little, but Shiva had rescued him and delivered him back to his partner. The two worked at putting him back together. As he came in and out of consciousness, Charlie had visions (visits?) of Batman.
Some time later, a helicopter arrived for him. Shiva sent him to train under Richard Dragon. After his body and mind healed, his training was finished. Shiva met him for another confrontation. A quick spar gave her what she needed to know about him.
The Question returned to the man who ordered him killed.
The Question #3
Cover Date: April 1987
Subtitle: Suffer the Children
Writer(s): Dennis O'Neil
Artists(s): Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar
Storyline:
The Reverend fell into a fireplace during his scuffle with the Question. He then leapt from a window. Myra, Sage's girlfriend (and the mayor's wife - unknown to him) helped him escape the bodyguards. She told him she'd married the mayor after her daughter was threatened and that they'd planned on blowing up a school bus the next day.
Charlie met with Tot about the school bus thing and went to the main hub. There was no bus schedule as it was MLK Day, only one field trip needed a bus. The Question saved the children from the bombers. After, he met Myra's daughter and helped her and her friends build a snowman.
The Question #4
Cover Date: May 1987
Subtitle: The Sacrifice
Writer(s): Dennis O'Neil
Artists(s): Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar
Storyline:
Reverend Hatch's paid cops took Myra's daughter right out from under Charlie. He gave chase, but his car wouldn't allow it due to the damage it sustained in stopping the bus bomb.
Hatch confided to Myra that he would sacrifice her daughter. The Question got into the Mayor's Mansion in a stolen police cruiser. He took out some of the hired muscle and a fire was started. He saved Myra and her daughter, but refused to kill Hatch. Myra took the knife and did it herself.
The Question #5
Cover Date: June 1987
Subtitle: Cityscape
Writer(s): Dennis O'Neil
Artists(s): Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar
Storyline:
Looting and riots had broken out across Hub City - the fire at the Mayor's Mansion had destroyed countless records. The police and city officials were on strike.
The Question, working on 36 hours without sleep, stopped a purse-snatching. He felt guilty about the state the city was in. The drunken (as always) mayor was blaming everything on communists.
Myra struggled internally on how Hatch had been killed. Was it insanity? Self-defense? Premedicated? An office worker raped a coworker then jumped off the top of the building. A dirty cop tried to stop looters from robbing the corpse, but failed. The Question saved him and chased off the would-be robbers.
A woman continued to wait for the bus that would never arrive.
The Question #6
Cover Date: July 1987
Subtitle: That Small Rain Down Can Rain
Writer(s): Dennis O'Neil
Artists(s): Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar
Storyline:
The failure who screwed up the school bus job scarred his face with acid in hopes of getting his father to love him. He overheard his father put a hit on an old man at a farm and decided to kill the man to get in good favor.
The Question went in and broke up a fight between the man's father and a business associate.
Vic went to the TV station and was told to leave - they'd not seen him in close to a year when he turned in his piece on the Mayor's Mansion fire. He ran into Myra there. She gave him the cold shoulder.
Charlie put two and two together and had Tot take him to the Farley Farm. There, he ran into both the father and son assassins. The son killed the father after bonding with his mark.