Question And Answer!

When it comes to Ditko heroes there is no question that the epitome is The Question. By this time Ditko had created or co-created Captain Atom, Spider-Man, Dr.Strange as well as this zippy new Blue Beetle. But it's clear to my eye that The Question is the hero Ditko always wanted to create, and actually he did it twice. More on that anon. But to answer the query Ditko poses on his very appearance "Who is the Question?"

Created in the back pages of "The All-New" Blue Beetle, The Question was in fact hard-hitting reporter and ginger Vic Sage. Sage worked in the rough and tumble streets of Crown City, investigating corruption and crime regardless of where it led and who in positions of influence and power might be embarrassed or implicated. Vic Sage spoke his own mind, a mind guided by strict adherence to reason and evidence. He works for Worldwide Broadcasting and is assisted by his tough as nails team of Fred Pine, Al Kert, Bob Hasel, and the lovely Nora Lace. His boss is Sam Starr who stands by Vic in thick and thin. He is harassed by Star's son Syd and daughter Celia. The latter two are looking to find ways to get rid of Sage since his journalism often agitates advertisers and high muckamucks alike and so potential earnings. 

Vic espouses the philosophy of Objectivism and demands that he be treated by its tenets as well. He doesn't expect his employer to keep him out of loyalty but because it's in his ultimate best interests to get the truth out. Likewise his staff are not there because of him, but because they too like all "good" citizens need a world in which the rules are applied fairly. It's a bit much really to swallow and offers up a slender view of mankind. Emotions are seen as needless in the running a just society and in fact compassion and charity are deemed actual detriments as it undermines the clarity with which all folks should shoulder their burden and produce for themselves. 

Aside from philosophy what sets The Question apart from other heroes is his face, or specially the lack of one. Vic Sage gets his Question identity thanks to the work of Professor Rodor who designed a mask which covers the face but doesn't appear to offer up any openings and a handy gas that when released will changed the colors of suits so as to make The Question a hero who can leap into action on a moment's notice. (Much easier than the endless costume woes confronted by Spider-Man.) The Question punches out villains with a fighting style reminiscent of Will Eisner's The Spirit though he doesn't seem to get beat up and pummeled as much. 

After his appearances in Blue Beetle, The Question was featured in a single comic titled Mysterious Suspense #1. This issue was offered up after Dick Giordano had led a migration of Charlton talent, including Steve Ditko over to DC. (Correction: The real story is that Giordano was tipped off about the changes happening at DC by Steve Ditko who had already jumped over to the DCU.)

Some years later DC bought the "Action Heroes" after the collapse of Charlton and tried a number of ways to fit them into the DCU. There was success with Blue Beetle, failure with Captain Atom, and The Question as revised by Denny O'Neil was Ditko's character much at all, save they looked sort of the same. 

Over twenty years ago (yikes) DC celebrated The Question and Ditko by making Mysterious Suspense part of their Millennium reprint series. No other Charlton hero was afforded this honor, and likely The Question got it not only for the work of Ditko, but also because the hero inspired Rorschach of Alan Moore's Watchmen series. Sadly, today when The Question is mentioned that's the first thing anyone brings up. I mention it last on purpose to try and bring balance to the universe. To read the one and only issue of Mysterious Suspense go here. 

To get all of the Dikto Charlton Question stories seek out the second volume of Action Heroes from DC's 

But Ditko wasn't done when he first posed his "Question" though. He also gave us an "Answer" and we learn that the "Answer" is "A". One would be hard-pressed to find a more obnoxious hero than Steve Ditko's Mr. A. Created at just about the same time as Charlton's The Question, most folks see Mr. A as Ditko's Comics Code-approved Question unleashed into the wild of Indy publishing where he can really cut loose and express his opinions about justice and merit and who should live and who should die. Let me just say, that if you're a criminal and you're hanging by your fingertips over a deadly precipice don't think the "heroic" Mr. A is going to give you a hand. That's not his style. If your misdeeds brought you to this dangerous point, then you will just have to solve it on your own...or die. 

How do I know this? Well that's exactly the dilemma Mr. A was confronted with in his debut adventure in the pages of Wally Wood's Witzend first issue. A juvenile delinquent named "Angel" is tearing it up with all sorts of ill-mannered and criminal behavior resulting ultimately in kidnapping and attempted murder. Mr. A stops that but when Angel needs a hand to save his life after their fight, Mr. A specifically says he would not be doing that. Through his inaction he allows the criminal to fall to his death. Is that justice? Is that heroism? It's sure cold blooded, that's for certain and sounds more like warfare. 

You see the thing is that in Mr. A's universe that is no gray...literally and figuratively. In these stark black and white comic book yarns we are presented with crimes and actions which some, in a charitable nature, might deem mistakes rather than crimes. They might consider the perpetrators to be confused by upbringing or environment which send mixed messages about what is right and what is wrong and the limits of civilized behavior in regard to these concepts. Mr. A is not having any of that. There is "Good" represented by the white half of his business card and there is "Evil" represented by the black portion. There's no gray, no blending or smudging, there are only absolutes determined by rigorous adherence to reason. Emotions and the charity they elicit are for weaklings and milksops. 

At first glance this hard-edged support of the good and condemnation of the evil seems worthy and even heroic. But for all the conversation, the question never even much asked in Mr. A's adventures is what is "Good" and what is "Evil". It's sort of assumed we all know that. A lot of it has to do with property rights as far as I can tell, with the stuff owned by those who produce being held sacrosanct and protected from the evil moochers and  takers. Little suggestion of a deeper understanding of why those have what they have and those who haven't don't. Like the mythological "American Dream" it's suggested that work will inevitably lead to good outcomes and doing otherwise is just inviting disaster. Suggestion that society might stack the deck is not really confronted or is just dismissed. Like the amateur social engineers who have taken a tiny bit if Any Rand's philosophy to justify unlimited avarice, in Mr. A the distinctions are just assumed to be obvious, detectible with only a little bit of "common sense" as is all too often evoked. 

Mr. A lives in an Old Testament universe in which an eye for an eye is the bedrock premise of justice. I suspect that Mr. A would find Jesus Christ's attitudes about poverty and charity and mercy just mewling nonsense having little to do with the rockem' sockem' real world we all live in. Mr. A never smiles, in fact he's incapable of smiling as his face is literally a solid mask evoking classical caucasian handsomeness. He looks through the eyeholes of his perfect mug onto a landscape less perfected and in sore need of transformation. He's all too ready to pitch in. 

Mr. A is actually hard-hitting investigative reporter Rex Graine, but unlike his Charlton counterpart Vic Sage, there's no suggestive of fancy gimmicks to change identities. Graine goes to his closet and puts on the stark white gear that announces Mr. A is back in town. His face actually a helmet of sorts to hide his human identity during these times when mere humanity will not do the job. He doesn't have superpowers, merely a dominating will and a creator who sees to it that his unblinking philosophy will win the day each and every time. There's no gray in Mr. A's universe and there's no doubt nor growth. He is not a human, he is a concept given human form. Reading Mr. A's adventures becomes increasingly difficult over the years as the prose dominates the story, slowing any hint of suspense or narrative momentum. It's rather like forcing everyone t read all the plaques as they journey through the museum. It's enlightening perhaps, but it takes a long time and can wear you out. 

The Mr. A stories have been collected (many of them but not all) in a handsome tome titled Avenging World. There is other wild stuff from the mind and hand of Steve Ditko in this book, but together are almost all of the earliest Mr. A tales, in which he seeks absolute justice. 

This post is to celebrate the anniversary of Steve Ditko's birth. He was a great talent with a lasting imprint on the world of comics. 

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