Charles Victor Szasz (New Earth)

{{DC Database:Character Template
 * Image                  = Questionfull.jpg
 * RealName               = Charles Victor Szasz
 * Aliases                = Charlie; Vic Sage
 * Identity               = Secret
 * Affiliation            = No known group affiliation
 * Relatives              =
 * Universe               =
 * BaseOfOperations       = Base of operations unknown


 * Gender                 =
 * Height                 = 6'2"
 * Weight                 = 185 lbs (84.1 kg)
 * Eyes                   = Blue
 * Hair                   = Red
 * UnusualFeatures        = No unusual features


 * Citizenship            = American
 * MaritalStatus          = Single
 * Occupation             = Television investigative journalist
 * Education              = Education unknown


 * Origin                 =
 * PlaceOfBirth           =
 * Creators               =
 * First                  = Blue Beetle (Volume 3) #1
 * Last                   = 52 Week Thirty-Eight


 * HistoryText            = The Question is the alter ego of Vic Sage, a television investigative journalist. When he encounters stories he can't investigate by normal, legal means, he dons a special mask, kept in his belt buckle, that makes it appear that he has no face. As the Question, he investigates corruption in the face of all danger, leaving a "calling card", which initially appears blank, but when touched, emits a smoky question mark. Victor Sage was originally Charles Victor Szasz, an orphan who had a reputation as a troublemaker. Szasz prided himself in defiantly enduring the physical abuse of the Catholic orphanage where he was housed. He eventually managed to get into college where he studied journalism.  However, his higher learning did not mellow his violent tendencies, such as when he beat up his pusher for giving him LSD which caused the frightening experience of doubting his own senses under its influence.

Based in Hub City, Sage made his mark as a highly outspoken and aggressive reporter with a reputation for obnoxiousness. Not long after starting his TV appearances, he began to investigate a Dr. Arby Twain.

Sage was approached by a scientist named Aristotle Rodor, who had previously been Sage's professor, and Rodor told Sage about an artificial skin called Pseudoderm he co-developed with Dr. Twain. Pseudoderm was intended to work as an applied skin-like bandage with the help of a bonding gas, but had an unforeseen toxicity which was fatal when applied to open wounds. Rodor and Twain agreed to abandon the project and parted ways, but Professor Rodor discovered that Dr. Twain had decided to proceed with an illegal sale of the invention to Third World nations, regardless of the risk to human health.

Sage resolved to stop him but had no way of going after Dr. Twain without exposing himself. Rodor suggested that Sage use a mask made of Pseudoderm to cover his famous features. Armed with information, and more importantly a disguise, Sage eventually caught up with Dr. Twain, stopping the transaction and extracting a confession, and then leaving Twain bound in Pseudoderm in an ironic twist. On television, Sage reported on Dr. Twain's illegal activities.

His first venture a success, Sage decided that this new identity, partially inspired by The Spirit, would be useful for future investigations, and partnered with Professor Rodor, who supplied the Pseudoderm and eventually modified the bonding gas to change the color of Sage's hair and clothing. The two men became good friends, with Sage affectionately referring to Rodor as "Tot".

Early Training
The Question was defeated in personal combat first by the martial arts mercenary, Lady Shiva, beaten near to death by the hiring villain's thugs, shot in the head with a pellet gun, and thrown into the river to drown. Lady Shiva then rescued him for reasons of her own and gave him directions to meet Richard Dragon as soon as he recovered enough to get out of bed. Once there, Sage learned both martial arts, and eastern philosophy that changed his perspective into a more sophisticated one that accepted the world's moral ambiguities.

When he returned to the city, he resumed his journalist and superhero careers with adventures that tended to illustrate various philosophic points.

Hub City
The Question tends to fight the corrupt government of Hub City. Hub City is noted as being "synonymous with venality, corruption, and violence", perhaps even outranking Gotham City as the most dismal city in the the United States. For the majority of the series, he is covertly assisting the goodhearted Myra Fermin win the seat of Mayor. His interest in Myra extends beyond admiration, as the two shared a relationship before his near-death experience with Lady Shiva, and his training under Richard Dragon. Upon his return he discovered that she had married the corrupt, drunkard who idolized former president Teddy Roosevelt, Mayor Wesley Fermin. Despite losing the election by one vote, Myra's competition was found dead as a result of what was called "the worst tornado in history." At her victory speech, her husband Wesley shot her for supporting what he believed to be Communist beliefs, putting her into a coma and sending Hub City further into chaos. Sage donned the guise of the Question, acting as the city's only form of justice for a short while, before the Mayor woke from her condition.

The gang warfare in the weeks following the election led Sage to Lady Shiva, first as a combatant, and then enlisting her help as an ally of sorts to get in a position to talk to the gang-leaders. As Myra adjusted into her role as Mayor of Hub City, she and Sage began to rekindle their relationship, although Myra told Sage that she would not act on her feelings until she left office. Despite their long-term friendship, she never connected that Sage and “the man without a face” were one and the same until the very end of his time at Hub City.

The Question is also very conflicted on how far to go in enforcing justice, often feeling tempted to kill. He resists this temptation as he realizes that part of his want to go so far is just to see what it feels like to take a life. His relationship with his mentor, Aristotle Rodor, is one of many things that keep him from going over the edge and back towards the darkness he had shown in his youth on the streets of Hub City.

Eventually, during a massive hallucinogenic trip, his subconscious told him through his mother that he had to leave Hub City to ever be able to live happily. Around the same time Richard Dragon came to see Victor as he had sensed that he was on the verge of a major turning point in his life, and convinced him that living in Hub City was killing him. In an agreement with Richard, Lady Shiva arrives with a helicopter to usher The Question and Aristotle Rodor away, at which point she decides to stay in Hub City and embrace the chaos. He nearly convinces Myra to come with him and escape the chaos of the city, but she is unable to leave. She gives her only daughter, Jackie, and wanders back to the city alone to meet her duties as Mayor and do her best to stand for what she believes in.

It has been suggested that the Question's long experience and practice with meditation had led him into shamanic trances, and later into a more permanent state of shamanism|shamanic awareness, in which he was able to interpret coincidences and thus "talk to the city". In this state, he was also able to sense chi, or life force. He is now able to "walk in two worlds" for an increased awareness of his surroundings and of any disturbances in a city's natural order.

52
Recently, The Question assumed the role the protector of Gotham City while Batman disappears for one whole year.

His first act is removing the bat symbol sticker from the Bat-Signal and spray painting a giant question mark in its place. However, he then shines it on Renee Montoya's apartment building, apparently trying to get her attention rather than simply assert that he is replacing Batman.

About three days later, he enters Montoya's apartment briefly in the evening, and leaves an address: 520 Kane Street. The next night, when Renee visits the location, he appears suddenly and hires Montoya to watch an abandoned building located there for "two hundred dollars a day, plus expenses". He then implies that it will be used by a third party and disappears a cloud of smoke.

Two weeks and one night later, the Question's suspicions prove accurate when a large, strange, humanoid creature enters the building. Renee enters and the Question follows her. They soon fall through the ground level to find the creature moving crates in the basement. A confrontation between the two of them and the creature ensues. The Question does well to hold off the beast, at one point briefly psychoanalyzing it to the creature's confusion, until a crate full of strange gun-like devices breaks apart and Renee fires one at the creature, vaporizing it.

After traveling to Kahndaq with Montoya to investigate Intergang dealings there, the pair were able to prevent a suicide bombing during Black Adam and Isis's wedding, an action that earned him the Order of the Crescent.

Having returned to Gotham City, the Question discovered that he was suffering from a debilitating illness. Montoya immediately had him hospitalized and watched over him day and night. She discovered that the Himilayan city of Nanda Parbat possessed mystical properties which might serve to save Victor's life. She took it upon herself to bring the Question to the mountains of Nanda Parbat, but she was too late. After suffering through great discomfort and hardship, Victor Sage passed away.


 * Powers                 =
 * Abilities              =
 * Strength               =


 * Equipment              =
 * Transportation         =
 * Weapons                =


 * Notes                  =
 * The Question was featured in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again as a right-wing, anti-government conspirator. This version of Sage - a nod to Ditko and Alan Moore is Randian and preachy, at one point going on television for a series of  humorous "Crossfire"-style exchanges with the liberal archer Green Arrow. Additionally, he is shown as a technophobe monitoring the dark conspiracy Batman and his allies must face.


 * Trivia                 =

The Question in other media

 * The Question has been a major recurring character in the animated television series Justice League Unlimited, with his voice performed by Jeffrey Combs, and in that time has become one of the series' most popular characters - this renewed popularity and interest in the character are likely contributors to his return to the spotlight in current comics.

Similarities to other comic book characters

 * While Charlton's version of The Question laid pretty much dormant for more than a decade, it helped inspire one of the most unforgettable anti-heroes in comic book history.


 * In the mid 1980s, renowned writer Alan Moore had intended to devote a mini-series to the Charlton characters recently purchased by DC Comics, thrusting them into actual Cold War history -- Hiroshima, Cuba, Vietnam, Nixon, etc. -- and the geo-political and social context of a world where costumed heroes had actually existed in real life, as they did in the comics, since the Depression.


 * DC liked the idea, but had its own plans for the Charlton stable. So Moore went back and created protagonists patterned after the Charlton "Action Heroes" of the 1960s. The Question became  Rorschach, a merciless trenchcoat-and-fedora-clad vigilante who takes moral absolutism to its most violent extreme.  Rorschach was widely regarded as the standout character in the classic comic book series Watchmen, created by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons.


 * Question (Volume 1) #17 had Vic Sage read Watchmen; He initially sees Rorschach as being quite cool, but gets beaten up after trying to emulate his brutal style of justice. He concludes that 'Rorschach sucks'.


 * Interestingly, the Question's specialized belt-buckle is similar to that of the Spider-Man villain Chameleon. In his initial appearances, which were drawn by Ditko, the Chameleon had used a device in a belt buckle which emitted a transformation-enhancing gas. It is possible that Ditko used that as inspiration for the Question.


 * CustomSection1         = Recommended Readings
 * CustomText1            =
 * Question (Volume 1)
 * Question (Volume 2)

}}
 * Links                  =
 * LadyShiva and The Question including page scans