One Last Question

To make up for skipping a month in the publication of the Blackest Night miniseries (in order to allow the artists time to catch up), DC Comics came up with the somewhat clever idea of "resurrecting" eight past series of theirs, for one issue each. (Blackest Night, you see, is all about dead villains and heroes being brought back to life - sort of - in the form of evil Black Lantern Corps members.) Therefore DC picked titles from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and - hmmm - 00s? and published "the next issue" of each, but in the form of a Blackest Night crossover, tying into the current events of the miniseries. I was intrigued when I first heard about it, but as they actually appeared through January most left me cold. None of them really seemed to capture the feel of the old series they were representing, and so they seemed like gimmicks.

Until I read The Question # 37. Maybe it's the fact that original creator Dennis O'Neil was brought back in to co-write it (along with current star Greg Rucka), or that they went all out and got original Question artists Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz involved, but this little number really did sing! It perfectly matched the vibe of what we used to get every month from those folks, and yet advanced the Blackest Night storyline in the process. It had some kung-fu action, as we'd expect from The Question, as well as lots of philosophical twists and turns. This was exactly what I was hoping for when this "skip month stunt" was announced.

It's really too bad the other offerings couldn't have been up to this standard, but at least we got one really good one in the bunch. (And a disclosure: I haven't read The Atom and Hawkman # 46 yet, despite it coming out 2 weeks ago, because my local comic store didn't receive any of their ordered copies and has been a bit slow in re-ordering it. Maybe next week!)