I am pretty surprised that we have not seen The Question show up as a character on one of DC's TV shows. Arrow has had a string of guest star street level heroes, and promises to add even more this season, but no word of Vic Sage joining in on the fun (or Renee Montoya, for that matter). I wonder why because he seems like one of the easier characters to translate to live action.
I'm cynical enough that I can imagine younger viewers complaining that the Question is just a second rate cody of Rohrshack.
ReplyDeleteThe question does seem perfect for the Arrowverse (I'd love to see the Creeper there too). The Question and the Shadow is also a wonderful idea for a crossover. It'd be hard to write in a way that would do justice to the mysterious nature of boht characters, but I'd want to buy up every issue if it happened.
Part of the problem with the Question, as cosplayers have discovered (to their total lack of surprise), is that one literally cannot eat or drink with the Question's "blank face" mask. I'm not sure how Madonna managed it as the Blank in Dick Tracy, but trying to go all day with a mask like that would be a challenge.
ReplyDelete(Of course there are still costumes being made that keep the actor within from being able to use the lavatory.)
And I agree with Matthew that the Shadow and the Question seem like a very natural team-up. It would have to be a story full of unfolding and unraveling mysteries, where many things are not what they seem, and some of them even turn out to be exactly what they seem after all!
(I also agree that many younger viewers would see the Question as a rip-off of Rorschach; many thought that Lord of the Rings was a rip-off of Harry Potter!)
Come to think of it, none of the Charlton characters (Cap Atom, Blue Beetle, etc.) have made it to TV. I wonder if the rights to them in live-action somehow got caught up with their Watchmen doppelgangers for the movie.
ReplyDeleteThis is a comic that I would buy in a heartbeat. Throw in Dick Tracy, and I would be in hog-heaven!
ReplyDeleteIt's always great to see The QUESTION or The PHANTOM (that would make a great team-up) appear here. I would like to see The QUESTION appear on ARROW, he has great potential to have his own series if written correctly.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that The Question was very striking visually, and I love the way he was portrayed as a slightly unbalanced conspiracy theorist on The Justice League Unlimited. Unfortunately, I don't like the way DC has treated most of the old Charlton characters in their main universe.
ReplyDeleteInstead of showing up on Arrow, how about if the Question were to appear on Legends of Tomorrow? They could travel back to the roaring 20's and meet the Question. He would make an awesome scourge of bootleggers and gangsters of that era. As I recall Vic Sage was a journalist, right? The 1920's were a time when newspaper reporters were actually relevant. And he could right the wrongs of the big city by night and report on them during the day.
ReplyDeleteThe Denny O'Neil/Denys Cowan Question series of the 80s was my absolute favorite of that era, as I was both into philosophy and martial arts at the time. I had always imagined Patrick Swayze in the role of Vic Sage back then, the character he played in Roadhouse, Dalton, was basically a backwoods version of the Vic Sage character from the comics of the era, right down to the mullet. The Question character at the time probably wasn't considered a strong enough property to warrant an adaptation.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the Question would fit in better on the Fox series, GOTHAM. Young Master Bruce could witness firsthand how terrified most criminals are when faced with somebody whose faceless. Or, even something more unearthly...like a gravelly-voiced giant chiropterophile.
ReplyDeleteP.S.---"Who knows what answers lurk in the mind of Vic Sage? The Shadow knows. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
ReplyDeleteSage was a foundling, wasn't he?
ReplyDeleteWhat if the Shadow was actually his father?
I can just picture that scene in a movie, Simreeve. A badly wounded Lamont Cranston--played by a much older Alec Baldwin--confesses through labored breathing: "Vic; I _am_ your father!"
ReplyDeleteI've long harbored a secret theory that the Shadow was the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. (Oops! I guess it's not a secret any longer.)
ReplyDeleteActually (according to the late, great Philip Jose' Farmer), that was Nero Wolfe. ;-)
ReplyDeleteSee Appendix C of PJF's TARZAN ALIVE (copyright circa 1972).
Yes, Cary Comic... Author William S. Baring-Gould previously suggested that Nero Wolfe was the son of Holmes and Adler in his biography of Sherlock Holmes titled Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World's First Consulting Detective (1962). I'm not sure if this theory originated with Baring-Gould or if he was just passing on the information.
ReplyDeleteThe Holmes-Shadow connection is entirely my own invention, but to be honest, I'm surprised that no one else has ever suggested this connection. There is no disputing that Holmes and the Shadow have strikingly similar profiles.
I'd highly recommend the Wold Newton Universe website, by Jess Nevins. It carries on the literary extrapolations started by PJF in the appendices of TARZAN ALIVE and its sequel, "DOC" SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE. Both works make for very entertaining reading. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cary Comic, I am quite familiar with the Wold Newton Universe. I've read Tarzan Alive, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life and A Feast Unknown. I also used to have the book Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe. My only problem with the concept is that they don't seem to reject anything. I read the article on Sherlock Holmes's offspring, and as I recall they included five or six of them! Instead of picking one (or I could maybe accept two) and making that their "official" pick, they just seemed to go along with EVERY suggested fictional Holmesian offspring anyone ever wrote about! (And still no one else suggested the Shadow!) I'll check out the website.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think most of those alleged Holmesian love-children are actually the progeny of Sir Jesse Clayton (Tarzan's biological paternal great-uncle)!
ReplyDelete