The Question: All Along the Watchtower #2 // Review
The police are investigating Rene’s bedroom. There’s a pool of blood on her bedroom floor. Thankfully the pool of blood in question isn’t hers. That doesn’t make it any easier for her, though. There was a wild animal that attacked someone who wasn’t even supposed to be in her bedroom. In an orbital space station. Where she’s the head of security. Thing can only get better for Rene in The Question: All Along the Watchtower #2. Writer Alex Segura continues continues a an infectiously fun six-fi detective story with the cleverly stylish artist Cian Tormey and colorist Romulo Dajardo Jr.
Things might get a little bit better for Rene, but it’s not like they’re going to get a hell of a lot less weird…or uncomfortable. Rene’s ex is implicated in the mess. To make matters worse: Rene’s wx just happens to be Batwonan. It’s going to be difficult to navigate the minefield of ex-love, duty and safety…especially when it turns out that a Kryptonian is involved and extreme danger challenges the entire Watchtower orbital space station. Rene is going to have to work quite closely with her ex if either one of them is goi g to be able to survive.
Segura mixes traditional detective mystery with something that feels very much like it could’ve come out of the old west. Throw that on a space station and you’ve got a cowboy space detective investigation. It’s a fun multi genre, mashup. But what really makes this particular space western work is the fact that Segura has done a very good job of layering is so many different elements of the DC universe into a single script. It’s such a brilliant fusion on so many different levels. There is a strong sense of the absurd. It doesn’t necessarily require a whole lot of knowledge of the DC universe in order to, make the plot compelling. Very sharp stuff.
Tormey is given the same kind of challenge that every Question artist has had to deal with going all the way back to Ditko’s creation of the character over half a century ago. A great deal of the work of making the character expressive is delivered in the first person monologue. Much of the rest of the emotionality of Rene is drawn to the page by Tormey in cleverly-framed action, moody angles and nuanced expression in her body. Romulo Fajardo Jr.‘a color gives the Watchtower quite a bit of agmoaphere around the edges of the action.
Between this title Challengeds of the Unknown and the new Justice League comic book, DC is rendering a remarkably cool shared universe that feels deliciously integrated ion a whole bunch of different levels. This is a welcome change of pace from the way things have been in mainstream superhero comics in the past decade or so. Not a whole lot of attention has been paid to overall continuity and the overall quality of both Marvel and DC universe have suffered. It’s nice to see DC turning things around a bit with Justice League’s new Watchtower family of titles.
