The Question: All Along the Watchtower #5 // Review
It’s over. The Watchtower is minutes away from complete annihilation. The thing is: it’s the beginning of the issue, so it’s not exactly over. After the opening splash page in which the news is delivered to her, the hero has more than has well over fifteen pages to save the day. Success is going to be a narrow target to hit in The Question: All Along the Watchtower #5. Writer Alex Segura and artist Cian Tormey reach the penultimate chapter of their mini-series with a fast-paced bit of adventure work as an appealing, new Question makes a very clear and appealing impression.
Cyborg Superman had been trapped in the Phantom Zone. He’s found a way out and in the process...he’s found a new power. He’s able to control other people like puppets. Any heroes that he doesn’t have under control are down for the count. Question has the entire place on quarantine lock down in an effort to halt the ever-expanding influence of the cybernetic villain. It’s been Questions job to figure out what was happening and stop it. So she’s halfway there now that she knows what’s going on. The rest of the process of working through things is going to be considerably more difficult.
Segura has quite a few different elements at play as the series approaches its final issue next month. The Question continues to come across with great appeal as she deals with overcomnig problems regarding an old relationship with Batwoman and a whole host of other problems on her way to dealing with the villains in question. She comes across as a strikingly level-headed person for someone in security who might just have the lives of a whole bunch of superheroes resting on her shoulders. It’s remarkably clever stuff from beginning to end without really reaching for anything too terribly deep.
Tormey’s art is gorgeous. It’s not easy to deliver the personal emotional state of a woman who doesn’t have any features at all on her face. Tormey is rather brilliant allowing the costume, the hat, he posture and the overall flow of action on the panels to deliver a whole lot about what she’s going through emotionally. Without the usual indicators, The Question’s body language ends up being that much more amplified in a story that works with remarkably vivid shocks of action throughout a fast-paced series of encounters from cover to cover.
Segura better not be leaning in a direction of pulling Renee out of the role of The Question. There are some hints that she might not be holding onto things for a whole lot longer. She’s SUCH an appealing character on so many levels and she complements Batwoman quite a bit as a co-lead. Could be very. cool to see an ongoing series with Batwoman and Question working the streets of Gotham or some such. It would even be cool to just have an ongoing series where the two of them continue to act as security for the orbital watchtower.
