50 Greatest Super Heroes In Comic Book History

35. The Question

(Write-up by Nick Tylwalk, Bam Smack Pow Editor)

If any hero on this list got a major bump from appearing in an animated series, it would have to be Vic Sage. As the Question, he played a major role on Justice League Unlimited, helping to expose a plot against the League and proving that paranoia is warranted when people really are out to get you.

Not that the Question wasn’t already a pretty interesting character in comics alone, because he was. Just, um, not one for kids. We’re talking about a guy whose early stories had a heavy philosophical bent, was more interested in rooting out government corruption than stopping bank robbers, and later used hallucinogens to have cities talk to him. Sage had a less than heroically ideal manner of treating the bad guys too, not always killing them but certainly not going out of his way to save them in times of danger either.

The Question’s most obvious impact is probably his influence on another character a little further down on our list. It’s no secret that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons wanted to use the heroes DC acquired from Charlton in Watchmen. When they were told they couldn’t, they came up with their own, thinly veiled takes on the same characters.

Thus, Rorschach is like the Question taken to his logical extreme. That, plus his unexpected cartoon stardom, warrants his inclusion here.

Next: No. 34: An Image original