Continuing The Question

With each issue Ditko seemed to push the envelope a little further with the final issue being the most bizarre. An art critic named Boris Ebar goes absolutely ballistic when Vic's Sage's friend and television producer Nora Lace shows him a painting of a man standing in a triumphant pose. Boris is under the belief that the only worthwhile artwork is one where man is shown to be crushed by society, a shrunken huddled mass cowering in a corner. It's a strange view particularly given his absolutely insane reaction to the hopeful painting but Nora is also somewhat of a jerk for taking such pleasure in arrogantly taunting the critic and make no mistake she's doing it on purpose.

This story actually carries over from the Blue Beetle story called "Destroyer of Heroes" where a man calling himself "Our Man" attempts to destroy heroic art pieces. "Our Man" actually starts to attract a loyal following but he's finally taken down by Beetle when he tries to destroy a statue called "The Unconquered". Boris Ebar appears in both stories and expresses his support for "Our Man" in the Blue Beetle story. It's a really weird pair of stories but I would say it's a reflection of Ditko's view of how some people think. I'm not positive who "Our Man" or the Ebar are supposed to represent (although I have my suspicions) but the triumphant spirit is clearly supposed to be the Objective philosophy; whether the Objective philosophy is actually a hopeful philosophy or not I'll let others debate.

Here's my big problem with The Question as Ditko wrote him. He's just flat out not nice. Have you ever met someone who even when they're correct you dislike them for their correctness? In issue 4 story "Kill Vic Sage" The Question knocks his would be kidnappers into the rushing waters of a sewer. They plead with The Question for help but he refuses and allows them to get sucked down possibly to their deaths. One could argue that The Question was justified in taking revenge on his would be murderers but I don't get the sense that this is what is happening. It just feels like The Question doesn't care, as if he his no humanity.

Boris Ebar may be an unpleasant man but the only crime we see him commit is trying to hire some guys to destroy the painting. Mostly he's just a man with tremendous inner turmoil hating triumphant paintings because they remind him of a time when he could have chosen a positive path through life. He's someone with a whole lot of self loathing and yet Nora and The Question take tremendous pleasure in torturing him and when Boris Ebar suffers a complete mental breakdown The Question shows not a shred of concern. Even when The Question is fighting criminals he's so smug about it you almost wish the criminals would smack him around a bit. As I've mentioned before Ditko took a literal black and white view of the world. There is no mercy for those who are on the path of evil. Although comics in general tend to neatly divide good and evil most traditional comic heroes take a somewhat merciful (sometimes overly merciful) view towards criminals. In many ways The Question is even more ruthless than someone like The Punisher because his motivation isn't revenge. In the five issues there is no definitive evidence that The Question killed anyone but he just seems so detached that you can imagine him killing and not losing a moment of sleep.

Issue 5 was the final issue but Ditko would later recreate The Question in a character he felt would not have passed the Comic Code. Coming up is Mr. A.

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