Alias: The Question
Nicknames: TQ
Occupation: Former television news reporter, gambler, vigilante
Base of Operations: Hub City, travels frequently
Marital Status: Single
Height: 6' 2" Weight: 185 lbs.
Eyes: Blue Hair: Reddish-blonde
Vic Sage was named Charles Victor Szasz by the orphanage he was left at in Hub City. Never knowing his parents, he grew to be a brawly little punk, learning how to fight as the years went on in the rough and corrupt town he lived in. As he grew older, he became fairly proficient in the martial arts. But he was angry, filled with confusion about his own identity probably because of his abandonment at the orphanage by his biological parents. This anger manifested itself in his tendency towards violence, but despite the violence, however, Sage was still a reasonably good man.
When he became old enough, he made a place in society for himself as a brash, impulsive, and popular news reporter for Hub City's KBEL-TV evening news. Changing his name to Vic Sage, he developed a reputation for being a whistle-blower on all the corruption in Hub City, working to expose the filth caused by the city's drunkard mayor Wesley Ferminand the mayor's advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Hatch -- an apocalyptic priest who sought to bring about the Second Coming by plunging the world into evil. As hard as Sage worked, however, his efforts proved almost useless against the tidal wave of corruption that threatened to engulf the city. and he yearned to take more direct action in the fight against crime.
Sage was approached by a former college proffesor of his,
Sage decided to personally go after Twain and, at Rodor's suggestion, donned a mask of Pseudoderm to hide his well known features from view. Rodor's gas bonded the mask to Sage's face, obliterating his features and leaving him a nameless, faceless enigma who came to be known as The Question, a name dubbed to him by the citizens of Hub City, ironically, and not Sage himself. After bringing Twain to justice, and his idenitity now protected, Vic became a two-fisted, hard boiled vigilante. He was tough, arrogant, self-righteous, completely intolerant, and was convinced he was invincible. Although he abhorred Sage's violence and the anger he sensed in him, Rodor became the Sage's number one ally and friend.
In any event, the priest controlling Mayor Fermin finally grew sick of Vic Sage's reporting (not to mention the Question's night-time "escapades") and hired international mercenary Lady Shiva - an almost peerless martial artist - to take care of him. The priest arranged a meeting with Sage under the guise of discussing his reporting. Sage decided to go as the Question and, after trouncing the priest's thugs for the fifty billionth time, faced off against Lady Shiva whom he discounted as merely a woman. Of course, Shiva trounced the Question and the thugs broke every bone in his body before shooting him in the head and tossing him into the river.
It turned out that they didn't successfully kill him due to the cold in the river and some other mumbo-jumbo. Shiva, having seen in him a true warrior's spirit, fished him out and brought him to a hospital and alerted Proffessor Rodor.
Batman: You're a fool. An arrogant, incompetent dilettante. The only reason you're breathing is that you're obscenely lucky. You blunder into danger with no training, no plan, no purpose except to feed your ego and give yourself a few macho thrills!
The Question : Now wait just a min--
BM: Shut up. Don't you realize how valuable your life is? How valuable any life is? How dare you risk it?
TQ: I was fighting corru--
BM: You were getting kicks pretending to fight corruption. When you felt like it. When you were bored. When your career needed a little boost. You can't half do what you were doing. It's got to be fulltime -- your need, your obsessions, the engine that drives you. Its got to be who you are.
Suddenly, Sage realized that Batman was right. However, Batman's disapperance shortly after and his constant thoughts about Shiva and what had happened before made him wonder whether or not he was dreaming. Until he finally recovered, Vic was plagued with puzzling questions, not just about what had happened, but about why Shiva saved his life, why he did things, and most importantly -- who he was.
Upon his recovery, Shiva brought Sage to world-class marital artist Richard Dragon in his mountaint retreat, who promised to train him -- not physically per se, although he did learn yoga and some exotic oriental martial arts, but his mind. Dragon saw the fury and the anger and the violence and the confusion and, even, the secret death-wish, and Dragon tried to heal him. Although he succeeded partially in calming Sage's violent spirit, he couldn't fully remove it. He did, however, tell Sage the famous butterfly story....
"A wise man dreamed he was a butterfly. When he awoke, he had a strange realization, he realized that he didn't know if he was a man who had been dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was a man."
As he fought, Vic was constantly asking himself questions -- questions about whether or not he had a right to kill, questions about whether or not he could love Myra, about who he is, etc. In his adventures, he met up with Batman, Green Arrow, and Lady Shiva quite often, and they engaged in philosophical conversations while combating evil and corruption. Batman even had this to say:
"He's actually done a bit of good recently. One of these days, he might actually be competent."
However, the constant exposure to corruption and the hopelessness which pervaded Hub City took its toll on Sage who began to grow more violent. It took both Richard Dragon and Shiva to appear to calm Sage who decided that his destiny was always in fighting -- in this case fighting the city. He chose to give up, to move away, and, for the first time in his life, realized that it was the right choice and not just a coward's option. Myra, at the last minute, chose not to leave and staysed, hoping to make Hub City better.
Over the next four years, Vic developed a name for himself as a Poker player and proffessional gambler, moving around, always asking questions, occasionally meeting up with Shiva for the constant rematches they played and Shiva's enigmatic stares and comments about their fighting. To Shiva, the Question was Vic's real identity, not the other way around; she refused to fight him unless he donned the mask.
Sage finally returned to Hub City where Myra's work had truly made things better, and he continued to aid her on the streets as the Question. He was somewhat heartbroken when he discovered she had a new boyfriend, but the Question's life story wasn't - and isn't - really about happiness, but about discovering himself and the truth. He continued to roam around, never settling in one place for long.
When Huntress regained conciousness, Vic was able to convince her to stay and learn from Richard "how to live". Then he left, muttering to Richard to "take care of her" because he kinda liked her. As Richard watched him go he said to himself, "Of course you do. She's your other half."
After three months of letting Richard train his new pupil, Vic returned to take Helena home, and found himself falling for her. She told him her life story, and he accompanied her all the way home, and stayed with her to help her clear her name. It was interesting that while she denied help from any member of the Bat Clan, she readily accepted help from Vic.
The two shared a brief romance as he struggled to help her overcome the darkness and anger that surrounded her, and they winded up solving the case, but it was devastating to Helena, who learned awful secrets about her past she
Unfortunately Vic failed to fully bring Huntress to the light, and once he discovered she'd condemned her biological father to death, he left her, heartbroken and in disgust that she could still take a life.
Vic Sage has been transformed from a constantly angry, confused wreck who carried a secret death-wish and was in general bored with his existance, to a calm philosopher that allows his motions to flow rather than jerk about. He has become very introspective, asking himself moral and philosophical questions constantly. His calmness and enigmatic nature at times annoys the heck out of the people he's around (i.e. Professor Rodor, the Huntress), but he has garnered respect for his newly careful and fluid nature. Despite the life-shattering experiences, he still retains somewhat of a childish sense of humor and his good looks combined with his easy-going and charming nature make him somewhat of a ladykiller.
POWERS AND ABILITIES
Well, as it's been said a thousand times, Vic has no superpowers (sensing a pattern?). However, while not Batman or Nightwing, Sage is an exceptional detective, able to connect-the-dots and do research. Vic is keenly observant.and exceptionally intuitive. Usually his instincts are spot on, and he is able to read people, to sense when people are speaking the truth or lying to him. His years of experience pre-Shiva and post-Shiva have also given him various "street skills" including intimidation, uncovering information, etc.
Vic is a master of various martial arts and, unlike other costumed vigilantes, he rarely uses weapons or gadgets (although he is quite proficient in the art of escrima and various other weapons). In the DC Universe, he is definitely in the top ten of martial artists -- even
Sage possesses an insatiable curiosity about the world. This same quest for knowledge and thirst for justice has led him into the field of investigative journalism, and has driven him to seek out the answers to his own philosophical dilemmas as The Question. While not a superpower or anything, this curiousity is really what drives him to do what he does as both Vic Sage and Then Question. Vic has a unrelenting "need to know" basis, and tends to get obsessive about finding out the answers to the questions that life poses to him.
The Question possesses a Pseudoderm mask which glues onto his face when a certain gas is released from his belt. It bonds to his face to conceal his features, but still allows him to see and breathe normailly. The gas also changes the color of his hair and clothes, making him a completely anonymous crimefighter. The gas itself can be used as a smokescreen, or even a scare tactic.
He is also very adept at playing poker. :)
First off, Vic has the coolest name. Seriously. Secondly, The Question has gotta be one the most unique vigilantes out there.
He's this peaceful, considerate man who fights crime without a face and is constantly demanding questions of both himself and whoever he needs intel from. I mean, can you name anyone else like that? I mean, minus the faceless questioner part. I can't... He's so incredibly cool! He's got a sense of humor, too, so he's not a boring philosophical vigilante, either! He's definitely one of the most intriguing characters out there.
Vic may be the kind of guy who "spouts zen at passing drivers" (according to Huntress), but that doesn't mean that all he listens to is Enya or instrumental. No, Vic is into the classics, such as the likes of Frank Sinatra, Van Morrison, and timeless Oldies. And once in a while, he starts humming a pop song, and everybody runs. :)
