Vic Sage: Because I can't pick just one

[kingrockwell]

One of these days I need to do a multi-part dissertation on our good buddy Vic, but for now you get a series of Perfect Moments.

we'll take these chronologically.
From Batman Chronicles #15, the first time Greg Rucka wrote Vic (and only the second time in ten years someone other than Denny O'Neil wrote him). The story, set in the middle of No Man's Land, was essentially a set up for Cry For Blood, which didn't hit for another two years.
Gross art, sorry.

Vic is snarky, but also self-aware. His puns then are perhaps deliberately egregious? :D

From Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood #5

This is a curious exchange here. It would fit for this to just be Bruce treating Vic as a nuisance to be regarded with suspicion and exasperation as he has since they first met, especially since Bruce is in ultra-patriarch mode right now, but another angle occurred to me today. Bruce just brought up "answers" to a guy who calls himself The Question. Did he set him up for that pun? Are they punning each other?
My head says no, but my heart says yes!


The superstitious and cowardly lot don't react well to a man without a face. Vic takes full advantage, makes Spider-Man jealous.

From 52 #4

More mask snark~~

From 52 #9

Perfect explanation of why Rucka's Vic is consistently my favorite!


More question puns!
though i gotta say Vic it's more effective if Renee knows you also go by The Question sometimes


But really now, because this post can't be just "Rucka writes jokes, King gets warm fizzies", we'll try someone else's Vic on for a try...

There is a little more to the guy than gratuitous uses of the word "question", after all. Hell, there's even more to his puns! Rick Veitch's 2006 mini-series left a weird taste in my mouth overall (which'll get its due analysis another time), but it did hit at least one important chord.

In the first issue, Vic is on a train, tracking a case from Chicago to Metropolis.



Right there. The perfect moment of Vic-as-detective. When the pieces don't fit (or maybe they do, but they tell him nothing), he reinvents the puzzle. Sort of like how Holmes said "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." It's not the answers that matter, it's the questions. Vic-as-detective is all about finding the right approach to a case. Once he's found that all manner of knowledge will open itself to him.

Hope you enjoyed this, and my rambling didn't bore you!
One of these days I really need to get into that dissertation.

Comments

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

Those last scans. Who's the artist? He reminds me of the Ex Machina guy (because of the photoreferencing) but I find the coloring and shading quite... intriguing.

[kingrockwell]

Tommy Lee Edwards did basically everything but the letters. He did an interview about it back in 2004 (which means the comic was delayed about a year!)
Even though I have apprehensions about the way this mini portrays Vic, I will say that it looks very cool. There is an undeniable style oozing from every page.

[jkcarrier.insanejournal.com]

There are (at least) three very distinct "takes" on Vic Sage: Ditko's, O'Neil's, and Veitch's. They have almost nothing in common, and yet I really like them all.

[kingrockwell]

Four. Rucka's is a pretty different guy from the others, too. You can probably guess which one I'm partial to. And then there's DCAU Vic, who has bits and pieces of each (except maybe Veitch). It's really kind of surprising how few writers have actually handled him over the last forty years. He did have an appearance in Steel, and played a part in L.A.W. but the guy has had relatively little coverage.
But the fact that every writer who's handled him has treated him so differently is one of the things that makes him so intriguing, and in desperate need of a scans-analysis series. (But then, is it that Vic desperately needs analysis, or that I desperately need to analyze him?)

Course, there's also Moore's, if you want to consider Rorschach a take on Vic (i don't).

[kingrockwell]

Ah, one thing I felt I should clarify here. While each take on Vic has been wildly different, there is a sort of progression to them, a continuity, even given the huge amount of time between each usually. O'Neil's may be very different from Ditko's, but he kind of starts off with something close to Ditko's before reshaping him into something else. And then Rucka kind of follows his lead and builds off of things O'Neil established, only developed further.

Veitch's rubs me the wrong way because he ignores O'Neil's and Rucka's to forge his own path off of Ditko's, making it hard to fit into any sort of history. I'm almost inclined to attribute it to him being a Vertigo writer who perhaps doesn't have to worry so much about continuity, where O'Neil and Rucka were DC writers, where continuity is given more attention.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Very intriguing. I like them a lot.

[currer.insanejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting Vic Sage/The Question scans. I love him, so much. You've made my day.

[kingrockwell]

No problem, I'm a pretty big fan myself!

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

"Full of questions? Would you like to be?" It almost works.

[(Anonymous)]

... I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't.

[menagerie.insanejournal.com]

That last bit, from the mini? Loved that mini dearly.

[darkknightjrk.insanejournal.com]

God, I love me some Vic. Great scans, man. :D

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

Rucka's version of Vic is my absolute favorite. I love them all, but his is the most interesting and fun one. His

SPOILERS!

death scene in 52 is just heartbreaking ;_;

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Personally, one of my favorite Vic moments is this little exchange from back in the O'Neil series:

"H-he ain't got no face."

"Those new safety razors - gotta be REAL careful with 'em."