by request, Huntress/Question (pt 1)

[kingrockwell]

I wanted to start my Vic Sage series with Ditko and work chronologically from there, but a request is a request, so here we go!
After all, everything needs to start somewhere, and this story is where both Huntress/Question and Rucka!Question debut, so what better to post than

Batman Chronicles #15? Following stories of Kyle Rayner and Batman, Oracle and Man-Bat, is this 10-pager set during No Man's Land. Ugly art, for that I apologize.
(imageshack keeps timing out, so i had to go with tinypic this time. can i just say i hate their interface?)

Helena's just taken down an attack on a supply van when a stranger shows up. Instinctively, she shoots. He catches her bolt.

Not one page, and he's already started the puns. Rucka wastes no time.

They deliver the morphine to the doctors. Their patient is Carlotta Espinoza, trapped under rubble for 27 hours before she was found with the bodies of her husband and six-month-old son. Helena tells herself she understands why Carlotta screams better than the doctors ever will. She tells Vic Carlotta screams for justice.
"Don't we all?" Vic asks.


(moved that first panel to fit the crop)

They confront the supply sergeant. Turns outs one of the National Guard guys is hitting the supply trucks to sell the morphine on the streets. They make short work of his gang, and Helena has him pinned.


(gasp!)


And he's gone as quickly and mysteriously as he came in. Is this the start of a bee-yoo-tee-ful friendship, or just a pain in Helea's ass? Only time (and my next post) will tell!

And here, have some JLU. There's one that has all the Vic/Helena in the series, but it's padded with a lot of just Vic (it's also the vid that inspired me to buy my JLU dvds), so here's just one scene from Question Authority.

Comments

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

Question is going to have fun getting that data back.

[currer.insanejournal.com]

Yes! Vic Sage is one of my favorites! I need to hunt down more of his comics.
Thanks for posting this. :D

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

Ugly-ish art, yes, but oh how I love that armor/costume for Helena. Minus the stupid high heels, though. I do kind of like that second panel on the last scan, though, with Hel's motion lines cutting into Vic's silhouette. Nice.

[lady_mondegreen.insanejournal.com]

The costume in the scans is much more practical than the one with the panel cut out of the front. One would just assume that the most concentrated area of vital organs deserves some protection.

[kingrockwell]

I like that costume, yeah, but it's so much better when a good artist is drawing it.

[qob.insanejournal.com]

I always hear Jeffrey Combs voice when I read the Question.

[jarodrussell.insanejournal.com]

Yup. Me too.

[octopussoir.insanejournal.com]

Same here, his voice really is perfect for Vic.

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

I love Amy Acker, and her voice goes with the JLU Huntress, but - I just can't "hear" her for the Huntress in the comics pages. She sounds rougher in my head in the No Man's Land pages.

Major MOTTO on Combs, though. They hit the jackpot there.

[alphamonkey928.insanejournal.com]

I like Acker, too, but I don't think she "works," at least not as well as some of the other members of the JLU cast did. Come to think of it, I don't think they've ever cast anyone who's been particularly "right" for Huntress. It's Tara Strong doing her in Brave and the Bold, isn't it? Strong's great, too, but, for one, I associate her too much with Babs-girl, and for another, unless she's doing something weird with her voice, her normal speaking voice just isn't... gruff enough for Helena. It doesn't quite fit for me.

[dustbunny105.insanejournal.com]

Ditto that.

[sandoz_iscariot.insanejournal.com]

Love Jeffrey Combs. He might have made a good Rorschach back in the day.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

He does a good job, all right, but the voice I often hear is the voice of Simon from 'Firefly' (forget the actor's name, sorry) doing his 'this must be what going mad feels like' voice from the 'Jaynestown' episode. If I were to cast a 'Question' movie, that's who I'd cast as Vic.

[kingrockwell]

As a non-fan of Firefly, I got character names mixed up and thought you meant Alan Tudyk. Even so, ehhhhhhhhhh.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Well, I mean, who knows who I'd actually cast - I just thought his voice would fit, and he's not a bad physical match.

[tahngarth.insanejournal.com]

We either get Helena in a glorified bikini or Helena with huge knockers.

Sometimes we get both.

[kingrockwell]

Next I'm posting Cry For Blood, which gives us neither (Rick Burchett is the best at what he does)!

[jarodrussell.insanejournal.com]

Vic and Helena are such an excellent pair. I wish he were still around as The Question now that Birds of Prey has dissolved. There'd be a whole 'lotta potential for awesome in a series with those two.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

INORITE. I like Renee as the Question, but Vickkkkkk ;_;

Not to mention we don't even get to see Helena's reaction to his death.

[kingrockwell]

That is exactly what has always bugged me! I kind of want her to show up in Renee's 'Tec stories just so they can talk about Vic!

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

The Batman group editor DID say we might see her in 'Tec, so that's possible.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

There's already one cryptic testosterone-powered know-it-all vigilante in this city...
1) Yes, you, Helena.

b) Wait, ONE? You and Batman make TWO, Helena. Are you sure you're qualified to be a teacher? Oh, wait. Women and math.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

I love Rucka so much. He gave us awesome Helena, he gave my favorite version of Vic, and then he smushed them together into the BEST OTP EVER!!!

[dustbunny105.insanejournal.com]

I love that she appears to be tucking his data into the front of her costume rather than her belt in that scene. Smooth and subtle.

[kingrockwell]

"Smooth and subtle" are about the best two words for describing JLU in its entirety. At least the innuendous parts (which are, like, the best parts).

[chengar.insanejournal.com]

Very true; JL/U turned innuendo into a form of art.

[unknownscribler.insanejournal.com]

I read that as "smooth and stubble"

[kingrockwell]

Nah, that's what happens under Vic's mask when he doesn't shave.