Question (comics)

The Question, originally created for Charlton Comics, is the name used by a number of superheroes in comics published by DC Comics.

Caption Boxes
Hub City, Friday, November 21, 10:45 P.M.: Charles Victor Szasz has exactly 25 hours and 15 minutes to live. He has been waiting a while now, listening to the hiss of tires on wet pavement and the drone of voices from inside the small building--curses, mutters, an occasional bark of laughter. Waiting for the tension to build, feeling the knot of excitement in his belly tighten and the muscles beneath his clothing tense... He is almost ready. In a moment, he will commit himself. He will burst through the door to do violence, or have violence done to him. That he may dies is of no interest to him in these charged seconds. Here, now, he is fully alive and that is what matters... The waiting is over...

Charles Victor Szasz/Vic Sage/The Question
You know what your problem is, Finch? You get carried away with your own importance--but not far enough.

Time for all idiots to die. Better make out your will.

You can say it in just two words: IT STINKS. I'm talking about the administration of Mayor Wesley Fermin. In past reports, we've shown you the corruption in the Parks Department and the Parking Violations Bureau. Tonight, I'm going to show you this foulness has spread to the Board of Education. Roll the tape, Ed. Recognize the guy with the nose candy? That's Mitchell Doohan, our Commissioner of schools--and the floozie with him is Marilyn Klebb, who is the roommate of Adam Perch, who is the contractor just awarded a huge building contract by... Guess who! --Mitchell Doohan. What you've just seen is being used to blackmail our Mitch. Like I said, it stinks. The decent people in this town are paying for services that don't exist while the political slugs get fat. Why doesn't Mayor Wesley Fermin do something about it? Is he lazy, stupid... or WORSE?

Sure. Wait a week till the lawyers get their thumbs out of their noses so they can tell me what they don't know. Not THIS kid, Myra.

Yeah, 'cause I'm an orphan and that gives me feelings of inferiority and BLAH BLAH BLAH. I've heard the psychological blather before... Didn't believe it then and don't now.

I'd love to chit-chat with you... maybe compare Plato's Republic with Moore's Utopia--or something kicky like that--but I think there may be a problem developing with the Question's mask.

Look, Tot, I was born in this city... at least I think I was. I was raised here. When I was growing up, it was a good place to live. Even in the orphanage I could tell that. Now... it's a cesspool! Guess it's getting to me.

So you know my real name. HOORAY.

Lady Shiva
I will do whatever you request! PROVIDED I wish to.

I provide my services for a fee. I do neither less nor more than I am requested. I was not requested to protect a videotape--nor to nurture the inept.

If you ever touch me again, I shall shatter three bones in your arm: the humerus, the radius, and the ulna. I shall shatter them in such a way that shards will protrude into the nerves, causing intense pain! I shall shatter them in such a way that no western doctor will be able to repair them. Your arm will thereafter dangle from your shoulder like a dead fish. Do you understand?

Reverend Jeremiah Hatch
Go home to the mayor's mansion, Brother Fermin--go to your television and your bottles and your dreams. I shall deal with the ugliness of the world and of the flesh. For is that not my calling?

But I am a fair man. I shall let it continue--only until every bone in his body is broken. Then I shall permit Brother Gun to shoot him in the head. Then we shall dump him in the river. And THEN, if he arises singing DANNY BOY, I shall give him anything he wants.

Richard Dragon
Maybe learning to learn from a cripple is the first lesson. (Issue 2, "Butterfly")

Your body is not your problem. It's your mind that needs work. (Issue 2, "Butterfly")

Time, being an illusion, is infintely malleable. It can be stretched. It can be contracted. What shapes it is the mind. ... Once upon a time, 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. (Issue 2, "Butterfly")

You'll have nothing more to learn the minute after you're dead. (Issue 2, "Butterfly")

You've got to use what you've discovered about yourself and that will show you what you need to discover next. (Issue 2, "Butterfly")

You've got to let go! Let go of all the discomfort and pain and fear -- and to do that, you first have to accept. Accept the discomfort and pain and fear and cherish it. It'll only leave when you invite it to stay. (as a scorpion/hallucination in Issue #14, "Saving Face")

The future doesn't exist. Neither does the past. Only now exists. (as a scorpion/hallucination in Issue #14, "Saving Face")

It was [kung fu] once. Then it evolved. (Issue #34, "...Were it not that I have bad dreams...")