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Vic Sage is well known in and around Hub City. He is an on-again, off-again on-air investigative reporter for KBEL out of Hub City. His reports are known for being no-holds-barred and he is popular among viewers for his strong language and editorializing. He has made numerous enemies among those he has targetted for investigation; Enemies including politicians, judges, police officers, priests and charity organizers. All people were found to be bad, dirty or corrupt in one way or another.
The Question is often referred to, in Hub City, as the "No Face Guy". He's as much of an urban legend in Hub City as Batman is in Gotham City. The Question often is talked about in hushed tones and usually among the ne'er-do-wells of the city when they talk of violent encounters with the Vigilante. Outside of Hub City, The Question is less known. He is known to the superhero community as he has "teamed up" with members of that community from time to time.
Background
Vic Sage has always been an enigma. He was orphaned at a young age and never knew his family. He grew up in an orphanage in Hub City and was named Charles Victor Szasz. He is an individual without a history, without a family without an identity. However he made due throughout his youth. He was quite an aggressive athletic youth. He was strong and very competitive. He also had an inquisitive nature as a youth. Which naturally progressed into a desire to get into the field of journalism.
He took on the name Vic Sage after breaking into investigative journalism at a local television news program. He sought to root out the various underworld goings on in Hub City and expose the corruption that was rampent in the city. Vic Sage developed quite the reputation as a hard hitting and persitant investigator. He got absorbed into his work, made his investigative reporting on crime and corruption a part of him and wanted to get directly involved in rooting it out and stopping it.
Vic Sage was approached by a University professor by the name of Aristotle Rodor. Rodor had created an arisol formula that created a synthetic skin-like substance that was originally meant for the medical field. It was utilized on Vic to create a mask for him to take on a seperate identity and take a more personal role in his crusade on crime. Vic took on the alias of The Question to hide his true identity, as he had a recognizable face due to his journalism.
The Question eventually began to probe into the corruption of the Mayor of Hub City. The Question eventually found out an ambitious and rather less than religious preacher was pulling the Mayor's strings and was the real power. The Question became an annoyance to this preacher, named Hatch, and was eventually set up. Hatch hired Lady Shiva who attacked The Question and soundly defeated him. One of Hatch's goons shot the Question in the head and dumped his 'supposedly' dead body in the river. Lady Shiva had felt something with The Question, a certain something about him that seemed to make him a true warrior. Shiva retrieved his body from the river, thus saving his life.
Once The Question had recovered, Lady Shiva offered to train Vic in martial arts, seeing potential in the masked Vigilante. Lady Shiva took Vic to meet Richard Dragon. Vic Sage spent a lot of time developing his fighting skills after being nearly killed. Lady Shiva trained Vic in the martial arts and Richard Dragon trained Vic in how to live, giving him new philosphies and an outlook on life. With a new outlook on life and with new techniques and abilities under his control. He took on crime and corruption in Hub City with renewed vigor. However the city was still overrun and overwhelmed with it.
After stopping an assassination attempt on the Police Chief of Hub City, Vic Sage is again thrust into action when the would-be assassin escapes from court with the help of his Seattle-based Defense attourney and a plastic gun he gave the defendant. Vic gave chase, but the would-be assassin tossed him off the rooftop of the building. They escaped to Seattle and Vic soon followed them. Upon arriving in Seattle, Vic is attacked by one of the would-be assassin's goons. Vic recovered after some time and decided to become The Question to deal with this case. He tracks down the person who beat him up and tries to interrogate the man with his fists and try to get information out of him. While in the middle of doing this, The Question was attacked from behind by the Goon's friend. Vic was knocked out and when he comes to, he learns he is being taken to the two people he was originally seeking. The Question escaped out of the moving vehicle that they were in and tries to run. The goons catch up to the wounded and exhausted Question and are about to execute him when Green Arrow shows up and saves Vic!
Apparently The Green Arrow is after these goons too and has uncovered that they are smuggling Plastic Guns into the country via England. The Question is eventually released from the ropes that the goons had him tied up in by Green Arrow and the two work together to bring down the plot. This is the first time Vic and Green Arrow met and worked together. They got on each others nerves, but were an effective partnership. After this encounter in Seattle, the Gun Smuggling business was disassembled and the two went their seperate ways, though they meet up from time to time.
The Question left Hub City for a while after a good honest but inexperienced politician lost an election bid for Mayor of Hub City. After The Question overcame and neutralized all the threats to this candidate, she lost and her child was threatened with death by the new political authority of the city. The Question felt that Hub City was a lost cause and ventured out into the world to solve crimes and root out corruption where ever he went.
Vic decided to head back to Hub City on a lead to his own origins. He finds himself looking up the old orphanage that he grew up in. Apparently some records there would lead to some enlightenment on his past. Upon arriving, he stumbles upon a plot to harm one of nuns that helped to raise Vic. Vic has a minor crisis of conscience as he recalls this particular Nun tormented him as he grew up. Vic makes the right choice, of course, and busts in just in time to save the nun from the hoods that were threatening to do harm to her.
Some time passes and Vic finds himself in the audience of a Karate championship. He's curious as to who would come out on top and claim the title at this particular event. While there he happens to run into Lady Shiva again. The two watch the various matches together until someone dressed as Azrael participates. This individual impresses Vic with his techniques, and he commented to Lady Shiva his opinion of this Azrael's move. Vic is rather surprised when Shiva notes that the moves are amaturish. Vic realises how much he still has to learn and he has a long way to go in his martial arts training.
Vic as a civilian was out of luck as far as job were concerned. He couldn't freelance a report or get a job at a local affiliate. So Vic made his money gambling in poker and with a gig as a bodyguard aboard a river boat. One day while on the Riverboat for his job, Azrael shows up. Apparently the river boat was set up to be attacked mobster's son out to impress his deceased father. Azrael and Vic teamed up to stop the attack and thwart the mobster's son, Junior Musto.
Vic eventually ventured to the outskirts of Gotham. He was dressed in civilian clothing and walking along the road, trying to hitchhike a ride into Gotham. The person who pulled over to pick him up was none other than Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress. She gave him a ride into town, where they seperated. Days later, Vic is still in Gotham and searching for leads when he happens by a disturbance involving Batman, Nightwing and Huntress. Huntress accidentally shot Batman and dove into a river to escape Nightwing. Vic dove into the water to save Huntress.
When the Huntress awoke, she was greeted by The Question and his teacher, Richard. He gave their introductions to Helena and asked to remain with her to help her, to teach her how to live rather than how to die. Helena agreed to train under The Question and his teacher. They soon set out to clear her name of the murders that she was framed for. They visited her family to get some answers. They returned to Helena's apartment only to be greeted by Batman. Batman told them that he was going to give Helena a chance to clear her name. The Question and Helena utilized information provided by Oracle and Robin to track down Helena's real father. Helena found out how she was meant to die and how her real father was actually framing her for the murders being committed. They arranged for her Father to be caught red handed and thus cleared her name.
Vic Sage began to travel more extensively, leaving Hub City to the hands of Mayor Myra Connelly-Fermin and her initiatives to clean up the city. Vic sage, as he travelled, worked a freelance reporter for any news outlet that would have his reports. While he travelled, he uncovered and shown light onto corruption in police departments, charities, church organizations and anywhere he could find it. Then the skies over the world darkened and The Crisis started.
Vic soon realized that many of the heroes of the world that usually dealt with these sort of events were strangely not responding to the rise in supervillain activity. Vic decided to return to his home in Hub City and again take up the mantle of being its Protector. The Question, Hub City's depleted police force and the various members of gangs and criminal groups within the city strangely worked together to fight off the alien invasion that started to plague the planet. Hub City, Vic and the gangs were ill equipped to fight off the insect-winged aliens that plagued the city. However they fended them off long enough for the Crisis to be handled by the heroes in the Labyrinth. Vic and Hub City found themselves enveloped in a bright light. The next thing Vic knew was that everything was suddenly back to normal. Or was it? The world was different and full of new questions and new problems to answer.
Personality
The Question is a changed man, he's no longer an aggressive vigilante who will pummel a criminal for attempting to commit a crime. He focuses on using his words to talk since or talk down a criminal rather than his martial arts skills. The Question is a charismatic man and he knows this and utilizes this. He has a way with words that allows him to disarm someone without having to take away their gun. The Question can offer subtle suggestions to get someone to do something that will work towards his own goals. He has often convinced someone to drop their weapon rather than disabling them with a couple of strikes. His charisma can make Vic a likeable person if it were not for his enigmatic nature.
Not revealing important information until Vic has uncovered the whole truth is a good reason for why The Question does not work with many people. Vic has his allies, but he has very few of them. He relies mainly on himself and is supported or supports others every now and again. He prefers to work alone, as it keeps him from being distracts and keeps him focused on the question at hand. When he does work with someone, due to how he interacts with people and the responses he gives to questions, he's usually not completely trusted. He knows he can be trusted by those he allies with, he does not convey that well to those people however.
The Question loves a good mystery or conspiracy. It challenges him when he's attempting to find the truth. The Question lives for a good investigation and is quite adept at finding the truth. He'll comb through the details, he'll investigate crime scenes or question witnesses. Once can say The Question can not let a good mystery remain a mystery for long. A base reason why Vic can not let a mystery go unsolved is because Vic is genuinely curious. He is curious about the truth in everything and seeks to reveal it to himself and to anyone else interested.
The Question has a strong since of justice and a strong since of right and wrong. He's on a personal crusade to root out the evils and corruption in the world. Not because he witnessed some traumatizing event in his past, but because he feels the truth should be revealed and justice to be handed out to those that wronged others or sought to wrong others. It all started as a TV Reporter, but his need to bring criminals and corrupt politicians to justice outgrew his role as a TV Reporter. He's donned The Question persona to effectively root out what's wrong with the world.
One would think a man who thought of himself as having no past, no real identity and a severe emptiness inside him would be a depressed and sociopathic mess. In fact The Question used to be driven a totally different way due to this lack of a past or identity. It used to cause him to overcompensate and act like a macho jock. However due to the teachings and study he has taken on, it's changed into a different drive for him. He embraced the fact that he lacked a past and identity. With this acceptance, The Question finds himself needing to find the truth in everything. Since he's accepted his own self the way he is, he has this drive to find the absolute truth in everything. The Question sought the truth in rooting out the evils and corruption in the world, now that drive is a stronger driving force than ever.
The Question has a rather powerful will. The Question will not buckle under interrogation, even from the most intimidating of figures (Batman et al). If undergoing torture to have information drawn from him, it would take a high degree of pain for the Question to willingly give away any knowledge that he may have. The Question does not fear death or pain Though the Question obviously would like to avoid being in such situations, it's not impossible to see something like that happening.
The Question is good at asking questions to get information that he wants to glean information from responses that are not strait forward answers. The Question is, however, vague in his own responses to inquiries. The Question is often evasive when questioned himself, when he wants to be. He feels that a lot of information is on a need to know basis until he is ready to reveal the truth of what he has uncovered. This can be aggrivating to those who are working with The Question. When the Question does reveal clues before the whole truth has been revealed, they tend to be quite subtle. They are answers that lead only to more questions to those who have not figured out more of the puzzle.
Logs
- 2013-09-07 - Six For Three - The Sinister Six decides to make some profit in Gotham City. And they thought Spider-Man was a pain, they haven't met THE QUESTION! (GG: 2013-09-07 - Sinister Six Shanghaied)
- 2014-02-06 - Coffee and Counterfeit Notes - Dilana goes for coffee and meets the Question. Investigation ensues.
- 2014-02-08 - Questions and Forklifts - The Question is out on one of his investigations in Metropolis. Dilana followed him and Cyberdragon stumbled across him. Whatever the Question is looking for results in a big brawl that ends with someone being pinned to a wall with a forklift.
- 2014-05-11 - On a Dark and Stormy Mother's Day - Cassandra, Asia and The Question are put together by a shadowy figure.
- 2014-05-16 - No Losers, Only Winners - The Question is investigating a young sports organization's questionable tactics. Richenda Grey inadvertently joins in. The excitement is enough to lose one's pants over.
- 2014-05-17 - To Thineself Be False - Cassandra is caught on camera and the government gets hold of the video! Oracle calls in The Question to assist with a Stealth Mission!
- 2014-06-01 - Fire and Files in the Psych Ward - The Question is investigating a crooked Doctor but his investigation is interrupted by a brief trip through a top-story window. Spidey's there to catch him and help him finish the job.