A good detective story is at its best when surrounding a reader with all of the clues they need to figure out the case, but shuffled around just enough that we can’t quite see the big picture just yet. Us, and the detective, scramble to figure out how everything fits together before the walls finally close in and there’s only one path forward. And while the noir of a good city can help with that feeling, throwing the whole thing into a city-sized space station with nearly every major hero in the DCU can make it a bit more fun. That’s where we’re at with Alex Segura, Cian Tormey, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Willie Schubert’s The Question: All Along the Watchtower.

The relationship between Earth and its heroes has changed recently—Absolute Power happened and heroes were sapped of their powers—and the newly minted Justice League Unlimited has built an orbiting watchtower. It acts as both a headquarters and hideout for heroes who may not trust the world below. But there’s an oddness running through the tower that no one can quite explain. Enough strange occurrences pile up that Batman recruits Renee Montoya—our current iteration of The Question—to investigate. Looking for an excuse to leave Gotham, Montoya takes on the new role and there are immediate escalations. A member of the Challengers of the Unknown is found dead in her room, a tiger from the bestiary is let loose, and one of Superman’s strongest foes breaks through security to wreck the tower’s atrium.

Like any good detective story, we have our main villain moving the pieces around the board to manipulate our characters just how he likes. But what’s interesting here is the way in which this manipulation occurs in the form of a mild mind control. Because that mind control is mild enough, it can be broken with the right words. What we have is a superhero detective story, but one that de-incentivezes simply punching through the problem. We see those pieces set up early as Montoya learns more about the people helping her in the investigation—Animal Man, two flavors of Blue Beetle, Batwoman—and all of that knowledge breaks through to snap them out of that control. While a fair bit of punching does happen—we do still need the catharsis of seeing Cyborg Superman launched through a wall into space—it’s The Question’s ability to connect to those around her that brings the mystery to a close.

While I am just as easily manipulated by a story with The Question—I grew up watching the Justice League Unlimited cartoon—this is the kind of role for the character that ends up fitting the best in a modern comics context. The beat on the streets of Gotham can be fun occasionally, but seeing mysteries solved on a space station just brings that extra bit of flair and genre-blending that makes cape comics all the more fun. 

Get excited. Get solved.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510, 651, & 674) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.