The Question: All Along the Watchtower #4 review

The Question, Renee Montoya, was tasked with using her detective skills to find out who has been interfering with the Justice League Watchtower. And she’s cracked it!

The Cyborg Superman has escaped from the Phantom Zone and used his ability to meld with machinery to bring the tech to life, surprising and incapicating most of the heroes.

With no powers, Renee and Batwoman Kate Kane are unable to resist Cyborg Superman, his villainous allies and a handful of possessed good guys. One of them, Animal Man Buddy Baker, is left to look after Renee and Kate while Cyborg Superman gets on with his plan to blow up the Watchtower by merging it with the Zone.

Can Renee get through to A-Man?

Cover homage, anyone?

Anyway, the fightback is on.

I enjoyed the first issue of this series quite a lot, but with each instalment it’s become more and more difficult to accept that Renee was the right person for the job. She made precious little leeway in solving the mystery, and never did work out who was messing with the Watchtower before Cyborg Superman showed his shiny face.

And I don’t blame Renee, she’s good in Gotham but way out of her depth here. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman should have tapped a detective with powers, and much more experience of Justice League level threats, Elongated Man, or even Superman himself – isn’t Clark Kent a top investigative journalist?

Given she’s not really equipped to survive Cyborg Superman – I have no idea why the mass murderer hasn’t killed her – Renee actually does do a decent job, prompting A-Man and others to snap out of their villainous fugue.

The other thing it’s become ever tougher to get my head around is the fact that dozens of the world’s greatest superheroes fail to turn up to help take on Cyborg Superman; usually I could assume they were off fighting someone else, and that’s surely the case for many. But this new Justice League Unlimited has invited literally every hero on the DC firmament to join, many with massive mental, supernatural and/or cosmic powers. There’s no way they could all be taken out by plates of metal twisting and grabbing folk’s feet, and I can’t see the ‘stay away until further notice’ message cascaded to the membership keeping the likes of Supergirl and J’onn J’onzz at bay.

Ah well, it’s down to Renee, Kate and Buddy to save the day.

Speaking of Buddy, can he control – or at least talk to – animals these days?

Writer Alex Segura does a good job using Cyborg Superman’s history, and making him seem the smart guy he’s meant to be – newer readers may not know he began as a take on Reed Richards. And there’s a hint or two that Renee may be getting a little help…

Regular artist Cian Tormey is joined this time by Raül Fernandez and I couldn’t tell you who did what, the styles blend nicely… I guess Fernandez is consciously giving us his Tormey. The storytelling is clear, with Cyborg Superman looking particularly good, menacing. The Eradicator, here Cyborg Superman’s lackey, also looks splendid. As for Renee, I’ve still not taken to the new sheriff look, and it’s a shame her blank mask isn’t exactly conducive to expressive moments. Maybe that’s why Segura resorts to her effing and blinding so much.

The colour artist is Romulo Fajardo Jr and he does a good job, he’s not challenged to deliver anything novel. Meanwhile, Willie Schubert has fun with fonts – the Eradicator’s blocky words are my favourite.

Tormey and Fajardo’s cover is the best yet, a nice nod to Shakespeare.

With two more issues to go I’m still crossing my fingers this series will deliver a big surprise, confound my expectations. Or at least have Renee put her proper Question hat and coat on.