THIS WEEK: Renee Montoya faces the past and charts a new future in The Question: All Along The Watchtower #6.
Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
The Question: All Along the Watchtower #6
Writer: Alex Segura
Artist: Cian Tormey
Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: Willie Schuber
Cover Artists: Cian Tormey & Romulo Fajardo Jr.
The Question: All Along The Watchtower has followed Renee Montoya as she walks among the giants of the Justice League Unlimited. A street-level detective with no powers tasked with managing security aboard the JLU’s highly-advanced satellite headquarters is an incredible premise, and the series has only grown in scope around Renee as an unexpected threat from the Phantom Zone arrived to threaten the League. This week’s final issue, from the creative team of writer Alex Segura, artist Cian Tormey, colorist Romulo Fajardo Jr., and letterer Willie Schuber, raises the stakes even further, while maintaining a focus on Renee and her journey in a compelling and satisfying way.
In a lot of ways, All Along the Watchtower is a book about carving out your own identity. Renee is the second character to bear the name The Question. She is teamed with not one but two legacy Blue Beetles, Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes, as well as Kate Kane, the second Batwoman. Renee’s mentor and the first The Question, Vic Sage, also makes an important appearance in this book. And the big bad of the series, Cyborg Superman, was famously one of the replacement Supermen back in the ‘90s, as was another villain of the series, The Eradicator.
While it’s true that you can’t shake a stick in the DC Universe without hitting a legacy character in the face, the inclusion of these particular characters feels very pointed on the part of writer Alex Segura. Ted, Jaime, and Kate owe very little to their predecessors aside from having adopted their names, while Cyborg Superman and Eradicator have never been able to fully get out from under the shadow of the Man of Steel. Renee falls somewhere in the middle – she has a relationship with and owes a debt to her predecessor, but is also very much her own person. Her individuality serves her well as head of security on the Watchtower, a position that sets her apart from the rest of the heroes around her, and Segura does a great job conveying the complexity of her background and her role in this series.
For as character-focused as this series and this issue are, there’s still plenty of action and excitement, and it’s all brought to life expertly by the art team of Cian Tormey and Romulo Fajardo Jr. Tormey’s linework has an exaggerated, flowing quality to it that captures the energy of the chaos on the Watchtower perfectly. It at times risks being hard to follow what’s going on, but Tormey’s page layouts are clear, his storytelling chops solid throughout. Fajardo Jr.’s colors complete the visuals, providing clarity and depth to the linework, and flourishes to the occasional flashback or spectral appearance. It’s a rip-roaring superhero story, and it’s great to look at.
Overall The Question: All Along the Watchtower #6 wraps up the series nicely, while leaving the door open for further stories starring Renee and her not-so-ragtag crew of Justice Leaguers. If there are gaps in some of the sci-fi logic of what’s happening (still not sure how Cyborg Superman was mind-controlling people using the Phantom Zone), they are more than made up for by the strength of the character work on display. There’s also at least one dangling development in this issue that demands to be addressed in a future story. Hopefully Segura, Tormey, Fajardo Jr., and Schuber will have the opportunity to do so soon.
Final Verdict: BUY.
Round-Up
- A fifth week means not a ton of new releases from DC this week, but what is out is by and large pretty fun. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest 2025 Annual #1 continues the “We Are Yesterday” storyline with some backstory on how future Grodd brought the Legion of Doom together in the past, and how he brought them to the future without anyone knowing. Christopher Cantwell turns in a sharp script from a plot by he and Mark Waid, and Dan McDaid and John Kalisz’s art is energetic and stylized. Halfway through this storyline and things are starting to come together nicely. A backup story by Morgan Hampton, Clayton Henry, and Neeraj Menon rounds out the issue with a nice look at the early days of John Stewart’s time as a Green Lantern.
- In other Batman news, Detective Comics 2025 Annual #1 offers a pair of mysteries for the dark knight to solve. The main story from writer Al Ewing, artists Stefano Raffaele, John McCrea, and Fico Ossio, colorists Lee Loughridge, Triona Farrell, and Ulises Arreola, and letterer Tom Napolitano is full of entertaining twists and turns and side adventures, with just enough nonsense added in that you don’t forget that this is a superhero comic. The backup from Joshua Hale Fialkov, Mike Norton, Nick Filardi, and Troy Peteri is a light palate cleanser of a story as Batman teams with a 7th grader to solve a mystery at the kid’s school. Shades of Gotham Academy here, in a good way.
- The Power Company: Recharged #1 continues the formation of the new Power Company started in the February one-shot, with an added dose of the Jace Fox Batman this time around. The story from writer Bryan Edward Hill, artists Khary Randolph, Alitha Martinez, Norm Rapmund, Ray Anthony Height, and Studio Skye Tiger, colorists Emilio Lopez and Alex Guimaraes, and letterer Andworld Design feels more like a Batman story with some Power Company guest appearances, and doesn’t really do much to show why Jace would need to join up with this team. As a Batman story it’s really solid, but as a team story it kind of falls flat. Visually the book coheres remarkably well given the five credited artists – credit to colorists Lopez and Guimaraes on that front. Definitely interested in seeing more of the new Power Company, hopefully in a story where they function more as a team.
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