Now, Kevin Smith is hardly the first director to come to mind when you think about the budding Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes, but the Tusk helmer is an avid comic-book fan, and if he had his way (which Smith openly admits is a very big ‘if’), the director already knows exactly which superhero he’d want to make a movie about: DC Comics’ vigilante The Question.
Who? That was my response too. The comic-book character (real name: Vic Sage) originated way back in 1967. In the mythology, Sage was a prominent investigative journalist who, unable to stop a crooked scientist without exposing his true identity, donned a mask made from an artificial skin-like substance called Pseudoderm. The substance, when coupled with a binary gas, essentially erased his features, leaving Sage with the horrifying appearance of a faceless man.
Smith made his preference known at the Produced By conference in Los Angeles while speaking with KPCC host John Horn. His idea involves taking a “noir-ish thriller” (a la Chinatown) approach to the character, about whom Smith says:
“I always thought if you were in an alley and f—ing Batman showed up you’d be like, ‘Oh f—, Batman.’ But if a dude shows up with no features and starts punching you, you would probably kill yourself in fear.”
The Question has never been one of the more popular comic-book vigilantes, but there is one way in which we could feasibly see the character brought to life – Renee Montoya became the vigilante after Sage, and Victoria Cartagena currently plays that character on Fox’s Gotham. Of course, Smith is probably too big to ever consider directing a TV episode in order to feature the character – what he’s talking about is a full-blown movie adaptation, which seems a bit more unlikely. Additionally, The Question seems extremely similar to Watchmen‘s Rorschach, at least superficially, and that may be enough to make studio execs skittish about committing to a cinematic take on the character.
