Alas, Poor Henshaw! — Reviewing ‘The Question: All Along The Watchtower’ #4

Confusion. This is one of the key tactics to throw even the most seasoned and dedicated detectives off the trail. Get them chasing their proverbial tails, and they’ll end up uncertain of what is real and what’s a red herring.

Cyborg Superman threw the entire Justice League, but most importantly their sheriff, The Question, off his trail. Now the cackling, monologuing wannabe Superman stands victorious, ready to tear down everything the League has built.

I sure hope the League got an extended warranty on the new Watchtower.

The Question: All Along The Watchtower’s final chapter moves ever closer as Alex Segura, Cian Tormey, Raül Fernandez, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Willie Schubert up the stakes greatly.

Right off the bat, I groan when characters exposition dump to reveal things.

Unless it’s moments like these. If there is one villain (there are many more actually) who would do a clue dump monologue, it’s the cybernetic lite version of Superman. That guy sure does love the sound of his own voice.

With mysteries, often the audience wants to be able to look back and see clues that lead them to the revelation. Not having read back yet, I’m not sure if those clues are there for this story. Thinking back about each issue, I’m not recalling anything that even pinged Cyborg Superman, other than the foes we saw being related to Superman. This is not necessarily a flaw or mistake by Segura.

Some mysteries do not leave scattered clues, and we still enjoy those just as much, sometimes even more.

Artistic switches alternate between barely imperceptible to clear as a loud bell. With Tormey and Fernandez it’s the latter situation for sure. Which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Their styles stand apart when given the eye test, but they share much in common. They’re both slick and dynamic, with some whimsy dripping into the slightly rougher beats. It’s clear why they were paired on this issue. Editors and publishers working to lessen the gap artistically in these jam issues is really a good turn.

Having very different styles works in some cases while in others it kind of messes with the overall issue momentum.

Connecting the two styles is the color palette, where Fajardo Jr. dips into plenty of big vibrant tones befitting the heavy costumed character fantastical story wrapping. All the backdrops, such as the tower itself, are where the colors go down a notch. Feeling more grounded and familiar in many respects. Creating that contrast we desire in superhero comics.

It feels like our world, but with more flashy beings running around.

Speaking of the monologuing earlier, Schubert sure had some work this time around. He fits a ton of dialogue into bubbles on pages without obscuring everything. Cyborg Superman sure spewed the words across the landscape, not to mention all the various voices of tons of characters needing to feel a bit different at times. The each pop with personality, colorfulness, and little modifiers to give words more life.

The Question: All Along The Watchtower #4 is now available from DC Comics.