The Four Color Media Monitor

Backfire News wrote about the Volkswagen Beetle the Question drove in the 1987-90 series written by the late Denny O'Neil, which he depicted as a vehicle with special modifications:

When it comes to comic book heroes, DC’s The Question is often forgotten, as is his trusty Volkswagen Beetle. Sure, the little German economy car is no Batmobile, but it’s more interesting than the demure appearance lets on, allowing the crime fighter to blend in while he’s getting around.

[...] Obviously, the Volkswagen Type 1 helps with that objective. But it’s not just your average Bug, packing some unexpected upgrades to help The Question chase down bad guys and make his own getaways when necessary.

First, the little Beetle has undergone an engine swap, receiving the heart of a Porsche. Which Porsche, you might ask? We would assume one of the flat varieties, since that has been done from time to time, but it isn’t explained.

What’s weird is the transmission supposedly comes from a Ferrari. Why not use the Porsche transaxle? We can only assume throwing the brand from Maranello in there sounded good.

[...] Also reminding us that the comic books are fantasy and not a documentary, there is an instance with the Beetle which would raise any car guy’s eyebrows. After getting in what sure looks to be a front-end collision, the engine starts to smoke as the oil pressure drops.

Admittedly, the VW Beetle was a pretty ordinary car on the market, even long after it ceased sales in the USA in the late 1970s (the original was made up to 1986, and as auto experts know, it was later revived as a new front-engined model in 1998). Even so, I do wonder, what makes that particular car such a big deal to feature people driving in some fiction tales, and not Toyota models, which were pretty common economy purchases by the time O'Neil's Question series came out, or even Subaru? Or even some of VW's later models like the Golf, which were safer, since they had the engine in the front instead of the rear? Also worth noting is that American manufacturers like GM, Chrysler and Ford did have average looking vehicles too, which could've served the goal of the writing just as successfully.

All that said, I'm glad to see the car news site reminds everybody that comics of this sort are fantasy, and not inherently realistic as certain PC advocates like to push them to be, an approach that's caused considerable damage to writing merit over the past quarter-century. O'Neil's take on the Question (originally a Charlton creation) was impressive in its time, and he wrote much of the stories starring Charles Szasz between 1987-97. And while the monthly series only ran about 3-4 years, it continued afterwards as specials for a few more. I own about half O'Neil's stories in a whole omnibus, and someday, I'll see if I can obtain the rest to complete it. An interesting thing about how O'Neil and artist Denys Cowan approached the fight scenes was that they usually didn't use sound effect words like "crash", yet successfully conveyed the impact of combat pretty well. Other than that, the writing was all but "realistic", considering how the hero hid his face behind a blank-style mask donned with some kind of special chemical, to name but one surreal example. And that's good. Just like Batman, while it's not like the series featured costumed criminals like Batman did, it did still have certain surreal elements, and they served the Question tales just as well, without trying to be something modern PC advocates would push it to be.

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