Man, the whole Syria factor kinda ruined it for me. Bad timing I guess. ( )

Another Question TPB. This time she's helping people through a website, www.ask-the-question.net (haven't tried it in a real browser). This time she stumbles onto a ring of human traffickers, and then an even bigger smuggler's ring.

Somewhere along the line she also picks up Helena, the Huntress, as a partner against the Organized Crime bosses behind the entire thing. It takes Renee all over the world and back to Gotham even. Where we get to see Barbara Gordon (yay!!) and the way in which Renee reacts to the fact that Helena is going to Barbara for help is just amazingly hilarious. It made me sad that they never let the Question be part of the Birds of Prey.

The one thing that confused me was what was up with Renee having blonde hair when she was The Question (with the no face mask on). She didn't have blonde hair in 'Five Books of Blood' when she was the Question. Just a little weird thing. Overall though I did like the art. ( )

In this book, Rene Montoya as the Question goes on the simple task of helping a man find his missing sister and ends up discovering a massive international trafficking scheme. Uncovering the head of this organized crime ring is tougher than first appears though and Montoya calls on both Tot and the Huntress to help her out.

To start off, I should note that I somehow missed a title in the Question's storyline so some elements of this story confused me a bit as I realized I was missing something. That being said, this was still an interesting read. Ruck is a genius at dialogue, plotting, and holding back commentary when the pictures will suffice on their own. I enjoyed the repartee between Montoya, Helena, and Tot but wished we saw more of Rene's personal life here. The story was perhaps not the most original or compelling, but it made for an interesting enough read. The art work was not the most stellar example I've seen in comics but it's pretty darn good. ( )

A point form review:

• I'm not a huge fan of the "Bible of Crime" plot, at least not as much as Rucka seems to be (given its frequent appearance in his work for DC).
• The original publication format for these stories, as short backups in Detective Comics, is more of a bane than a blessing. Nothing ever really gets a chance to develop a proper flow before it all has to come to a halt as the installment ended.
• Lastly, Cully Hammer's art. It no longer appears as bad to my eyes, now that it doesn't have J.H. William III's art taking up the other half of the book as it did in Detective, but it's still just not for me in any shape or form.

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