This might not be a big deal to anyone, but Steve Ditko, co-creator of characters like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, passed away earlier today at the age of 90. He also created my all time favorite superhero, the Question, who I've written several fanfictions about on this very site.
So, in tribute to Mr. Ditko, I decided to take a bit of my time to write the Question the way he envisioned the character: as a right-wing objectivist vigilante who knows no pity for criminals. Enjoy. Or not, I guess. I dunno.
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They're lowlife scum corrupting his fair city.
He's the righteous man putting an end to their schemes.
"The only reason you live is because I don't feel like getting blood on my gloves," the righteous man says, pressing his faceless visage against the terrified face of one of the criminals. "I will not end your life personally. But I will set you on the fast track to the electric chair. You and your friends have proven that you all desire to take a seat in it."
He drops the man as though a child discarding a broken toy, gracelessly, carelessly. The motion makes no effort to hide the faceless man's disdain of the other and his kind. "I don't think you know who I am. But you and your kin will learn to fear me. You will know that I am watching your every step. That I am plotting your downfall. And when you lay awake at night in fear, know that I am watching, just as I always do."
He moves along, gesticulating with his hands as he continues to speak. "'Why,' you might ask, 'why is he doing this to us? Who did we wrong? What did we do?' The answer to that question then, is another: 'why do you refuse righteousness? Why do you choose to hurt the innocent? Why do you not follow the law?' And those questions have no simple answers either. But no matter your reasons for choosing a life of crime, you have fully embraced evil."
The faceless man pauses in his monologue, turning to face the criminal he's lecturing. "The world is absolutes. There is evil and good. Black and white. A is A. And just as A is A, a criminal is a criminal. And just as a criminal is a criminal, a good man is a good man. And good men will no longer stand idly by as evil men make mockeries of the judicial system and pervert the public. Evil must be punished.
"In the end, I believe that you will thank me. For in your last moments when the electricity fries your brain and the evil within it, you will be left with only the good, and with your last thought you will realize that this was for the best. Now you cannot hurt anyone else. Now, there is less evil in this world. Now, you finally know the answers to the questions."
The vigilante digs something out of the pocket of his suit, and looks down at it. "I leave with you a gift. Something to answer your final, unspoken question: who is this man?"
He drops the item, a plain white business card, which begins to emit smoke. Walking away without looking back, the man is long gone by the time the smoke clears, giving way to a bold, yellow question mark.
