The Question Returns #1
Dennis O'Neil (Story)
Eduardo Barreto (Art)

Vic Sage is stuck on a sinking ship, quite literally. Having been robbed at gunpoint of all of the money he'd won in the previous night's poker game, he wakes up to find that his riverboat is taking on a good bit of water as well. He takes a shore to ship call from Prof. Rodor just before he bails, and Rodor tells him that his former love, Mayor Myra, has been kidnapped. Upon reaching the bank, he finds that not only is hitchhiking illegal, but he's happened to attempt a ride from a police officer. In jail, he meets a man who calls himself the River Spirit. He tells Vic to go back to Hub City as his true self -- the Question. When Vic is bailed, he asks if there's anything he can do for the old guy in the next cell. "What old guy?" is the comment he recieves. He hitches another ride (Vic learns nothing easily) and soon finds that he's been double-crossed. He wakes up in the custody of the crooked Rory Limbo, and, after a fight with Cathy Fregosi, escapes to the river. A stray gunshot from the badguys ignites the pollution-filled river, and Sage swims under flames and explosions to try to get to the barge where he believes the woman he loves is being held captive. As it turns out, she isn't. She's there with the man she loves, a man who is obviously not Vic Sage. The end of the story finds Vic on the riverbank laughing until his ribs ache.