The Question is posed once more! In a development that diehard fans of this cult classic hero have been demanding for years, the faceless investigator of the DC Universe is finally being given their due—in the halls of the Justice League Watchtower, where many of us first got to know her predecessor. After easing her transition from Gotham City Police Department commissioner to relapsed vigilante in this year’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold #15-17, writer Alex Segura gives us Renee’s first major case as security chief of the brand new Justice League Unlimited in The Question: All Along the Watchtower. As DC.com’s designated Question Guy, I sprinted towards the opportunity to interview Segura so we could get a sense of where Montoya’s head was at returning to the mask, the temperature of her unresolved relationships and what makes her the best pick for this demanding challenge.

The current Justice League represents the widest array of heroes the team has ever seen. Out of every hero in the DC Universe, what makes Renee Montoya the best candidate to head up security?

I think you’ve got this array of super-powered beings on the Watchtower. You’ve got every kind of ability, every kind of strength, every kind of power base, but what really makes Renee stand out is her humanity. She obviously can turn into the Question and is a vigilante when she chooses to do that, but she’s also an amazingly smart detective. She understands human nature and how people behave. And I think that’s an element that other detectives might lose touch with as they grow apart from how people are.

Renee’s coming from such a grounded position to this bigger, more epic role on the Watchtower that I think her humanity is what’s going to serve her well. Just her understanding of how people work and what drives people to do bad things. It sounds really basic, but I think that’s really at the heart of it. She is a detective, but she’s also a student of human behavior.

Let’s talk more about that role. Renee is referred to in this first issue as the “sheriff” of the Watchtower. What exactly does that duty entail?

Yeah, I think that’s said in jest, but basically, she’s the head of security. She needs to make sure that not only is the Watchtower running as it should, but that everyone on the Watchtower that chooses to make it a haven for themselves is safe and that everyone is playing nicely. If you need a pop culture point of reference, it’s probably close to what Odo was on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Ah, that does put it into place. Part of me was thinking there was a little bit of an internal affairs aspect to it.

To some degree. But I think it’s really more like making sure everyone is doing the things they should do, and if there are crimes or misbehavior on the Watchtower, it falls on her to investigate them and figure out what’s gone wrong.

Fans of Renee Montoya, you and I included, have been following a pretty tumultuous emotional arc in her life. First she was a cop, then she quit being a cop, then she was a superhero, then she went back to being a cop, and now she’s wearing the mask again. Where exactly is Renee’s head at right now?

She’s at a low point. I mean, she was unceremoniously removed from a job that I think she felt very passionate about, where she could actually enact some level of change, and is pretty rudderless where we find her at the beginning of All Along the Watchtower. I think you see the build-up to that a little in that three-parter I did with Andy McDonald in Brave and the Bold, where you kind of see her run as commissioner fall apart. You also get a flashback to it in All Along the Watchtower #1, with the actual conversation with the mayor, where he basically tells her it’s not working out.

She’s invested all of her time and effort into doing this one thing well and was basically told she didn’t do it well enough. And that’s when Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman show up and say, “We need you to do this.”

I think like anyone else who’s experienced a big shift professionally or personally, you’re a little bit defensive about jumping into the next thing. But it’s also hard to say no to someone like Superman, who can be pretty convincing in a way that… Batman tries to scare you into doing something, Superman tries to get your heart and tell you this is the right thing for you. And she’s probably prone to listening to him.

One of the best reveals in this first issue is the makeup of Montoya’s supporting team. How did you decide on her deputies?

I picked characters that I thought would play off her well. I mean, obviously there’s a lot of history between her and Batwoman. I kind of treated it like we’re putting together a police procedural show that just happens to be on the Justice League Watchtower. So, who can we put together that feels unique, but also like it would make sense to have them on the team? I think most of the heroes are pretty ground level. Animal Man obviously has a great power, Jaime is also very powerful, but most of the characters are pretty grounded and make sense as “the police” of the Watchtower. I love the interplay between Renee and Kate, I think there’s a lot of stuff there to be explored, and we will explore it in the series. I like the contrast between someone as funny and light-hearted as Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, and Renee, who can often be pessimistic and brusque.

I think you see a little bit of that too with Buddy Baker, Animal Man, who is a family guy, not 100% committed to being a superhero, but will do what he needs to do if asked to. He’s part of Renee’s team, but he also oversees the Menagerie, which is…I hate to use the term “zoo,” because they’re not really on display for people. It’s a place where all these alien creatures that the League runs into are kept to be studied. And that’s really what Animal Man, and to a lesser degree Tawky Tawny, are doing on the Watchtower. Buddy and Renee’s friendship has been the most interesting to explore, apart from maybe Kate and Renee, because at first blush they seem to be at opposite ends. Renee doesn’t understand why Buddy is a little lackadaisical about the superhero stuff, or why he approaches things the way he does. And I think by the end of the series, they’ll get a lot closer in unexpected ways, just in terms of being friends.

And Jaime, to me, part of the motivation was just picking characters that I loved, and wanted to write, and I thought could be good fits. I think he works well as this communications hub—the network between the team and the Watchtower itself. So, once things start to get wonky, Jaime is really the first responder, the first one in the front lines that has to deal with the problem. There are also smaller cameos that I think people will see over the arc. The benefit of the Watchtower is you can almost pull anyone. But the core team is Jaime, Ted, Buddy, Kate and Renee.

Don’t think I didn’t notice that Charlton Comics legacy you got going, too, between Renee and Jaime. Question and Blue Beetle, at it again.

Little things like that, I think, will give fans a little jolt of joy. But also, it fits the story. So, it’s not something we’re shoehorning in just to do it, you know?

Right. Arguably, the best Renee story ever told was the police procedural of Gotham Central. So, it really does make sense to bring a superhero angle of that to where she is right now.

Yeah, and I love that book. I think that book is hugely influential, and I think Greg Rucka’s take on Renee is the definitive take and is my guiding light for whenever I write the character.

There’s also the very conspicuous, huge rifle that Renee seems to carry around everywhere. What is the deal with that thing?

I don’t want to spoil the first issue, but there is a very strong connection between that weapon and the Watchtower itself, and how she can engage with threats and people that she deems worthy of a blast from that rifle. It’s not just a laser that she uses, it’s definitely tied into the tech of the Watchtower. She didn’t even really know what it was until Wonder Woman explained it to her. It’s like the job you get, and you have to start immediately. She gets thrown into things and gets a crash course on what is expected and who her team is right out of the gate.

This miniseries represents Renee’s first big case in her new role as security chief of the Watchtower. What can you tell us about that mystery?

So what’s happened is Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman’s time is being taken up just being on the Justice League. They’re off doing these Justice League adventures, which you can read in Mark [Waid] and Dan [Mora]’s book, which I can’t wait for people to enjoy because it’s what you’d expect from two all-stars at the top of their game. But each noticed, in their own ways, that something is wrong with the Watchtower. It’s experiencing a series of unexpected glitches in different areas. And not just tech problems—people behaving strangely, incidents among the superheroes that can’t be easily explained away. And they need someone, boots on the ground, that is not going to be tied into anything else. Someone who is purely dedicated to just figuring out what’s going on with this Watchtower, because the Watchtower’s a very important initiative to the Justice League. It’s not only their headquarters, it’s a place for all heroes to set up shop and create a community. So, if something has found its way into the infrastructure of the Watchtower and they can’t figure it out, they need to have someone just purely dedicated to it. They’re pouring resources into it, and they’re hoping Renee can figure out what the problem is before it gets out of hand. But then, it immediately gets out of hand.

All right, last Question. Why do you love Renee Montoya?

I love Renee because she’s complicated, she’s messy, and she always tries to do the right thing. Even if it means sacrificing her personal life, her professional life. She has a code of ethics that she strives to adhere to. She doesn’t always succeed, but she’s also always trying to get better. And I think that’s really admirable and very unique in superhero fiction, where I think that characters become these kind of iconic versions of themselves. I think it’s super interesting to have characters that evolve and change and make mistakes and fix themselves after making mistakes. To me, Renee is a work in progress, and those are the kind of characters that I love to write.
 

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #1 by Alex Segura, Cian Tormey and Romulo Fajardo Jr. is now available in print and as a digital comic book.