I'm sure some people might've found it annoying to the point of obnoxiousness, but I so very much love Lady Shiva's non-answers throughout THE QUESTION.

They're both an amusing dialogue quirk and a fantastic form of character expression.

She's not pushing Vic towards a side...

... she's literally just showing him that there are all these multiple paths he could take. And he COULD take them. There's nothing stopping him but himself. She's not being allegorical or cryptic about it either. When she says his morals make his life complicated, she's right.

I guess some writers saw this as her sneering at Vic for not taking the most violent route, and there are hints of that through the run. But to me, those hints were later turned into a villainous need to be proven right all the time, while here it reads more like amusement.

Shiva knows Vic is at a crossroads, that he's reverting back to the mindless brawler she destroyed 3 years ago. And that bores her, because as a purely physical threat, Vic just isn't that interesting. So instead, she decides to pal around and help him explore other paths.

As much as I love BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS, comparing Shiva's interactions with Jefferson about killing with her time with Vic is enough to see the gulf that's been widening since QUESTION ended back in 1990. And I think the main difference boils down to Conflict vs Discovery.

When Shiva tries to convince Tim, or Bruce, or Dinah, or Jefferson to leave their morals behind, it's always framed as a conflict. Shiva's remorseless, cruel idea of the world vs the hero's ultimately compassionate nature. She's a temptress, and her temptation is the conflict.

But in Question, the conflict isn't between Shiva's worldview and Vic's. The conflict lies entirely within Vic. A part of him wishes his life could be as simple as Shiva's, just walking around punching people until everything works out. But he's too attached to ever become that.

And internal conflict begets personal discovery, while external conflict, more often than not, only serves to reinforce internal beliefs.

Which is also why Cass' arc with Shiva works so well: because her conflict isn't really with Shiva, it's with her own guilt.

Shiva's non-answers to Vic aren't there to annoy him, or to push him to the path she considers to be superior to all others. They're there to show him the many, many roads a man can walk.

And he's not alone. Shiva herself lays her own options bare at one point. But...

... the difference between them lies on that last sentence. To Vic, finding that path is the answer to the most important question he'll ever ask: his identity.

To Shiva, who has fully embraced who she is, the whys and hows have ceased to matter. She's transcended motives.

She's still walking her own path of self-discovery, but she doesn't loathe herself or fear the answers she'll find along the way. And it could be argued that, being who she is, she's also conflated external conflict with internal discovery, eliminating the separation between 'em.

But that's a talk for another time maybe.

For now, I just wanted to gush a little about O'Neil and Cowan's THE QUESTION.

It's just so good.