Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Writer: Daryl Gregory
Artist: Brent Peeples
Release date: OUT NOW!!!!
Price: $3.99

 

The Green Hornet has always been a bit of a Betamax hero for me. Anyone under thirty won’t know what the heck I’m talking about here but us oldies can smile smugly and say: “Ah yes, I remember it well”.)

What I mean is Green Hornet, it could be argued, is a better comic book character than some, but lost out due to superior marketing of another hero, who, in most respects, is pretty darn identical.

Okay, enough arcane references. Here’s the thing: Green Hornet is a millionaire playboy who prowls the streets at night waging war on crime with his masked sidekick, driving a flash car and using all sorts of gadgets. Remind you of anyone? Here’s a hint: this other, how shall I say ‘crime fighter of the night’ has a name beginning with B. No, not Bambi!

The Green Hornet debuted on radio in 1936, a good 3 years before a certain Gothamite crusaded in his first cape and The Hornet’s comicbook debut, published by Helnit and then by Harvey, was just a few months after Batman in 1940. The series didn’t last though and the fortunes of the Green Hornet have been sporadic ever since apart from their one shining moment when The Hornet and Kato got to kick Adam West and Burt Ward’s collective butts in the 1960’s Batman TV show and run for a short while in The Green Hornet TV show too.

But I digress. The Green Hornet is now back on track in this Dynamite incarnation with a spiffy new costume (although the new hat makes him look a bit like the Mad Hatter) and a suitably insane gallery of foes such as Tik-Tok, Little Lord Homicide, the Veiled Lady and her less than handsome hubby Blackmass.

Green Hornet #5is one long hellzapoppin’ battle which, if this is your first encounter with the steampunk Hornet could be a mite confusing without a re-cap in sight, but stick with it. This Hornet is slick, funny and, as usual, relies totally on Kato to haul the Green Hornet’s ashes out of the fire in a nice reversal of the hero/sidekick tradition.

A million miles away from the Batman clone the Green Hornet could have been, this incarnation of The Green Hornet is definitely carving out his own niche in the millionaire playboy turned crime-fighter league.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Review Editor: Steve Hooker