Publisher: Dynamite
Writer: David Liss
Artist: Kewber Baal
Colourist: Adriano Augusto
Release Date: 21 December 2016
Price: $3.99

His debut on radio in 1936 makes The Green Hornet one of the earliest Golden Age heroes and, boy, has he been through some changes since then! It seems every generation of comic book writers want their own Green Hornet: we’ve had funny ones, steampunk ones, live action TV series ones, you name it.

Now, with Green Hornet: Reign of the Demon #1, Dynamite are kick-starting the emerald avenger’s career one more time with a different mask, a Golden Age Chicago setting but the same familiar sidekick and a Shadow-like gang of helpers. Having convinced Chicago’s bad guys that Green Hornet was a bigger, badder, bad guy than any of them in order to take out the real bad guys (Confused? You won’t be, it makes perfect sense, honest) Britt Reid aka Green Hornet quits the hero business because he feels he is no longer needed. Obviously, he’s wrong and he returns to crime fighting just in time to go up against a masked criminal calling himself Demone, that’s The Demon to you and me.

Seemingly Green Hornet’s evil counterpart in every way, The Demon has a counter for all Green Hornet’s best moves. If a hero is only as good as the villains he fights, then The Demon looks set to be one of the best. Kato, so memorably played by martial arts legend Bruce Lee in the TV series, becomes more of a Jiminy Cricket, conscience-like figure and humour underpins the action which is played out in scintillating style courtesy of Kewber Baal.

In Green Hornet: Reign of the Demon #1, David Liss has given us a thoughtful but dynamic re-boot of a classic character and look out for the surprise appearance on the final page – it’s a doozy! Long live Green Hornet and here’s hoping this is the one that gives him his continuing place in the hero’s pantheon he so richly deserves.

 

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker