Mark Waid is comics go-to revival man. Want to relaunch a character with a fresh take, but focused on the traits that made them great? Then getting Mark Waid is a safe bet. After all, his recent takes on Daredevil, The Rocketeer, Hulk, and Steed and Mrs. Peel all were varying levels of enjoyable comic booking. If this first issue of “Green Hornet” is any indication, that magic seems to be wearing off a little as time goes on.
Written by Mark Waid
Illustrated by Daniel IndroThe Hornet faces his most dangerous enemy ever — an egotistical, arrogant Britt Reid! In his alter-ego as a powerful newspaper publisher, the Hornet has lost control, becoming a social crusader far too sure of himself and of his judgment. But when he finally goes too far, an innocent man pays a terrible price — and the legend of the Green Hornet begins its cataclysmic collapse!
The story opens with present day narration from Britt Reid about the “information age” and contrasts it to the way that news was disseminated in his old days when he juggled his attentions between his newspaper The Sentinel and moonlighting as the Green Hornet. Monologuing about smartphones is an odd choice right from the get-go for a book that doesn’t seem to be looking to use the dawn of modern technology as a mine for thematic depth. Likewise, the very first thing we’re shown is the Wikipedia entry for “Green Hornet” comic books. The metatextual nature of the opening scene is a little head-scratching, given that it is so direct while not really carrying any storytelling purpose. This narration trips the book up early and it has a difficult time recovering.
The next scenes are better, showing a Green Hornet and Kato “suit up” sequence taking us through their secret headquarters. These scenes are deft and punchy where a lot of other writers who are attempting to write “pulp” characters tend to be long-winded and fall too much in love with the writing style. This is the modern touch that Mark Waid is so adept at bringing to his throwback projects.
The plot takes our “heroes” through a sting operation and reveals very cleanly and clearly the unqiue premise behind the “Green Hornet” as an undercover “villain.” That said, Waid explores this in only the most rote way in this first issue and the plot that Britt navigates through is as by-the-numbers as it gets. Actually, this book relies on a staggering number of cliches all the way through, so much so that not a single revelation in the plot is ever something other than you’d expect. There aren’t any layers to the book either, which is fine for fans of the pure pulp adventure that Dynamite peddles. But it comes off feeling like a character that Waid doesn’t have a lot to say about. It feels like another case where someone is launching a title off a creator’s name rather than a story that he or she has been itching to tell.
The art from Daniel Indro matches the book’s straightforward nature. There aren’t any surprises, but you do get an attractive looking package all the way through. Typically pulpy use of shadows and retro noir trappings give the book a nice period feel. Just as the book starts off on an oddly modern thematic standpoint, the appearance of the modern media outlets in the early pages of the book is a bit jarring, but this is no fault of the artist. At times, there is a lack of individuality in the character models of the issue’s major players, but there’s far more good than bad here.
Indro specifically captures the character of Kato in a way that highlights his expertise, nationality, and focused personality without relying on tropes or stereotypes. He’s as cool, if not cooler than “Green Hornet” in a fight and Indro captures the martial arts aspects quite well. The costuming is terrific too, whether it’s in the period clothing of the cast of newspaper employees at “The Sentinel” or in the stylish choice to put an eye-catching hornet “logo” on the Green Hornet’s face mask.
What Waid and Indro’s work all amounts to is a comic that can be described as “perfectly fine.” It doesn’t aspire to be more than a straightforward pulp adventure without any surprises. It’s an attractive package and light on exposition, which is a boon to a genre that can be overly grim and wordy. It ends up feeling somewhat inconsequential though, when there are just so many outstanding books on the shelves these days. But if you really like what Dynamite generally does, then you might like this.
Final Verdict: 6.2 – Browse.
