Jan. 1990: Now Comics' The Green Hornet, Volume 1, Issue #3 (part 1)

Let's get back into the first volume of the Green Hornet book from Now Comics, which greets us with the killer cover below by, I believe, Lenin Delsol.

The previous issue concluded with Britt Reid Jr. donning the Hornet mask for the first time following the shooting death of friend Steve Carlson, who was campaigning to become president of the United States.

This one begins with the Hornet on the hunt for the killers, as he ambushes one Joe Scully Montrano. 

He also takes the opportunity to spread the message that the Green Hornet is back in business. 

Several other targets similar to Montrano are hit, using similar strongarm methods and leading to the desired result; a meeting of organized crime figures from the city. And as they discuss the Hornet and the potential chaos he could bring their respective operations, the man himself calls in to remind him that he has expectations of them.

The senior Britt Reid, uncle to the current Hornet, is familiar with the Broxton name. He offers to do a little digging for the crime-fighting duo and shares his results the next day. 

The three men did not realize it, but they had an audience.

More on that later, no doubt. 

The Hornet has set up a meeting with this Broxton to talk business. The encounter takes place in a cemetery. Once face to face, the Hornet threatens to go to the police with the information he has dug up about Broxton orchestrating Carlson's assassination unless Broxton pays him $100,000.

Broxton had come up with a plan to eliminate any such threat, but the Green Hornet had a plan of his own to counter Broxton's.  

Broxton has little choice but to agree to the Hornet's demands at this point. Everything is going to plan. 

Since writer Ron Fortier packed a lot in these issues, and we're at about the halfway point, we'll break here and review part two a little later on, but the story is moving at a pretty stiff pace. 

Radio: "The Hornet Goes Underground"

On only the second post about the Green Hornet radio program, it appears that we will need to correct, or at least clarify, something stated in the first.

We shared "Trouble Hits the Trolleys" on May 19th. Our source for that episode, Nikola Tesla Wireless Radio, stated that it had first aired in 1936 and was the seventh such adventure to be released.

Several other sources of information stated that the episode was first broadcast in 1939. How can there be a three-year discrepancy?

Wikipedia might have the explanation. 

I Love Old Time Radio lists its air date as June 8th, 1939. It's possible that "Trolleys" was the seventh episode to be recorded regularly but it seems unlikely to have been the seventh aired.

Since we're speaking of ILOTR, let's share one of their offerings. As pointed out in the subject line, this is The Hornet Goes Underground from early October 1943. Being that it involves Nazi sabotage, the stated air date seems reliable in this case.   

The Green Hornet Chronicles (Moonstone, 2010)

Moonstone's first Green Hornet anthology has drawn the "cottage reading" assignment. So since I tend to pick it up only on weekends, it's taking awhile to get through, but it's been quite enjoyable so far.

The cover alone is among my favourite images of the crime-fighting duo. It is the work of Glenn Orbik. 

Rubén Procopio contributes some spectacular interior art to launch every story. I have the digital version of the book, and do not know how it compares to the physical copy, but am left wishing the images were larger, like a cover for every individual story.

The anthology was very much meant to feature the television series version of the character. The two paragraphs below are copied from the solicitation text. 

It’s the mid 1960’s, the political climate is shaky, there’s civil unrest, freedom and equality issues erupt everywhere from film to music to out in the streets.

On police records, the Green Hornet is actually a wanted criminal, a master manipulator, a crime boss who has his fingers in every pie. In reality, The Green Hornet is actually Britt Reid, owner-publisher of the Daily Sentinel. His goal is to destroy crime from within by posing as a criminal himself.

The TV-version focus is further accentuated in an introduction by the man who portrayed the Green Hornet in that series, Van Williams! The book also includes an afterword by Black Beauty designer and builder Dean Jeffries.

Will Murray's story, The Night Car, was a excellent choice to kick off the book. A race against time as attempts are made to track the Green Hornet's hideout through the Black Beauty's movements, all the personalities and gadgets that make the Hornet stories fun are included. 

Unfortunately, Moonstone's books often suffer from poor editing, I'm sorry to say. The gaffes will not ruin the overall clarity of story, but it does draw you out of it for a moment. The errors range from missing quotation marks...

...spelling mistakes...

...or incorrect paragraph breaks. 

If you're bothered by that sort of thing, you may need to approach this book mentally prepared for a fair amount of it. Otherwise, so far, I think the book works well for those who remember the television series fondly, and those who are curious about the character and would like a simple introduction.