Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet starts with a dip back into the thrilling days of yesteryear as the original Green Hornet & Kato interrupt a meeting of Century City’s criminal bosses. So I blew the dust off of those books and dove in for a return to the pulpy greatness that was, is, & always will be… Their talk about the ups and downs of Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet got me thinking that I really wanted to revisit this book, and that I just happened to have the hard cover editions sitting on my bookshelf. Then I found myself listening to the Shelved podcast, and after listening to the discussion between caster Jeremy Meyer & comic writer Joe Kachadourian ( Identity Stunt, with which I’m passingly familiar), it got me thinking. It had been a while since I’d read the two volume story, scripted by Kevin Smith, reworked for the comic book by Phil Hester, & illustrated by Jonathan Lau. That spirit is deeply embedded in the script he wrote, which has since- thankfully- been brought to the page by the current publisher of all things pulp, Dynamite Entertainment. When it comes to the classic comic book properties that he’s been associated with (Batman, Daredevil, Green Arrow), the other thing he brings to any deal is what might have been missing from the movie that wound up being made in his absence: a deeply rooted, all encompassing, and never-ending love & respect for comics. Look, I’m not gonna say that everything Kevin Smith does is solid gold, but it can’t be denied that whatever the man turns his hand to, he does it with a limitless supply of enthusiasm. One wonders, if he’s seen the movie that actually came to be, does he regret that decision? Sadly, Smith opted out of the project after writing the script, doubting his own ability to do justice to the heroes of Century City. Smith came up with an updated story- not a reboot- that handed the keys of the Black Beauty over to the children of Britt Reid & Kato. But before that arguably misguided attempt, perpetual renegade film maker and born again vegan, Kevin Smith was tasked to write & direct the Hornet’s return. From those early days, the Hornet has gone through many iterations, with movie serials in the 1940’s to a spinoff of the 1966 Batman series, to… I dunno, whatever that 2011 movie was supposed to be. Since 1936 when he was created by George Trendle & Fran Striker for a series of radio programs, The Green Hornet has fought from the shadows to wage a war on all aspects of crime & corruption. Available pretty much anywhere you wanna buy books….Yeah… I know… they’re not in the right order…
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