Dynamite Entertainment 2020
Written by Scott Lobdell
Pencilled & Coloured by Anthony Marques
Inked by J. Bone
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
The world has changed for Green Hornet and Kato as they find themselves against foes unlike any they have faced before. With the stakes getting higher with each move they make, will Green Hornet and Kato be able to protect the star child from their newest and deadliest enemy?
Scott is one those underrated storytellers in my humble opinion. What he is doing here is really rather fun, interesting and engaging in ways that take the old pulp hero and turned it into a pulp noir with supernatural elements that blend together like Tequila, Orange Liqueur and Lime Juice to make something utterly fabulous! This makes me so happy because it feels fresh and modern and yet completely an homage to the beginnings of these characters. I am having a lot more fun reading this than I was expecting and that alone is worth its weight in gold.
I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see constantly moving forward through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. I like how we pick up from the last issue right away and then follow this as the boys find themselves in some very unexpected territory. The character development we see is strong and is consistent with how we think of these characters and it also works well to further their development through the banter and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they find themselves in. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way it is easy to see how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
With the way that this is structured and how we see the way that the story is layered shows some fantastic skill and talent. There is a lot of humour throughout that I see which I think is as much a coping mechanism as it is their personalities. With the element of the unknown and the way that this weaves through all that while managing to leave us with another cliffhanger is extremely nice to experience.
The interiors here aren’t my favourite, however, the style is uniquely his and it works. The linework is consistent throughout and the way that we see attention to detail is extremely well done. It feels like an elevated Saturday morning cartoon from when I was a kid and that gives it an extra boost when it comes to the nostalgia appeal factor for me. While I would love to see backgrounds incorporated more the way that the panels are filled up makes up for that, for the most part heh. I will always remain a champion for backgrounds. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a good, solid eye for storytelling. Now the colour work is interesting to me because it is far from traditional, much like the linework we see. The green kind gives this that black & white feel but considering it’s the Green Hornet it’s replaced with shades of green. I would like to see more variation within the colour but this definitely does what is intended and adds to that Noir feel.
This is the most unique and non-traditional version of this character that I have ever seen. That makes this one heck of an exciting read and something that should be on everyone's radar. Dynamite does some of the more innovative takes on classic characters and pushes the envelope of what the industry has come to expect.