Dynamite Entertainment 2017
Written by Fred Van Lente
Illustrated by Bob Q
Coloured by Dearbhla Kelly
Lettered by Travis Lanham
SHOWDOWN! Green Hornet, Kato & The Spirit vs. Kid Kraken and his army, in a fully evacuated Chicago! And if our heroes somehow manage to survive the deluge of henchmen descending upon them, they MIGHT discover the mystery of the dead astronaut with the knife in his back...
Well I have to say, once again, that Fred just continues to impress me time and time again. I can’t believe we’ve waited so long for these two men to team up. Well okay technically it’s The Spirit’s old sidekick if you will Ebony but still it applies. Hopefully this team up is just the frontrunner to another one where the original Spirit emerges from wherever he happens to be, or identity he’s lost up in. I don’t think it’s that far fetched to think that the Spirit went undercover and ended up believing this identity was his and forgot his heroic nature. Or perhaps I’ve just read too many comic books and mystery novels in my lifetime to come up with such a scenario.
I will say this though I really miss the days when people dressed up to leave the house. I mean you’ll never see someone here in sweatpants and flip flops running around town, no they took pride in their appearance and these snazzy suits yeah it makes me want a closet full of them! It almost seems like its also essential to the way we see the story that Bob so elegantly brings to life. I mean it too more elevated than a cartoon and just short of “normal” comic book style it has all the elements to remind us of a brighter and simpler time. Doesn’t mean it also wasn’t the heyday of organised crime cause it was but it does bring us this more romanticised version of it.
I like the interaction between the current Spirit and The Green Hornet. The banter the one-upmanship that we see is delightfully portrayed. As is the amount of distrust that we can currently see on both sides of the table here. It doesn’t help that The Spirit is working for an enemy either, at least since his mentor disappeared. Still the teaming up and the tension all at work here make for some great reading.
Fred’s way of being able to weave the story, characterisation and development of it all so seamlessly throughout the book is something to be admired. That and his ability to make the story seem like it could be as factual as if it were something in a history book. It sure feels like it and that alone is pretty spectacular ad then the fact that he’s so adept at getting the reader to empathise and relate to the characters even as fantastical as they are is quite an accomplishment.
Between Fred’s writing and Bob’s illustrations this is quite the dandy of a story. I mean Kid Kraken is running around gunning for all them. There’s a traitor in their midst. There’s also the fact that the original Spirit is unaccounted for. So all in all there’s a criminal organisation running amok in Chicago that’s been evacuated yeah this doesn’t seem to be going the way our heroes would like it to but then again when does it ever really go their way?
Dynamite continues to take these old pulp characters or long forgotten heroes and breathe new life into them. The fact that this is set in ‘66, the same year the television show debuted makes it all the more fun because this is them in their prime not a re-imagining or updating of classic characters but the characters themselves and that goes a long way in my book.
So take a wild ride through the underworld alongside its great threat and cohort as The Green Hornet and Kato try to find a way to get out the mess they find themselves in now!