Comic Book Review: The Green Hornet #1

Book Information

Written by Kevin Smith

Art by Jonathan Lau

Plot

After many years of crime fighting, the Hornet decides to hang it up and focus more on his wife and son.  With his last adventure into the night under his belt, his wife implores him to never speak of his life as a masked vigilante to their son.  Years pass by and the son of the Green Hornet lives like a bum, mooching off of the millions of dollars which he constantly receives from his father.  Now, things have made a turn for the worse, and the Green hornet may have to take drastic measures to straighten up his only son.

My Thoughts

As the Green Hornet film failed to make the pre-production stages, Smith has taken matters into his own hands and brought his movie screen play to the comic book arena.  This issue was a great start to ten issue mini series and holds a lot of potential for the rest of the year.

This book has the feeling of a movie written all over it.  Its structure has that typical superhero story to it in addition to that Kevin Smith touch.  It starts out with a night on the town patrolling streets in the Hornet’s deluxe automobile along with his driver/butler/sidekick Kato.  He finds the last of the crime families and puts them into cuffs.  Not having grown up reading the Hornet, this was a refreshing surprise.  The stories my mother has told me about her experience reading the Green Hornet did not prepare me for what I experienced.  The funny dialogue and random one liners spouting off of the Hornet’s tongue was hilarious and clever at the same time. 

One literary aspect of Kevin Smith that I find to be his greatest asset is his ability to write emotionally dark dialogue between characters.  The conversation Hornet has with his wife as she speaks her disapproval of her husbands masked avenger life style is both loving and hurtful.  She loves her husband, yet is on the verge of hating him for his five year quest as a super hero.  Even knowing that she stuck a gun into his back as a playful and flirtatious gesture, I can’t help but wonder if, deep down inside, she wants to shoot her husband.  Honestly, she loves and is devoted to Brit, yet she most likely is denied the pleasures and satisfactions more often than not of being married due to her husbands desire to fight crime.  It’s a creative and emotional approach to the story.

Mr. Lau’s art is definitely not something to skim over.  I found myself googling the panels of every page for a few minutes each, which meant it took me almost an hour to read through the whole book.  I have never heard of this artist, but I certainly wish he was hired by DC.  The layout is very classical and staccato, staying true to the comic book stylization and nostalgia of the days of the Green Hornet, while adding that modern touch.

Overall

A great book, one of the better ones for March.  Kevin Smith has been producing a lot of good stuff these last few months and I hope his Green Hornet is a successful endeavor for him.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Next Issue Coming April, 2010