In this article, we’ll briefly talk about one of the darkest heroes in comics history, The Green Hornet.
The Green Hornet actually hit the scene as a radio show before it saw the light of day as a comic book. The radio show debuted in 1936. This was two years before Superman appeared in the comics and three years before the creation of Batman. Yes, The Green Hornet came before the two of them, although most people don’t realize that.
The Green Hornet character was created by George W. Trendle, who stated in his creation that John Reid, who was the Lone Ranger, was the great-uncle of Britt Reid, the Green Hornet. Another thing that very few people know. The Green Hornet was one of the forerunners of the superhero genre. And since Trendle linked The Green Hornet with The Lone Ranger, you could say that The Lone Ranger was also a precursor.
Like many crime fighters who came after him, The Green Hornet wore a mask, as did The Lone Ranger. The Green Hornet’s true identity, Britt Reid, was an editor for a newspaper, the Daily Sentinel. In this way, he could stay on top of what was going on in the world around him, much like Clark Kent did as Superman when he took a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet. There were actually a lot of parallels between Reid and Kent even though Reid was human and Kent was from the planet Krypton. However, unlike The Lone Ranger, who dropped his true identity and renamed himself The Lone Ranger, Britt Reid kept both identities. Newspaper editor by day and crime fighter by night.
However, the Green Hornet did not fight crime on his own. He had his trusted companion Kato, who was Reid’s oriental servant. Kato was a martial arts master long before he thought of Kung Fu movies. Kato was really the muscle of the team, while Reid was more intelligent, although he could put up a great fight when he had to.
Unlike many of the superheroes that came after him, The Green Hornet was a plainly dressed man. He was wearing a hat popular at the time and a coat. The only thing he was wearing that he would consider remotely strange was his mask. But for crime fighters, it was boring to watch. Kato also wore a mask and dressed as a driver. The two certainly didn’t win any awards for original fashion.
Green Hornet’s car was the Black Beauty. This vehicle was created long before Batman’s Batmobile and had every gadget inside it that you could imagine, from rocket launchers to lasers. The Green Hornet also had a Hornet pistol that could blow door locks.
The only thing quite unique about the Hornet, especially for the time, was that he was considered a bad guy. This made his job that much more difficult with the police also hot on his heels.
The comic eventually became a successful television series starring Van Williams and the ever popular Bruce Lee.