Reading Room THE GREEN HORNET "Masquerade"

All good things must come to an end...

...but this party ain't over...yet!

Amazing how average people can create or acquire detailed Green Hornet costumes, eh?
Makes you wonder if (in the world of the TV series) some manufacturer actually produced them, making Halloween parties a hotbed for Hornet imitators!
For the only time, we see the Police Commissioner (who never appeared on the series).
In the radio show and 1940s comic, Police Commissioner James Higgins eventually learned The Green Hornet's identity and worked surreptitiously with him (maintaining the fiction that The Hornet was a criminal to the rest of city government).
But, since studio-mate Batman had a Police Commissioner as an ally, District Attorney Fank Scanlon was created for the series, and has become part of Green Hornet lore, showing up in the 2011 movie and associated comics!
This brings our re-presentation of the Gold Key series based on the TV Show to an end.
(There was one more tale of TV's Green Hornet published in the 1960s...a spoof called "The Mean Hornet" in Marvel's Not Brand Echh! #9 (1968), which you can read HERE!)
But, its not the end of The Green Hornet on Hero Histories!
Come November, we'll be re-presenting some of the never-reprinted tales of the 1980s-90s series from NOW Comics that tied all the incarnations of the Green Hornet into one big family, like Lee Falk's The Phantom!

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order... 

The Green Hornet

Collector's Edition 

by Ron Fortier and Jeff Butler

Reprinting the first 12 issues of the 1989-90 NOW Comics series that tied the versions of the characters from the radio show/movies, TV series, and a contemporary incarnation into one big ongoing family business!

Reading Room THE GREEN HORNET "Counterplot Affair" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Attempting to protect the boy prince of the oil-rich Mid-Eastern country of Bahratta from foreign spies, The Green Hornet and Kato discover the lad's uncle is working with the spies to allow the kid to be kidnapped.
Kato shadows the young king-to-be, and during a kidnapping attempt loses the boy, who escapes from his would-be captors into the depths of the city's biggest park...

Just so you don't think writer Paul S Newman and artist Dan Speigel were pulling them out of nowhere, the Black Beauty was equipped with ice projectors, (along with brooms to sweep away tire tracks), but they were never used on the TV series.

The rear fog guns were used in a couple of TV eps, "Deadline for Death" and "Eat, Drink, and be Dead".

It's never shown or stated on TV that Britt is a skilled horseman, but with his family's proven expertise in such matters...
Considering Kato was rendered unconcious only twice in the entire twenty-six episode run of the TV show, getting KOed twice in three issues of the comic seems rather odd.
The other tale from the final issue of the Silver Age Green Hornet's Gold Key run will be presented tomorrow...

Please Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and Order... 

The Green Hornet

Collector's Edition 

by Ron Fortier and Jeff Butler

Reprinting the first 12 issues of the 1989-90 NOW Comics series that tied the versions of the characters from the radio show/movies, TV series, and a contemporary incarnation into one big ongoing family business!

Reading Room THE GREEN HORNET "Counterplot Affair" Part 1

"Hi-Ho Hornet! Awayyy!"

The Green Hornet takes a page out of his grand-uncle's edition of the Hero Handbook in this tale from his final Silver Age issue!

Can The Hornet and Kato keep the Prince safe?

Why is the Hornet riding "a fiery white horse with the speed of light" at the beginning of this story?

Everything will make sense tomorrow, so tune in for the conclusion...

Same Blog Time!

Same Blog Feed!
Please Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order... 

The Green Hornet
Collector's Edition 
by Ron Fortier and Jeff Butler
Reprinting the first 12 issues of the 1989-90 NOW Comics series that tied the versions of the characters from the radio show/movies, TV series, and a contemporary incarnation into one big ongoing family business!

Reading Room THE GREEN HORNET "Threat of the Red Dragons" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Other Dynamic Duo of 1966...

...discovering the headquarters of the Red Dragons,  the Green Hornet seeks to unmask their hidden leader, known only as "Chill" by setting up Kato to pay blackmail money to the tong, then capturing the entire group when they arrive to collect the payment!

Note the Hornet Scanner is finally shown accurately, but Mike Axford still doesn't look like actor Lloyd Gough!
Plus, Kato finally gets a girl (who, sadly, never showed up on TV)!
The issue brings up an interesting question: is Kato Chinese?
According to this tale, he has relatives in China!
He knows Gung Fu (aka Kung Fu), a Chinese martial art form!
In the TV episode "The Preying Mantis", he translates Chinese into English during the confrontation with the assembled Tong members.
But his name is, in fact, Japanese!
So, which nationality is TV's Kato?
We looked at the various incarnations of Kato in a special Sidekick Blogathon post at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, as seen HERE.with a specific look at Bruce Lee's Kato HERE.
And, after being Japanese, Fillipino, and Korean, in earlier versions, we conclude TV's Kato is, in fact, Chinese!

Next Week

The final issue of the 1960s series!

Two stories, including one with an interesting tie-in to Britt Reid's great-granduncle!

Support Hero Histories

Visit Amazon and order the HTF 1966 hardcover...

The Green Hornet

The Case of the Disappearing Doctor

Reading Room THE GREEN HORNET "Threat of the Red Dragons" Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

Kato is attacked defending Ah Wong, the uncle of his girlfriend Peggy Lou, from muggers.

Brit Reid arrives at the hospital to pick up Kato and overhears a discussion between the recovering Ah Wong and his son Jimmy involving "Red Dragons"!

Leaving the hospital, Britt and Kato barely survive being pot-shot by one of Ah Wong's attackers!

Kato recognizes him as an employee at Mao Tse's shop in Chinatown, and, the duo proceed, in costume, to the shop...

Will The Green Hornet and Kato get a bite or be bitten?
Who is Chill, leader of the Red Dragons?
Is Kato, in fact, Chinese?
We'll find out the answers to these and other questions...

...Tomorrow!

Same Hornet Time!

Same Hornet Blog!

(Oops, wrong show!)

As to yesterday's questions...

It's possible writer Paul S Newman and artist Dan Speigle saw the Tong-themed episode "The Preying Mantis" which aired Nov 18, 1966, but it's unlikely they did so before they created this issue!

Gold Key's Green Hornet #2 is dated May, 1967, which means it was probably on comics racks in February, 1967.

Allowing for the usual 3-4 month production cycle from plot/script to printed book, the episode would've aired after the script was being penciled!

As to why all the Asian characters except Kato are pale yellow instead of either Caucasian or suntanned skin tones, well, that, unfortunately was one of the standard coloring tropes of the 1940s-1960s period to denote Chinese or Japanese characters.

Kato has "standard" Caucasian coloring with some additional yellow.

In the 1970s, when Marvel did Master of Kung Fu, the hero, Shang-Chi, had standard Caucasian coloring with some additional magenta, making him an almost Donald Trump-esque orange!

Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and order the HTF 1966 hardcover...

The Green Hornet
The Case of the Disappearing Doctor