Today's Van Villiams/GREEN HORNET Tribute

Unlike other fandoms, I came to appreciate the Green Hornet as a young adult. My official entry was via Now Comics in the 1990s (thanks, Ron!), then a boxed set of cassettes of the original radio shows...and then, finally, a local television station playing the 1960's series with Van Williams.

In light of Mr. Williams' passing, I thought it might be good to not only talk about his work...but show you. His performance as Britt Reid/the Green Hornet is almost pitch-perfect: it never seems tongue-in-cheek (the way Adam West played Batman), but has a solidness of its own (like Robert Conrad or Ross Martin of The Wild Wild West). (Plus, the Green Hornet show had brief glimpses of Bruce Lee's abilities...it's probably the best half hour action drama ever produced. And I don't say that lightly).

But via YouTube (and these may be pulled at some point), some episodes of The Green Hornet for your viewing pleasure, where you can see Mr. Williams' work for yourself.

And know that it speaks louder than I can.

I Know Cool People Revisited: Ron's "No Cash Kickstarter" Campaign

You all know Ron Fortier - he's my cohost on Zone 4, my "boss" when I proof books for Airship 27 Productions, and an award-winning writer. One of my first honest-to-gosh fan moments was when, "back in the day", I purchased Green Hornet # 1 from Now Comics.

Yes, Ron had written that book, and he's currently engaging in a "No Cash Kickstarter" campaign to write the Hornet again.

Currently, Dynamite Entertainment holds the rights to the character, and if you've listened to Zone 4 in recent months.....hoo, boy, you know how I feel about Waid's take. So that's why I'm taking the initiative and encouraging you, dear reader, to help Ron get a gig writing the Hornet.

Simply write a nice, politely worded e-mail to Dynamite humbly asking that they consider taking Ron on as a writer. Think of it - with all the hullaballoo going on in comics nowadays, wouldn't it be great to take some of that energy and channel it towards more positive ends?

Here's Dynamite Entertainment's Contact page - the rest is up to you.

The Smallest of All Game: A Review of THE GREEN HORNET

(But first, why not check out my pick for 2010? The latest TV Party on up on Comic Related. This post will still be here when you get back. Honest.)

In all honesty, I think we could use a decent superhero comedy - a comedy that knowingly takes aim at its forebears, where someone knows all the rules of superheroics, and the movie reflects that.

Sadly, The Green Hornet is not that movie.

It's not a bad movie - Michael Gondry's direction is quite artful, especially during the fight scenes, and Jay Chou actually manages to play a rather cool Kato, reflecting some of the charm and grace of Bruce Lee (both in terms of fighting and overall dialogue). In fact, in many ways the movie makes a halfhearted effort....

....which is sorely sabotaged by a weak script and Seth Rogen's performance.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a vanity project - I think Rogen's script and performance would fit a very nice, very obvious super hero parody/satire. However, given that the Green Hornet is a "known" quantity, it doesn't quite gel - in fact, many of the supporting players (such as Christoph Waltz and Cameron Diaz) seem to play it as if it were deliberately campy. In short, the tone is all over the place, and the overall experience of the film is rather disjointed.

Now, I don't expect Seth Rogen (who co-wrote the script) to be Fran Striker, or Ron Fortier, or Matt Wagner, or even Martin Grams. However, this screenplay is steeped in superhero and action movie cliches - I will grant you, I like the idea of a spoiled "party boy" gaining redemption and maturing through super heroics, and it is a pretty solid take. (In fact, it's only slightly better than Kevin Smith's take for Dynamite Entertainment). However, most of the movie seems to be a hodgepodge of tongue-in-cheek humor, mindless action sequences, and knowing winks to the camera.

(And if I want all that, I can watch it on Fox. For free. And it's called Human Target).

There's enough here to warrant seeing this film...on DVD. But paying money to see it...not quite. Some 3-D sequences are spectacular, but mostly consists of bullet shells and glass flying out of the screen. Nice modern day touches help make the character feel less vintage...but the humor undercuts much of what the movie seems to want to achieve.

If you want to see a decent take on the Hornet, why not try the original movie serial?

Or better yet, bug Fox Video or a cool company like Shout Factory to release the original series on DVD?

Because both of them provide much greater entertainment value than what is showing in theaters.

The Green Hornet isn't a bad movie - it actually does have some clever touches. However, it's not very good, either.

Two Comics You Should Be Reading - and Why

I know, I know....I've been away, I've not blogged enough, etc. Much of it has been, well, my free time has been eaten up by other matters. However, in the spirit of wanting to get myself back into the blogosphere in a big way, here are two comics that I would heartily recommend.

First, God bless Paul Cornell - one of the most emotionally engaging Doctor Who writers in print and screen (I still tear up slightly at the end of  Father's Day), and his comics work has been equally engaging. So I say this with little hyperbole and with forthright conviction:

Knight & Squire # 1 is one of the most fun comics ever written.

OK, maybe that is a little bit of overstatement, but it is quite an entertaining comic - if you have to oversimplify it, it's "Silver Age DC Universe in England". It reads like a one-shot, but is part of a six issue mini-series. There's a clever premise, some really good art, and each panel just reverberates with inventiveness. Although it's supposed to be a Batman spin-off book, there's plenty here for everyone to enjoy...there's even an explanation of British expressions on the final page, for those of you who may have missed them.

Six issues seems barely enough - this deserves to be a full series. Honestly. Buy it.

The other comic you should be reading is Matt Wagner and Aaron Campbell's Green Hornet: Year One. I have to admit some bias - after all, I have publicly admitted my love the Green Hornet - and I haven't been this excited about the character since the initial Now Comics run by Comic Related pal Ron Fortier.

It would be easy to make parallels between this book and Wagner's work on Sandman Mystery Theater - both contain equal mixes of noir and pulp-style writing - but Year One has a much less mystical, much stronger sense of realism in tone. Unlike Dynamite's other books, such as Kevin Smith's Green Hornet, Green Hornet Strikes, and The Girl, The Green Hornet, and Everything, it really has a solid storytelling core - nothing about it seems fake or unnecessary.

(Oh, and I was kidding about that third book - there is no such book. But Dynamite Entertainment, please - do you really need to exploit your franchises to death? Seriously. Year One is the only Hornet book you need to publish).

Both of these books have been out in the past few weeks (Year One is at issue # 6). This Wednesday, why not spend some money on two books that really deserve greater attention?

And DC - please make Knight & Squire an ongoing. You'll thank me later.

Green Hornet Trailer - Watch. Now.

A Different Glance At A Golden Age

This is, more than likely, going to be one of the tougher posts that I've had to write. Mostly because, as long-time readers of this blog (and by "long time readers" I mean "Chuck and Roger") know, I have an affinity and love for both Doc Savage and the Green Hornet. I'm probably one of the few who enjoy the Golden Age, but have a very slight working knowledge of the history of pulps.

So when First Wave (from DC) and the Kevin Smith written Hornet book (from Dynamite) were announced, I was a little hesitant...scratch that, I had been severely disappointed in most comic adaptations of Doc (bar Milennium Comics in the 90s), and, well, you can insert obligatory Kevin-Smith-late-script joke here.

However, with both books coming out this week, I can say that I was severely impressed with one, and the other left me a little cold.

The book that impressed me was First Wave, mostly because of Brian Azarello's writing. This isn't your grandfather's Doc Savage - in fact, Azarello creates a whole new world (or "Earth-53" as he joked at 2009's Wizard World/Comicon) inhabited by non-powered characters (Batman, the Spirit, the Blackhawks). There's been enough hype about the book, and I am pleased to say that the book lives up to the hype. Actually, it exceeds it.

An unnamed war. A discovery in the jungle. Without spoiling, there's a nice, hefty integration of classic pulp storytelling with some unique 21st century ideas. This Doc "feels" right, the Spirit has another unique feel (which, after recently seeing the Frank Miller film, is a little refreshing), and there's a solid build in storytelling. Rags Morales' art is pretty strong, helping to "sell" the atmosphere. This is one book that I don't mind following on.

However, I admit that I have some mixed feelings about Kevin Smith's Green Hornet book. First, the good points: the book starts with a nice action set piece which, quite frankly, would work as a big screen movie. There's an obvious love of the character and the "mythology" (as the teenagers would say). Jonathan Lau and Phil Hester's art helps drive the story (although at times, it does look a little awkward), and the dialogue tends to work.

However, there are some flaws with the book, with one seemingly sabotaging the storytelling.

First, the last few pages of the book which 'set up' the main storyline...well, they have a sense of "seen it all before". It doesn't quite seem true. The penultimate "domestic" scene really seems quite off, and rereading the book, I think I have the answer.

Smith is integrating the "mythology" of the Green Hornet, mainly through visual references to the 1960s television show. Some of the writing of Britt Reid and Kato in these flashbacks seem off. Way off. In a theatrical movie, these might have been updated/revamped for a modern audience, but by tying this in with the television show, some of the dialogue between Reid and Kato (including one potentially inflammatory remark) seems off...and that penultimate domestic scene? Again, the dialogue and behavior don't seem to fit, and are almost jarring. It's not really a bad book - I think it's just one where a specific creative choice ends up creating cognitive dissonance for the reader.

(To any colleagues who are reading this - yes, that's the second time I've used the term cognitive dissonance this month. I deserve a cookie).

I'm a big fan of Smith's movies, and he even made remarks about the Hornet film  in one of his live speaking appearances. His writing on Hornet seems like an uncomfortable mashup between the Hornet character and...a Kevin Smith movie. It's not bad, but I hope that the tone becomes a little more consistent, and that as the story progresses, it flows a little more naturally than this first issue.

In short, this week saw the debut of one really good pulp revision....and one that can use some room for improvement. Although I'm set on First Wave, I think I'm going to keep Green Hornet on probation for now.

I owe Kevin that much. That and fifty bucks.

Preserving the Green Hornet

The National Film Preservation Foundation is the independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. They work directly with archives to rescue endangered films that will not survive without public support.

The NFPF will give away 4 DVD sets as thank-you gifts to blogathon donors chosen in a random drawing: Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934 and Treasures IV: American Avant Garde Film, 1947-1986.

Admittedly, I'm the kind of person who watches DVD extras when seeing films - I love how films and television are restored to pristine quality. It's also tempted to see how major films are preserved, but key pieces of our pop cultural heritage are often lost, either due to lack of perspective (like the missing episodes of Doctor Who), internal politics, or some unusual confluence of events.

It's easy to dismiss VCI Entertainment's reissue of the first Green Hornet serial from Universal as simply catering to nostalgia, for days gone by...but as a piece of restored film - and a critical piece of pop culture, this is an excellent window into the past, providing an example of a now relatively extinct entertainment mode (the theatrical serial), but also providing an opportunity to enjoy a good, traditional story (as well as an entry into the Film Preservation blogathon)

As a character, the Green Hornet has served as an important role in popular culture - the pulp hero gone mainstream, the legacy hero (being related to the Lone Ranger), moving between mediums, as well as the idea of  the modern "Robin Hood" (a motif asserted in this film). However, in an age where popular culture is often becoming increasingly dependent on continuity, this film (due to obvious rights reasons) is a great done-in-one, often through the use of blatant exposition ("Kato, it's just like that giant green hornet we encountered in Africa!"). There's also the ever-shifting ethnic identity of Kato, the really unique effect of the gas gun (coming in small explosions, rather than a stream of gas). But ultimately, it's the overall look of the restored serial that is impressive - here's a small clip, taken from VCI's promotional efforts:




THE GREEN HORNET Serial: Before & After Restoration from VCI Entertainment on Vimeo.

But it's the acting that sells the piece - yes, it's that hyperkinetic 1940's style that typified most popular entertainment, but Gordon Jones manages to pull off the role of Britt Reid and the Green Hornet, depending on strong body language for the latter. (Al Hodge, who portrayed the Hornet on the radio, dubbed the Hornet's voice, and the effect seems to transition rather well). Keye Luke, later known for his role in Kung Fu, avoids the obvious stereotypes in playing Kato. (Although admittedly, too many viewings of the 1960's television show led me to expect more martial arts...but that's the price of living in a different time).

What's impressive about the restoration is that the film image looks crisp, clean, and recently filmed (except for half of episode 9, but that was due to a lack of available materials). In fact, the image is so powerful that one can easily tell the studio filmed bits (one set is repeatedly reused) from stock footage. Include some excellent additional materials (including two Green Hornet radio shows, and a fictionalized account of how the serial was developed), and you have not only a family-friendly piece of entertainment, but a very critical cultural touchstone.

But it's efforts like this that make it important for film preservation to continue, not just for the obvious masterpieces but for small diversions like this serial. It's not an easy view (a chapter or two a day works best), and yes, it may seem simplistic at times...but this is a pretty well-constructed example of the theatrical serial. This is not just our entertainment, but in many ways, is our history.

Donate Now to the NFPF

The Green Hornet!

"He hunts the biggest of all game....public enemies out to destroy our America!"

He's a character in pop culture who, in this blogger's opinion, never really got his due, much like the Shadow and Doc Savage. He has been featured in two movie serials, a television series, a radio show that ran 16 years, and comics (including an interesting take in the late 80's/early 90's. His theme song was even revived by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill. However, the Green Hornet has never received his due, not only as an interesting character, but also as one of the critical links from pulps to pop culture.

He started off as a radio character, created by George W. Trendle as a latter-day Lone Ranger...in fact, this is probably one of the first examples of the "intergenerational" hero ever presented. (Both the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet are separate "franchises", if you will, owned by different companies, so any acknowledgment of one in the other is unlikely). Britt Reid was the great nephew of John Reid, the Lone Ranger, inheriting not only the "mantle of justice" (for lack of a better term), but also a modus operandi. As a masked man, he would often be distrusted, but whereas the Lone Ranger asserted his essential "goodness", the Green Hornet used it as a way to insinuate himself in the criminal underworld, destroying it from within. (As a newspaper editor, I wonder if Britt Reid ever used his influence to kill "bad" stories about the Green Hornet?) His only weapons were a non-lethal gas gun and a car whose engine buzzed - granted, he was no Batman or Doc Savage, but he also was no slouch, either.

As always, the Green Hornet had an assistant - Kato, his Asian valet/driver (although there is an urban myth about Kato's background, to my knowledge, it was never specified on the radio). Early on, he served as a sounding board for the Green Hornet - almost a way for the audience to know what our hero was thinking at any time. (Almost a precursor to Doctor Who's assistant). Later, in the television show, Kato - as portrayed by Bruce Lee - served as a one-man "enforcer", if you will. (Pick up the Green Hornet DVD from Brentwood Video- the closest you will get to an "official" Green Hornet DVD - for more examples). Rounding out the cast were crotchety reporter Mike Axeford and secretary Lenore Case - in short, an almost extended family, some who were in on the secret, at least one (Axeford) who was not.

Speaking of the television series, it is hard to believe that the man who brought us the Green Hornet also brought us the Adam West Batman. (In fact, one episode of the latter included a team-up between Batman and the Green Hornet, with Robin "taking on" Kato. Poor Robin). The tone of the Green Hornet is reminiscent more of crime dramas than campy comic books - in fact, it was a tone that the Batman series should have taken. (In fact, the television Green Hornet had a "friend" in the District Attorney's office, like all good heroes should - none of this "whose side are you on?" nonsense). Whereas Adam West was droll, Van Williams held a steady ground; whereas Adam West gave it a slight twist, Van Williams (as Britt Reid/Green Hornet) played it absolutely straight...no wonder it only lasted for one season. People didn't want their action heroes with any sense of realism; they wanted goofball scripts, slightly off-kilter humor, and guest stars as villains. The only other concession to the 1960's was the Black Beauty (a sleek, almost stealthy car with several cool features) and "the Hornet's sting", a combination walking stick/taser/whatever-the-script needed. (Sadly, rumor has it the original films of the Hornet series are gone, and it's doubtful that Fox would even release a complete DVD set of the series).

Why, then, do I think the Green Hornet is such an important character? Like I mentioned, he helped make the link from the pulp adventurers to pop culture. (Although the pulps were an important part, the Green Hornet helped make the leap - if you think I'm joking, just see the Alec Baldwin Shadow movie). He was one of the first truly "multimedia" characters, appearing in mulitple media, and able to carry every one. He is one of the first modern heroes (and I'm willing to take other proposals) to be related to, and perhaps part of, a greater legacy - an idea that eventually filtered its way through modern comics. (JSA, anyone?)

In short, he is the ultimate hero - a crusader willing to bend the line (without breaking it) in order to insure justice. We need the Hornet, now more than ever.

But how do you reconcile a 1960's Green Hornet with a 1930's Green Hornet? The now-defunct Now Comics came up with a clever solution - one was the other's father. Building upon the intergenerational nature of the hero, they suggested that the Hornet mantle was passed down, with newer generations taking up the mantle, putting their own "spin" on the Hornet, etc. (It was an ingenious use of continuity that many comics could learn from). It's also why Kevin Smith is such an appropriate choice for writing the screenplay: unlike Burton's Batman, the Green Hornet isn't necessarily an angst-y character. Smith's tendency towards more dialogue-driven, relationship-based plots seem to fit a hero whose world is defined by his relationships - within and outside the law, his "family" (both extended and biological), and especially with the Kato family. (The comic had a great in-joke relating to the infamous urban myth related above). It's one of those series that is worth browsing through the bargain bins of your local comic store - it may not have been the greatest series, but is a great example of continuity and history being used in the service of the character.

Something most comic companies could learn a lesson from.