Tales of the Green Hornet #1

(January 1992)

Destiny: The Origin of the Green Hornet (Table of Contents: 1)

The Green Hornet / comic story / 22 pages (report information)

Script

James Van Hise

Pencils

Dell Barras

Inks

John Stangeland

Colors

Suzanne Dechnik; Patrick Williams

Letters

Patrick Williams

Genre

crime; superhero

Characters

Green Hornet I [Britt Reid I]; Kato I [Ikano Kato]; Britt Reid II; Two carloads of criminals (one group killed in this story); A grocer (killed in this story); Daniel Reid; Three more car-riding hoods (killed in this story); Margaret Reid; Various anonymous tourists; Various anonymous Chinese and Japanese; Four Japanese soldiers; Three anonymous Japanese orphans; A Japanese school official; A Japanese political speaker and his audience

Synopsis

A symbolic splash page depicts the first Hornet-Kato team fighting criminals. An aging Britt II walks through the family library, stopping to look at a scrapbook, and specifically a preserved Daily Sentinel front page with a headline reading "PROTECTION RACKET MURDERS by Britt Reid." He remembers the story behind it. In 1934, Britt I began working as a crime reporter for the family-owned Daily Sentinel newspaper. A protection racket story leads to his interviewing a grocer about it, when a gun battle between two thug-carrying cars erupts in the street outside. The young man dives for cover, but the businessman freezes, and is killed by wild shots. In the street, Britt finds one of the cars wrecked, its occupants dead. A subsequent discussion with his father, Daniel, leads Britt to the conclusion that the police are incapable of cleaning up the city by themselves, and one man should be able to make a difference. Sometime later, three hoods attempt to kill Britt, who escapes by a combination of daring and luck, which includes their car wrecking and killing them. The attempt prompts Dan to take his wife and son on a long-considered trip to the Far East, to get Britt out of harm's way, at least for awhile. They find a sinister, Japanese undertone in Hong Kong. Then in Japan, a military air is apparent. Before they can leave the docks where they came ashore, the Reids spot a young man flailing about in the water, and Margaret says she saw him pushed in. Britt jumps in and saves the Japanese, who identifies himself as Ikano Kato, and pledges eternal servitude to his rescuers. By pretending to accept this, Britt keeps soldiers from taking Ikano into custody, but in subsequent, shipboard privacy is shocked to learn that the pledge was made in earnest, rather than merely as fast thinking to avoid arrest. Young Reid suggests a compromise, "Friends for life," which Ikano accepts. Kato then describes his challenging a speaker at a pro-imperialism rally and the resulting arrest and attempt on his life. At sea, Ikano describes his orphanage upbringing and his science and engineering education. While the Reid party is changing from ship to plane in Hawaii, someone slips a threatening note into Britt's pocket.

Indexer Notes

Story concludes in the following issue.