The Green Hornet #2 [Direct]

(December 1989)

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 1)

Green Hornet / comic story / 25 pages (report information)

Script

Ron Fortier

Pencils

Jeff Butler (pages 1-14); Jim Wisniewski ? (pages 15-25); Lenin Delsol ? (pages 15-25)

Inks

David Mowry

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

An All New Green Hornet! Generation Two!

Genre

crime; superhero

Characters

Kato II [Hayashi Kato] (origin); Ikano Kato; Green Hornet II [Britt Reid II] (origin); Paul Reid (introduction); Dan Reid, Jr. (old photographs only); Maggie Reid (old photographs only); Britt Reid I; Ruth H. Reid; Diana Reid; Tom Reid; Mary Reid (old newspaper clipping photo only); Alan Reid (introduction); Captain Larsen (villain, introduction); Wilson (villain, introduction); Kumara Kato (introduction); Hatami Kato (introduction); Marie Kato (introduction); Mishi Kato (introduction); Senator Steve Carlson (introduction, dies)

Synopsis

November 5, 1989: A fancy car (the third Black Beauty) sits outside the smouldering ruins of the Reid country estate. Inside, a man wearing the costume of Green Hornet III examines an old Daily Sentinel edition ("September 20, 1968"), "The Journal of Britt Reid" and a scrapbook. Photos and clippings in the last inspire thoughts of the past. October 1, 1979 (another Sentinel front page): From the basement garage of Reid Tower, Britt Reid II and Hayashi Kato enter the night as the Green Hornet and his chauffeur/bodyguard/enforcer. They intrude upon an arms deal held undercover at a dairy, hearing the name Garrick dropped in conversation as they approach. Predictable resistance to "cutting in" the Hornet gives the masked men their excuse to shut it down. As they head back home, Britt remembers how this entire lifestyle began for him. January 28, 1968: Britt II holds Britt I's Hornet mask up to his face as he had May 14, 1955 (see issue #1, Sequence 2), but now he is quite opposed to the idea of following in his uncle's footsteps. Nevertheless the older man sends for his former partner Ikano Kato's oldest son Hayashi, ostensibly for him to continue his engineering studies in American schools. As Hay keeps up with his classwork (Feb. 5), he also works with Britt I on two special projects, an unusual car ("the new Black Beauty") (March 16) and an equally unusual garage in which to hide it (April 6). All the while, young Britt insists he will never become the Green Hornet, until on June 10, 1968, his former college roommate and now Presidential candidate Senator Steve Carlson is assassinated right in front of the young Reid. He races home, informs his uncle and Hayashi that he has changed his mind and tries on a new Hornet mask before their eyes. To be continued....

Reprints

• (pages 1-14 only) in "The Green Hornet" (hardback book), NOW Comics & Bonus Books, 1990.

Indexer Notes

1: The given story title is taken from this issue's entry in Sequence 3, also the only place to find credits for this issue; those given above are based on that and those found on next issue's continuation; Butler definitely drew the first 14 pages while somebody else did the flashback to the 2nd Hornet's origin, and the art here bears too much of a resemblance to that of next issue's conclusion of that segment, credited to Delsol, for Wisniewski's pencil credit in this issue's Sequence 3 (but, again, not on the story itself) to be flatly accepted; in an email (12 July 08) to Ted Watson, Ron Fortier revealed that the "origin" flashback was created as a fill-in when regular artist Butler became too ill to work, and that its exclusion from the reprint collection was the writer's suggestion. 2: A Daily Sentinel newspaper headline in the last panel of page one reads "GREEN HORNET BACK!" with the sub-line, "Has 40's Crime Master returned?" and is dated September 20, 1968; taken all together, this is not entirely consistent with the dates, tied to real-life news incidents, given in the origin-flashback story itself, most of which are cited in the synopses; this is undoubtedly the result of the origin flashback being hurriedly created in the circumstances previously described. 3: Issue #6 reveals that the man in the opening scene is not Green Hornet III (Alan Reid), but his brother, Paul, wearing his costume.

The Reid Family Tree/The Kato Family Tree (Table of Contents: 2)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script

Ron Fortier

Letters

typeset

Synopsis

Minimal family trees for the series' two pivotal clans.

Reprints

• from The Green Hornet (Now, 1989 series) #1 (November 1989)

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 3) (Expand) /

NOW Newsflash / promo (ad from the publisher) / 1 page (report information)