Dynamite Entertainment
Mark Waid, writer
Daniel Indro and Ronilson Freire, artist
I was pleasantly surprised not long ago by the fresh take on the Batman mythos presented in the original graphic novel Batman: Earth One, then rather disappointed in Superman: Earth One, a similar updating on the familiar beginnings. This book is somewhere in between. The writing is great as one would expect from a veteran writer like Mark Waid. And the artwork is crisp and clear, as one would expect from an action/adventure story such as this one.
And yet, I'm just not feeling it.
In his introduction, Waid explains how he developed the plot of this story, and it sounds interesting, if not quite as original as Waid claims. The Green Hornet's alter ego, Britt Reid, owns a daily newspaper in Chicago. Waid's idea was to have Reid experience some success both as the crusading journalist and as the Hornet, and end up eventually "believing his own press and stumbling hard over his own ego." Take away the newspaper angle and that story HAS been told before, by Waid himself, as well as a great many other writers. A familiar basic plot does not make a story bad, by any means. Familiar plots are re-told in any number of new and creative ways to very great effect all the time.
I am even quite willing to give Waid props on his characterization in this volume. Quite often when a writer wants to take an established character and show him or her making mistakes early on that helped teach a lesson and shape the individual that character would eventually become, the writer ends up making said character act "out of character" to bring about the error in judgment. Waid avoids that common writing flub here. His Britt Reid/Green Hornet behaves consistently throughout this narrative.
My problem with the story is that I just personally don't care for the way Reid/Hornet is acting here. And I don't like how quickly former partners the Hornet and Kato are placed at odds with each other and physically battle each other. Where is the friendship and devotion to each other these two characters should have in order to carry out the mission they have set for themselves?
Another problem this trade suffers from is incredibly decompressed storytelling. The great bulk of this trade, collecting the first six issues of the series, is almost pure setup rather than a complete story unto itself. This is the second time I have run across a trade that did not present a complete narrative in and of itself. Comics are a continuing medium; it is not unusual for the stories to continue from issue to issue for years, yet still, most trade collections offer a satisfying beginning, middle and end within the framework of the ongoing continuity. This book does not. Perhaps that is a new path comic storytelling is destined to take, but I'm still of the mindset that a single trade should contain a single story even if several trades tell a much larger narrative.
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Just a quick "heads up" before I go: Stop by this Friday for a special second post this week!
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