The Green Hornet '66 meets The Spirit - review

 

The Green Hornet '66 meets The Spirit 

From Dynamite Entertainment and available on DrivethruComics.

I may be a little biased here. I've always been a fan of the Green Hornet and Will Eisner's The Spirit. I used to chase after Spirit comics and strips while being on the look out for Green Hornet serials, the radio show or even the comics from Now Comics. So I'm kind of happy having both of them here in one story. 

They start with a great set up having The Green Hornet and Kato in Central City laying a trap for Kid Kraken a gang leader who is known as being the henchman of a previous criminal mastermind known as the Octopus who supposedly died fighting the Spirit years earlier. Yeah that's quite a long sentence to sum that all up... but it should work. Anyways their trap not only attracts the attention of Kid Kraken but also that of the Spirit as well. A younger black Spirit that nobody had identified before. The Kid suspected a trap so has henchman in vast quantities with him to feed into the fists and gas gun of our three main characters. 

As the story progresses we get plenty of twists and turns as Kid Kraken then goes on the offensive to discover the identity of his enemies. The story of what really happened between The Spirit and the Octopus is revealed. With plenty of action tossed in there for good measure. 

Writing wise this is a great story. Fred Van Lente captures that pulp feel with not only the dialogue but also with the entire plot. All of the characters feel properly place and not just a cardboard cutout saying a couple of lines. Props to him for pulling this off in the here and now. 

Bob Q does the art duties and doesn't let anyone down. He has a nice smooth style that just flow very well from panel to panel. Some parts of it even remind me a bit of Eisner's style in the Spirit comics. I'm hoping to see more from him, especially on these characters if that can happen, in the future. He's such a solid fit here. 

All in all this is a great idea for a crossover with characters that would interact well with each other. Honestly it's nice seeing Dynamite bringing back some classics like this and blowing the dust off of them. But at the same time keeping them true to their form. 

In the end I am going to give this one five out of five. The only thing I would have liked more is if there had been more pages. 

You can pick it up over on DrivethruComics for $11.99.