Green Hornet: Year One Omnibus

Very good story but not the most exciting. Can be a bit slow or meh at times. Overall I did really enjoy the story and art. It was a solid origin story to some awesome characters, I love Green Hornet & Kato they’re some of my favorites.My biggest problem and the reason this is only a 3 star review is because the book comes apart at the binding. My cover fell off with the spine. Now the pages are just separate. I normally don’t leave reviews but this has happened with A LOT of my Dynamite pulp heroes books. Keep that in mind when buying a Dynamite comic like the Shadow or Green Hornet. Clearly the books are made cheap.Good stories though. Especially the Shadow Year One & the Fire of Creation & Mark Waid’s Green Hornet was awesome too. But all these books fell apart except for Waid’s! I’ve bought about 11 books by Dynamite about classic Pulp heroes. 4 have fallen apart, when before I even opened it from the amazon package. Now another is falling apart that I just read once. Always from the pages disconnecting from the spine. So the pages and covers are completely separate. Terrible!!

As the "Year One" title implies, this book tells the early career of the pulp hero the Green Hornet.The story is decent if not all that spectacular as Britt Reid goes travelling and meets up with Kato, arrives in Chicago, and decides to fight crime as the Green Hornet.Unfortunately, the big problem with this book is that Matt Wagner takes part of the issue and dedicates it to the Green Hornet's origin and training and part of it to his early case in pursuit of some Chicago mob boss in 1938. The problem with this is that it makes the main story very slow moving. Very little is accomplished in each issue. It's particularly to follow before Britt and Cato get together as the book as you have two back stories and one main story trying to be told in a short 20+ page comic.The interior art doesn't help. The book's best art is its splash pages of which there are quite a few. Most of them are decent, but they take a lot of space away from stories where nothing happening already. In Issue 2, we get a one page splash followed by a two page splash (which doesn't really have a great impact because of the coloring.)The book's coloring is atrocious. Characters are shaded in all sorts of bizarre and unnatural light. I do get some shots where pre-Green Hornet Britt is shadowed in Green but most of it is gratuitous and the result is just not pleasing to look at.One thing I will say for the book is that the covers are good and the alternate covers included at the back are great. Alex Ross' Issue 1 Alternate is fantastic and Francisco Francavilla alternate covers for Issues 2-6 are drawn like old time movie posters. It's all very nice.I should note for parents that this book is rated for Teens and that is not a good book for young kids. It's got a lot of violence and a bit of gore, but again it's at a PG-13 level.

This is actually my third Hornet book, after Mark Waid's volumes.Let me just say that this was a far happier and coherent story than Birth of a Villain. There is one main villain, Vincent "Skid" Caruso, with classic "foiled again!" syndrome. To top things off, half the guy's face is scarred. (Yes, Britt calls him Scarface in one scene.)Throughout the story, you'll see flashbacks of how Britt Reid and Kato Hayashi got their start, beginning with their geographically separate childhood upbringings. I thought that the way their lives parallel and compliment each other's was fascinating, especially their first-hand exposures to violence. I mean, of course it was tragic to read about, but it definitely explained their unwillingness to kill mobsters, even monsters like Caruso's gang.There are lots of bold colors, and just general good teamwork between Britt and Kato -- although it is mentioned that Kato is typically the more reliable and capable of the two, so much so that a transmitter is placed inside one of Britt's shoes for tracking purposes.Expect some pretty bloody scenes, hilariously dated language, and racist attitudes. But hey, these are mobsters, after all. They aren't supposed to be watered down and kid-friendly (well, they did take one girl out for ice cream, but that's got its own context as well), and this book does not disappoint in that area.So why 4 stars? Personally, I found the art style too jarring. But mostly, it felt lacking in what made me fall in love with the characters in the first place: their villainy! What makes the Hornet different from other heroes is that he has to pretend to be one of the bad guys. Not only that, but he owns them. No one mentions his name without looking over their shoulder. In this story, I didn't really get the feeling that he was trying to put out an evil image. Even one of Britt's employees states that the Hornet should be thanked for trying to put a stop to Caruso's hold on Chicago. Not to mention the Hornet calling Caruso's money "illicit". If he's supposed to be another mobster, why should he care where it comes from?Anyway, if you're a fan of the Hornet, I recommend you put this on your reading list. It may be an origin story, but it's still a real page-turner. Plus, Britt speaking in Japanese to Kato? It may be translated for us English-talkers, but their meeting and subsequent friendship is still charming.

It take me back to the old TV show when I was in high school ,I loved that show and sadly they cancelled it and kept the crappy Batman/a Adam west version, great book exciting reading for GREEN HORNET fans ,I hated the recent abomation Seth Regan did ,I hope they will make another intelligent move but in the mean time read and let your mind take you back there .

Using the era of the Green Hornet's debut as a backdrop, and throwing in a few visual elements from the '40's serials & '60's show, Wagner & his creative team spin an origin story that honors the 75 year old crimefighter. Though the violence & language is heavy at times, it fits the gangster/war era setting of the story; a graphic pulp novel in the truest sense. I'm looking forward to reading & enjoying further volumes of Green Hornet: Year One.

I like it but it’s a comic book not a paperback book as advertised.

Just finished reading, Great explanation about the Origin of the Hornet & Kato.

Great origin for a great character.

Great stuff, all about how Britt Reid and Kato got together. I've read other origin tales, but this one rings the most "true" A big plus is the art work which is magnificent.