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Grounding the Bumblebee, or Why Matt Wagner’s “Green Hornet: Year One” Lost Its Sting

I’m a Green Hornet fanboy, admittedly and proudly. I smiled goofily through the first, second, and seventh viewing of the trailer for Michel Gondry’s film, and I have eagerly been picking up Kevin Smith’s long-sought interpretation of the character. (Have you noticed the eerie similarities in the premises of both, by the way? I know it’s a common trope in superhero stories, but it’s almost one for one!)

But we’re not here to talk about those Green Hornets – I like those Green Hornets. I even flipped when I saw an autographed Van Williams picture at the local Southern California Comics. I’m also a fan of Matt Wagner, whose Sandman Mystery Theater was a seminal read in shaping my love of all things crime comics as well as noir. For all the levity that seems to pour out of the Smith/ Rogen and Goldberg versions, I should really be more receptive to Wagner’s hard-boiled and straight edged take on the character’s origin.

But I wasn’t. In fact, I found it really, really f*%king boring. The first issue I was willing to put up with, because starting things is quite difficult. There’s a lot of ground to cover in those first 32 pages (sans advertisements,) so origin tropes can be excused, and are even welcome if a reader is unfamiliar with the characters.

There is also Wagner himself to take into consideration, who has been writing comics for ages now, and should really have a better grasp on dialogue and situations of a character he claims to love. In a recent interview, he admitted what his intentions were – he wanted the book to have the feel and sound of an old Green Hornet radio program. While commendable, it takes a deft hand to skirt that type of writing without falling victim to its lure. Unfortunately, Wagner loses his grip. He uses hammy phonetics to write for the thugs, which seems to be unavoidable, but the dialogue itself is uninspired. Not that one would expect a big lug in a cabbie hat to speak like a Nabokov character, but there could have been more effort in keeping their speech reigned in.

Even the Hornet himself speaks like a narrator, obviously influenced by the radio program, but his verbiage makes him sound like a third-rate Batman rip-off. The plot itself is also quite mediocre – through the first two issues, the Hornet and Kato cross-cut from their youth in their respective countries to their currently engaged in a dockside fistfight. It’s a noble endeavor, but both their stories are linear and predictable. There’s never any suspense, and a moment when young Britt Reid gets stung by a hornet is so laughably cliché it almost made me throw the comic down in disgust.

No complaints about Aaron Campbell’s fabulous art, however. It’s gritty and expressive, while remaining traditional. He draws the Hornet and Kato and the thugs uniquely, using a lot of sharpness to make them look menacing and powerful, which is effective when you consider that Kato and the Hornet are just two dudes in sweet coats with a kick-ass car. The book was worth picking up through the end of issue two, mostly because of Campbell’s excellent artwork, but the story has just been so meandering and narrow that it doesn’t entice.

Dynamite Comics has several Hornet and Hornet-related titles right now, some better than others, and much more engaging throughout. Smith’s book works because it features his witty dialogue mixed with Phil Hester’s breakdowns, which orient the action better than Smith could ever have hoped to. In addition, Gondry, Rogen and Goldberg’s interpretation features a strong visual flair and a morbid curiosity for seeing schlubby Seth Rogen come into his own as an action hero. Unfortunately for Wagner and Campbell’s book, there’s no real sting that brings me back after the second book. I might be guilt-ed into picking up the few I’ve missed in order to see if I was wrong, but far as I know, my bug for the Hornet’s been squashed pretty badly, at least for this title.

Rafael Gaitan