Green Hornet: Year One #4
Written by Matt Wagner
Art by Aaron Campbell
Cover by John Cassaday
Dynamite Entertainment
Price: $3.99
Release date: July 2010

When I was a kid and the FX Network first started they would show the classic episodes of The Green Hornet and I would watch every single one of them. I looked up the Green Hornet back then. Well now our favorite green hat hero and trusty sidekick have their own comic series, Green Hornet: Year One.

I love this series because it tells the origins of these two characters and how they first started fighting crime in the streets of Chicago. Green Hornet: Year One #4 focuses on not only the Green Hornet and Kato taking on the mob in Chicago, but on Kato’s origin as well.

Yeah, I’m a little behind again, but one small week and one big week combine together so nicely. Lots of good books over the last few weeks, including a return of a favorite series, and an interesting new series. Here we go…

PULL LIST 08-06 & 08-13-08 Criminal #4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #17 Final Crisis #3 Invincible Iron Man #4 Ultimate Origins #3 Secret Invasion #5 Secret Invasion: X-men #1 Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #2 Batman #679 Chuck #3 Zorro #6 Welcome to Hoxford #1 Atomic Robo: The Dogs of War #1

Criminal #4
Starting out this week, we get one of my favorite series, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip‘s Criminal. This issue starts a new arc, dealing with Jacob, who it turns out we met before in one of the previous stories. He’s the creator of a comic strip that has shown up in the book before, but he also has a past as a counterfeiter. His life kind of sucks; he has crippled legs, he suffers from insomnia, he’s very isolated, but all that changes when he’s pulled into a violent exchange. This is a set up issue for the rest of the arc, so there’s not a lot of action here, but Brubaker brings his usual skill to the story. It’s hard to talk about this series when everything is so consistently good. I would like to highlight the coloring by Val Staples in this issue. The use of color in this issue is very effective in showing the characters emotions, and I thought it was really well done. If you’ve been looking for a good time to check out this series, give this issue a shot. If you like good crime drama, this is the book for you. —5 out of 5