The radio series The Green Hornet spawned several comic books by several publishers between 1940 and 1949, and a one-shot Green Hornet comic was published several months after the radio series ceased production. During the one season run of the TV adaptation, US comic book publisher Gold Key Comics, which specialized in adaptations of film and television properties, produced a three issue comic book adaptation of the television program.
By far the most extensive and ambitious Green Hornet comic book adaptation was the 1989-93 series of several Green Hornet "unlimited" and limited-run series published by NOW Comics. NOW's project was especially ambitious in that it attempted to reconcile the various radio, film serial, and TV series versions of the Green Hornet character, creating what is in effect a multi-generational epic which spins the Green Hornet as being effectively the Reid family business. NOW's "Hornetverse" posited that the Green Hornet of the radio series was the original Britt Reid, grand-nephew of John "The Lone Ranger" Reid (however, legal considerations prevented NOW from making that relationship explicit), in partnership with "his" Kato, who was given the full name of "Ikano Kato". According to the series this Kato was Japanese, however during the war the Reid family publicly held Kato out as being Filipino in order to prevent his being sent to an internment camp.
The Green Hornet of the TV series was posited to be the namesake nephew of the original Hornet (usually referred to as "Britt Reid II" whenever the genealogical question was raised), who took up the mantle of the Green Hornet in partnership with "his" Kato, Hayashi Kato, who was the son of Ikano. This Britt Reid retired after suffering a heart attack, but he encouraged his nephews Alan (killed by a bomb on his first "mission" as the new Green Hornet) and Paul (a concert pianist by training) to take up the family business.
Alan Reid was killed in his first mission as the Green Hornet (causing Hayashi Kato to go into a tailspin of guilt and to begin hitting the bottle hard); shortly thereafter his brother Paul took up the role, joined by Hayashi Kato's half-sister Mishi, an automobile designer by profession and a martial artist (of course!) by avocation. Unfortunately, the company controlling the rights to the Green Hornet property did not approve of this, and demanded that Mishi Kato be removed and that the Paul Reid Hornet be paired with Hayashi Kato. Fearing the loss of their license to use the characters, NOW Comics acceded to that demand. Apparently, the rightsholders relented in their objection to the Mishi Kato character, as she made an appearance in a later series of comics, and served as a Love Interest to Paul Reid in later comics. Rounding out the Reid family saga is Diana Reid, daughter of the original Britt Reid and cousin to Britt II and Paul. Diana, a lawyer, ran for and won election to the office of District Attorney upon the retirement of Frank Scanlon, and maintains the Hornet's covert connection with the law enforcement community. She developed a romantic relationship with Hayashi Kato, and they had become engaged by the comic's end.
2010 saw the start of a number of Green Hornet comics under the aegis of Dynamite Entertainment. A couple series are noteworthy: Green Hornet: Year One by Matt Wagner (writer) and Aaron Campbell (art), and several series by Kevin Smith (especially Kevin Smith's Green Hornet, reputed to be based on Smith's aborted script for the Green Hornet film eventually produced by Seth Rogen, and separate series on Kato and Kato's origins).
These comics provide examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: NOW Comics' Green Hornet: Dark Tomorrow and Dynamite's The Green Hornet Strikes both feature future generations of the Reid and Kato families taking on the mantles.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Reid Jr. in the Dynamite series is shown the lair; where the mechanic shows off the floor panel that flips the Black Beauty and replaces it with a normal car, Britt asks what the point of it is because no one is supposed to be down there aside from the Katos, the Reids, and the mechanic.
- Defector from Decadence: Kato in the "Year One" series left the Japanese army after witnessing his squad leader allow a number of his troops to rape a young woman in Nanjing. Ultimately he executes him and departs.
- Depending on the Writer: So where is Kato from? In the Kevin Smith comic book and the "Kato" series (focusing on the second Kato, his daughter Mulan), his origins hail from China and he was a child during The Great Famine. To the contrary, the "Kato Origins" and "Green Hornet Year One" series posit that he is Japanese and even served in the Japanese army during WWII.
- Evil Counterpart: The Dynamite Series has introduced The Black Hornet who is all for crime and killed Reid Sr.
- Fundoshi: When conducting research for Kato's origin for Green Hornet: Year One, writer Matt Wagner was surprised to discover that Japanese underwear of the period essentially consisted of - as he put it - 'banana hammocks'. A scene involving Japanese soldiers in fundoshi ended up in the comic.
- Improvised Weapon: In Year One Britt is on the run from some soldiers in Africa who just killed his friend and he stumbles across a nest of Hornets, they are green , and throws a rock through their nest. The hornets attack in a frenzy and kill the soldiers.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: In the Dark Horse comics, the Japanese Kato infiltrates a mobsters stronghold by posing as a courier from a Chinatown gangboss, complete with Chinese cap and exaggerated Engrish accent. When Britt asks "They really thought you were Chinese?", he replies "All the same to Americans".
- Intercontinuity Crossover: DC and Dynamite published a comic book sequel to "A Piece of the Action"/"Batman's Satisfaction" as Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: In the Dynamite comics, Mulan Kato makes her first appearance kicking nine kinds of ass in a long red party dress with matching heels.
- Kneel, Push, Trip: In The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet #5, the Lone Ranger and Elliot Ness do this to defeat Black Bart (Ness does the kneeling, the Ranger does the pushing).
- Legacy Character: In the original radio series, The Green Hornet was the nephew of The Lone Ranger. The 1990s NOW comic, which did not have the rights to the Ranger, could only allude to this, but established that the Hornet identity was itself a legacy, having been adopted by two nephews of the TV Hornet, who in turn was himself the nephew of the original radio character.
- Mythology Gag:
- The late 80s-early 90s NOW Comics adaptation had a number of Mythology Gags referencing various actors who played The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, and Kato in the radio series and 1940s film serials.
- In Green Hornet Year One, Daniel Reid's letter opener is silver with a horse head.
- The Stoic: Mulan, Kato's daughter in the Dynamite series, doesn't say a word until some four issues after her intro.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: In the first issue of the Year One series, Kato and the Green Hornet are mistaken for a new gang rival and his muscle and decide to play into it.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the Year One comic series, Britt and Kato bust a shipment of a truck full of machine guns, a gangster pulls out one of them and fires at Reid, but nothing happens, he looks at the trucker, who shouts "We don't transport 'em loaded!". They all get taken down very quickly.
- Take Up My Sword: Averted in the Dynamite Entertainment series; Britt Jr. becomes the Green Hornet after being discouraged by the elder Kato and his daughter Mulan. This may also be the case with the Katos.
- Walking the Earth: Britt in the Year One series wants to see the world before he works for his dad.
- Zorro Mark: The Green Hornet's calling card in the Year One series is a hornet etched into a green lens.
