I want to start by asking you to think about one thing.  While I ramble on about everything else I want you to keep this going in the back of your head.  Electric Penny-farthing bicycle. I just realized that Dynamite is producing two worlds that I’m really quite interested in.  They have the Pulpy-verse happening over in King-Dynamite and they have something entirely different happening in the pages of their Legenderry line.  I think both are fantastic concepts but Legenderry just isn’t doing it for me like the Pulpy-verse is.  I really enjoyed Vampirella, it wasn’t anything hugely special but I enjoyed it and I was willing to let that book carry a whole universe.  Sadly Red Sonja did very little for me and Green Hornet has a lot of promise, but this first issue falls a little flat.

Green Hornet suffers from having a little too much going on in this first issue.  It’s a fine balance between throwing too much stuff out front with too little explanation and having nothing happen with too much explaining.  Phantom #1 had that the latter problem, by the time we got any propulsion the story was over.  Green Hornet has the opposite problem shoving a lot of settings, characters and concepts at us at high velocity.  It’s like being blasted in the face with a shotgun that is filled with Hemmingway.  And I mean that with all the psychosexual undertones that sentence implied.  The story moves very quickly from set piece to set piece and saves all the explanation for later.  The pace is breakneck but it at least has promise of providing context in the future so I’m willing to forgive it.

On the other hand do you remember what I said up there?  The first thing?  About an electric Penny-farthing bicycle?  THERE’S A FUCKING ELECTRIC PENNY-FARTHING BICYCLE HERE!  There’s a whole electric Penny-farthing bicycle gang!  Which brings me to this books strongest aspect: this issue excels in imagery.  Everything from the designs of the vehicles, the new look of Green Hornet and villain Tik Tok are wonderfully designed and then brought to life through the clean, bright art.  For now the visual design and promise get it a pass, I’m willing to wait and see how this plays out but so far the Legenderry line could go either way but is at risk of tipping into the “dislike” category for me.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Daryl Gregory Artist: Brent Peeples Colorist: Michael Bartolo Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 2/18/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital