everymedia: In a test film I've seen where they had another actor in the Green Hornet role alongside Bruce Lee's Kato, Brit Reid mentions in a scene that his father had been framed and went to prison.
Britt makes a similar statement to D.A. Scanlon in the actual episode, "The Frog is a Deadly Weapon." Here, Hollywood veteran Victor Jory plays Glenn Connors, whom Reid calls "...one of the men who framed my father," with no further elaboration as to what this entailed. In the Hornet TV universe (so to speak), it's quite plausible that this event was a major factor in Britt becoming a masked vigilante.
A note concerning the Jan 11, 2006, post from blocherd. Jeff Butler was the artist rather than the writer involved in the development of the NOW Comics version, who was Ron Fortier. In fact, Butler replaced original artist Steve Gan during the development process. As for the multi-generational premise, Fortier's original idea was to follow the TV show's lead and do a modern, updated version from scratch. However, Gan had the family line idea, following from the radio series' connection between the Hornet and the Lone Ranger (Britt's father Daniel was the Ranger's teen-age nephew Dan Reid who appeared in several episodes of the Western). When Gan had to withdraw due to other committments, Butler joined and was as familiar with all the radio background as Steve had been and loved the family line concept. Ron came up with uncle-to-nephew because father-to-son just wouldn't fit the timelines established by the runs of the radio and TV programs (all of this is per an article by Will Murray, loaded with quotes from Fortier, in
Comics Scene magazine #9, October 1989). He still had to fudge things though, since this was not an available option for the Kato family, as it was too essential that the first Kato had no family whatsoever when he met Britt and joined up with him. Consequently, Ron had the first Hornet hang up his mask in 1945 while the radio series aired its last new episode in 1952, and the second not put his on until 1968 in spite of the TV version's 1966 debut; this allowed a twenty-year-old son of Ikano to arrive in the US in 1967 and
subsequently team with Britt II in masked crimefighting. It never set well with me that Kato returned to Japan shortly after its surrender in late 1945; he had spent some five years living under phony documents pretending to be a Filipino, to avoid the internment camps that most Japanese-Americans were placed in. I could not reconcile this with the fact that after the war the country was essentially being run by the U.S. military, called the Occupation--my father was a soldier in it, and before it was over so was his brother. Some years after the last NOW issue was published (with a cover date of January 1995), I stumbled across a statement on the internet claiming that the Imperial Japanese had killed more Chinese than the Nazi Germans had Jews. There was no distinction made between civilian atrocities (most of the Jews) and military casualties (undoubtedly a sizable percentage of the Chinese), so this is no denying of the Holocaust. But it did give me an idea, and I quickly determined that the Occupation of Japan ended in 1952, the same year
The Green Hornet aired its last original radio episode. So let's say that the first Kato (named Ikano by NOW) returned fairly shortly after the Occupation (and the radio show) ended in 1952 and home rule was restored; there he met and adopted an approximately ten years old Chinese war orphan. This would not only restore the two programs actual respective years of finish and premiere to that timeline, but also explain all the Chinese references regarding the second, TV-based Kato. Note that many of writer James Van Hise's
Tales of the Green Hornet adventures of the first and second Hornets ignored those 1945 and 1968 career tie-offs. If anyone is wondering about Britt I's 1947-born daughter Diana, let's say she is Britt II's sister, conceived shortly after their father's return from World War II military service. This would make her truly the aunt of modern Hornet Paul Reid, as was often said by both characters. And the scene in the story depicting the first Hornet's last adventure showing this same man returning from military duty in what we now say was 1952? That refers to a second tour, this one in the Korean War. Since I came up with none of this until after the turn of the century, I certainly don't fault Fortier, Gan, Butler, or anyone else working on the NOW project for not thinking of it. Comments, anyone?
P.S.: I can't come up with any excuse for a text story in the back of NOW's very first
Green Hornet issue stating that Britt I's mother/Dan Jr.'s widow was alive and well for a woman her age--moving from "The City" to Florida, in fact--in 1955, and then having the later two family tree features give her year of death as 1944! These are all that is ever said about her in the entire line.
The GREEN HORNET Strikes Again!
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srb-3
13 years ago
The original artist for the NOW Comics version that Jeff Butler replaced was Steve Erwin not Steve Gan. Ron Fortier was the writer.
I agree that James Van Hise's tales of the Green Hornet ignored the continuity previously established by Ron Fortier during his initial Green Hornet run.
I'm pretty sure that Diana Reid is called by Britt as his *cousin* rather than his sister. I also believe that Britt was given a brother Thomas who was the father of Alan and Paul Reid, thus keeping the time-line intact.
It is certainly ironic that while Kato was originally Japanese and later Filipino, thus inspiring the explanation by Ron Fortier (that Kato was Japanese and his being Filipino was a cover story, which I thought was clever on Ron Fortier 's part), Kato on screen has alway been played by Chinese: Keye Luke in the 1940's serials and of course Bruce Lee in the 1966 television program.
You are correct that url I posted was removed. However it states that the party involved was CBS. I find that strange as 1) It was ABC not CBS ran the television series and 2) CBS is owned by Paramount not 20th Century Fox which distributed the Green Hornet for ABC.
I personally care for Ron Fortier 's Green Hornet a great deal. Kevin Smith's take on the other hand, I find to be a nasty, dumb, parody of that. At least Ron Fortier is involved with Moonstone's Green Hornet.
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tbrittreid
13 years ago
1. Oops! It was Erwin, not Gan. Did that post mostly off the top of my head, but knew you were right as soon as I read your post and didn't bother to check the article. Sorry.
2. Diana and Paul frequently referred to their familial relationship as aunt and nephew, on at least one ocassion going beyond merely addressing each other by those terms--Diana said (and I can track down the issue number/date and exact quote, if you wish) something very close to, "I am his aunt...." As far as "keeping the time line intact" is concerned, I was referring to maintaining the approximate time frame of Diana's birth in the face of having Britt I being a full-time Green Hornet up to 1952 (instead of Fortier's unworkable 1945). Doing that and becoming a family man simultaneously obviously doesn't work, as Britt II said to Paul while trying to recruit him to become the newest Hornet late in Fortier's "Generations" saga. It was Britt I's brother, the father of Britt II and Alan & Paul's father, who I suggested as being her father as well. No new brother created out of whole cloth was intended. I did not mention this before, but my adjustments also required Dan, Jr.'s death to occur a few years later than said in The Green Hornet Vol. 1, #1's text story, which made Britt II and his brother old enough for Britt I's trusting them with his secret more reasonable than at the younger ages actually indicated there. This is one of several things that make me suspect that Green Hornet, Inc.'s ordered-at-the-eleventh-hour changes weren't limited to dropping Hayashi's half-sister Mishi as Paul's Kato, the only one actually acknowledged by NOW (at least in their letter columns, and I'm unaware of any such statements at all elsewhere; however, I've never been in position to follow the fan press all that closely).
3. I hadn't noticed CBS indicated as one of the "claimants" (their plural, though no other is specified) that got it dropped, and you are right about that network having no apparent connection. I can't conceive any relationship at all. However--and just to set the record straight--Paramount is owned by Viacom, Inc., whose owner (a man named something like Sumner Sloan--that was a character on Cheers, wasn't it?) also owns CBS independently of owning that mega-corporation. I heard about Viacom's sale of the Eye network--and struggling weblet UPN--shortly after the turn of the century, and was surprised recently by an IMDb news report describing the ownership situation, indicating that the transfer was really on paper only.
4. I have never read any Hornet material from Dynamite, or Moonstone either, but the latter has always sounded more appealing to me than the other. Thanks for confirmation.
The GREEN HORNET Strikes Again!
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srb-3
13 years ago
1. No Problem.
2. Yes Diana and Paul are indeed aunt and nephew. I never said otherwise. Diana is the daughter of Britt Reid I, and again Paul's father is I believe, Thomas who is Britt II's brother. Thomas and Britt II are the sons of Jack Reid, Brit Reid I's brother. I am missing the point you're trying to make here.
3. Yes that *is* so strange. As you say, makes no apparent sense but there it is. CBS, Viacom Paramount has or had connection to each other. None of those have any connection to the Green Hornet which of course would be ABC, Greenway and 20th Century and now Sony.
4. You're welcome. Simply put Moonstone has the tv series GH in prose form. Recommended. DE have many takes on the Green Hornet most of which are terrible. Exception Green Hornet Year 1 by Matt Wagner
I *really* miss NOW Comics' rendition ...
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tbrittreid
13 years ago
Yes Diana and Paul are indeed aunt and nephew. I never said otherwise. Diana is the daughter of Britt Reid I, and again Paul's father is I believe, Thomas who is Britt II's brother. Thomas and Britt II are the sons of Jack Reid, Brit Reid I's brother. I am missing the point you're trying to make here.
Which I now realize led to your post that I was responding to. I was suggesting a few alterations to the Fortier/Erwin/Butler/NOW timeline that, I felt, made much more sense (not that I'm faulting those entities for not coming up with it that way in the first place; it was well after 2000 that I did). My having the first Hornet hanging up his mask not until 1952 meant that any (legitimate) child of his would not have been born in 1947, as their chronology has Diana's birth. So to retain her approximate age, I offered alternate parentage for her, Britt I's brother & his wife, making her a sibling to Britt II & Tom rather than being Britt I and Ruth's only child. It just so happened that this jibed with various issues' scripts having she and Paul refer not infrequently to their relationship as aunt/nephew; in NOW's actual set-up she and Paul's father were first cousins, making the two of them second cousins, or first once removed--I don't understand the distinction there myself.
I *really* miss NOW Comics' rendition ...
So do I....
The GREEN HORNET Strikes Again!
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srb-3
13 years ago
I am still missing your point here. Fortier in NOW Comics Green Hornet volume 1 has the following:
1) Diana is born in 1947.
2) Britt Reid II was the Green Hornet II from 1967 - 1974.
3) Frank Scanlon was the DA until 1972 and was replaced by Diana.
All of those fit. I don't see inconsistencies here.
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tbrittreid
13 years ago
If you had read my post of Thursday September 8, you would have seen this: The idea of Ikano Kato returning to his native Japan in very late 1945 or very early 1946 after spending at least five years living under false documentation as a Filipino never set well with me, due to the post-war U.S. military occupation of the country. Fortier fudged the timeline this way because his uncle-to-nephew solution for the Reids/Hornets did not work in the Kato family, at least not for the first transition; Kato having no family was central to the origin. I eventually came up with the idea of Ikano not returning to Japan until the occupation--and the radio series--had ended in 1952, whereupon he adopted a ten-to-twelve-year-old Chinese war orphan, renamed Hayashi. The problem with that was Britt I and former secretary/wife Ruth's daughter Diana being born in 1947, when I now had him still being the Hornet as full time as ever up to '52. Shifting her parentage to Britt I's brother and his wife--Britt II's parents (conceived upon the father's return from WWII duty)--fixed that, if making her close to a year older than given. It also has the benefit of making her and modern Hornet Paul Reid's frequent description of their familial relationship as aunt-and-nephew instead of whatever type of cousins Fortier's timeline actually had them accurate. I don't know how to explain it any clearer.
The GREEN HORNET Strikes Again!
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srb-3
13 years ago
Ikano Kato had false documents while living here durring WWII. He goes back to Japan during the US Military Occupation. Nothing to say he can't live in Japan while it's occupied by the US Military is there? He has sons, the oldest Hayashi, who becomes Kato II and a daughter Mishi who becomes Kato III. Surely the US Military occupation isn't going to prevent Japanese citizens from marring and having children.
You could make the arguement that Mishi should be Hayashi's daughter rather than sister as per Kevin Smith's version and I would conceed that point (that being the ONLY concesion to Kevin Smith's that I am willing to make by the way as he has the 1930's version of GH & K and the 1960's version being one and the same).
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tbrittreid
13 years ago
Nothing to say he [Ikano] can't live in Japan while it's occupied by the US Military is there?
There certainly is. He has specifically told Britt I (in NOW's
GH vol. 1, #1) that he wants to return to help his country recover from the war. While there he founds a company. He
must put himself forward as a Japanese national, in contrary to how he's been living in the USA since 1940. As long as doing so means dealing with the US government--and until sometime in 1952 it certainly does--I cannot find it plausible that the illegal Filipino pose would not come to light and get him arrested. Besides, surely you can't dismiss a way of getting the 1952 end date of the original radio series and the 1966 premiere date of the TV version within the timeline, can you? That's to say nothing of all the Chinese references to Hayashi. Baron's way (in
Kato of the Green Hornet [I] #1) contradicted Fortier's first issue text story's statements about her.
And how can you concede to Smith making Hayashi Mishi's father while you otherwise retain the NOW timeline? She'd have to have been born while he was in his teens; even so, she would not be significantly older than Paul, an important point to Fortier. By my having him a Chinese war orphan born c. 1940-42, Hayashi would be old enough to be Mishi's father plausibly (and legitimately).
The GREEN HORNET Strikes Again!
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