This is not the first Green Hornet story I’ve shown — nor the first featuring a mummy nemesis (see link below) — but it is from Harvey Comics’ first issue of
Green Hornet Comics (#7, 1942). Looking back, I have shown several mummy stories on this blog...perhaps this motherless blogger has mummy issues!
Grand Comics Database doesn’t guess who the artist was, but based on art identification by Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr they give credit for penciling and inking Green Hornet’s face to Arthur Cazeneuve.
Another Green Hornet mummy story, from
Green Hornet #29. Just click on the thumbnail.
Well, I guess that the Green Hornet wrapped that case up nicely.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the story was so formulaïc that the author acknowledged the expected and reälized outcome less that three-fourths of the way through.
Mummies, would-be mummies, and counterfeit mummies appear so frequently in comic books that I could imagine a hero whose sole mission were fighting rogue mummies, rather as Magnus fought robots. (Naturally, good mummies such as Amentep/Ibis and Taia should be unmolested.)
Was Kato left out of the action because he was Japanese and the story was published during the war? That little problem was dealt with handily by others, who just turned the loyal chauffer-sidekick into some other Asian nationality, like Filipino (I believe). Or maybe (I'm going for a No-prize here) Kato had to stay in the car the whole time because he had the unfortunate habit of addressing the Green Hornet as "Mr. Britt!"
ReplyDeleteBeing a huge Golden-Age Superman fan, I shouldn't even blink when the hero beats a confession out of the baddie, but the climactic scene in this GH strip is a bit disturbing. The Hornet doesn't say, "Whoops, the guards have caught me whaling the snot out of this poor guy!" Oh, no, he's glad they're there to hear the murderer's confession, whether it's voluntary or not! And when someone--the police captain--actually expresses his suspicions about the Hornet, they have nothing to do with the forced confession, which he accepts gladly! Well, I guess some people would call me a "snowflake" for my liberal sensitivities.
I know the page count on these tales determined the pacing, but, when the old dude says he doesn't believe in the death legend and he's dead two panels later, it just comes off as pure comedy.
Daniel, maybe someone could create a character called Mummyflogger, in the Magnus role.
ReplyDeleteI would think mummies would have a tough time, even if they came back to life after thousands of years dead. Stiff joints, you know...jeez, I have those when I'm getting out of bed after a night's sleep, much less lying in a sarcophagus for 3,000 years.
Ryan, yep, overnight Kato went from Japanese houseboy to Filipino houseboy.
ReplyDelete(Kind of off-topic, but along the lines of making a fast U-turn when history comes a-knockin' on popular characters, remember when Ronald Reagan and Jim Baker were shot by John Hinckley? The popular TV show Greatest American Hero switched Mr. Hinckley's name to Mr H and even Mr Hanley for awhile. Cowards!)
When did that obnoxious snowflake appellation first appear? It hasn't been on my radar screen until recently.
Kato ethnicity didn't actually go from Japanese to Filipino overnight. After Japan invaded Manchuria, his ethnicity stopped being mentioned for a while. Then when Keye Luke first played him, he was Korean. Then he became Filipino.
ReplyDeleteThe term “snowflake” as dismissive first appeared in Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. He regrets its subsequent trajectory.