Review by C.J. Bunce

Dynamite learned years ago that readers want more of the superheroes from the past, and we haven’t seen much of crossovers like the Masks series lately.  Dynamite really knows Miss Fury fans will keep coming back for each new effort to resurrect writer/artist/creator Tarpé Mills’ first superheroine, as the comics publisher continues to re-introduce her in stories every few years.  Dynamite will be publishing its next Miss Fury project beginning this coming Wednesday, only it’s not a solo series–it’s a team-up. Green Hornet/Miss Fury is heading to comic shops, and it debuts with more than 30 cover options for the first issue alone.  Best of all, those covers are coming from artists that include Francesco Francavilla and the duo of Jae Lee and June Chung.  Check them out below, along with a preview of the first issue.

Dynamite gave us our pick for best comic book series of 2013 with its Miss Fury: Anger is An Energy and second book Miss Fury: Walk Through the Valley, both written by Rob Williams, with fantastic art by Jackson Herbert (with some great Alex Ross cover art), and she returned in another solo title, Miss Fury: The Minor Key, written by Corinna Bechko with art by Jonathan Lau.  Miss Fury feels like she’s been around forever, especially with 21st century appearances in several series, like Alex Ross’s fully painted 2012 series Masks, and again as part of the 2015 team-up in Masks 2, plus a list of other team-up titles including Noir and Swords of Sorrow).

For me what makes Green Hornet unique isn’t Hornet but Bruce Lee as Kato in the classic television series.  So partnering Hornet aka Britt Reid with Miss Fury aka Marla Drake isn’t on its face that compelling of an idea.  In the first issue we do get to see Kato, and it’s hard not to wish Reid got sidelined and Drake and Kato were the team-up of the story, which begins in the middle of an action scene with Drake and Reid.  Apparently a common superhero mentor has been murdered and they will need to partner to track down the killer.

Although a few writers will be working on the new Green Hornet/Miss Fury crossover, the common link is interior artist Federico Sorressa.  What Dynamite has done well in the past Miss Fury series is keeping her timeless, stunning appearance, which is part of her character.  Sorressa provides some panels that capture that.  Other panels seem more quickly prepared, less precise, and she looks even ugly in a few pages, as do some other characters, sometimes with an unfinished appearance.  This series was initially expected in the fall of last year, so did something cause the preparation to be accelerated and did that have an impact on the book?  I wish they could tap one of the cover artists for the interiors of a story like this, either Francesco Francavilla, Jacob Edgar, Jonathan Case, or Jae Lee would make an interesting book–Edgar’s covers in particular have this Frank Miller-meets-Darwyn Cooke vibe.

Fury is the high point of this story–how could she not be?  And it’s a plus Kato doesn’t seem too happy with Reid.  But you can see the problem right there in the marketing for the story:

Someone has murdered the Silver Shrike, and finding the culprit has become a matter of honor for both the Green Hornet and Miss Fury, each of whom regarded the man behind the Shrike’s mask as a personal mentor. But solving the case quickly is also becoming a matter of survival, because the killer is now targeting other costumed crimefighters – and either one of them could easily be next!  The danger hits home for the inexperienced Miss Fury when she runs into the Emerald Vigilante while investigating the “mask murders” – only to find that it’s up to her to keep the Green Hornet from becoming the latest victim!

Miss Fury, inexperienced?  Since when?  Why isn’t Hornet the inexperienced one?  For starters the conceit is a fairly major insult to the established legacy of this great woman character.  I’m glad Dynamite isn’t taking Miss Fury into the smuttier style books like we’ve seen for Red Sonja and Vampirella.  But I also want to see Mills’ strong heroine come forward more in this series, and not be a dartboard for Reid’s prettyboy, tough guy antics.

Here is the detail on the cover options for the first issue:

Here is the key cover art for the first issues:

And here is Dynamite’s preview for the first issue:

Add Green Hornet/Miss Fury to your pull list at Elite Comics or your local comic shop.  The first issue is slated for release Wednesday, January 8, 2025.