The Our hero this week has thrilled audiences for nearly 80 years on radio and comics,

television, and on the big screen. He's the green hornet, the daring masked vigilante who prowls the night in his sleek super-powered car doing battle with criminals beyond the reach of the law.

By day, the hornet was Britt Reed, the crusading publisher of the Daily Sentinel newspaper

in a great unnamed city.

Reed stood up against corrupt politicians, crooked investors, and the mob, but there were limits to what he could accomplish in a strongly worded editorial.

By night, he donned a mask and waged a one man war against crime even as the police

considered the green hornet to be just as dangerous as the criminals he pursued.

Reed was aided by Cato, his loyal valet, and the Robin to his

Batman. Actually it may be more appropriate to call Robin the Cato to Batman's Green Hornet since the Hornet predated the dark night by three years.

The Hornet's weapon of choice was a gas gun, which didn't kill his enemies but knocked them out, so they'd be ready for capture and

pick up by the police.

The Green Hornet was created by George W. Trendle, Franz Striker, and James Jewel, the producer, writer, and director behind the Lone Ranger.

Trendle, who also co-owned Detroit Radio Station WXYZ, wanted to create a program that would show how one man

could stand up to political graft and corruption. The Green Hornet shared more

than a creative team with the Lone Ranger, he shared a family tree.

Britt Reed's father Dan was the nephew of the famous masked rider of the plains, and when the elder Reed discovered his son's nocturnal activities as the Green Hornet, he couldn't have been surprised, that zeal for vigilante justice ran in the Reed family. When the

series first premiered in 1936, the opening narration announced that the

green hornet hunted, the biggest of all game,

public enemies that even the G-Men cannot reach.

This didn't sit so well with FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, as in his mind no crook was beyond the

reach of the Bureau. In response, the narration was changed

to public enemies who tried to destroy our America. And as America entered World War II, the Hornet frequently did battle with spies and

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