The history of superheroes often begins with pulp novels and comic strips, but what truly made superheroes mainstream was the twin episodic media of radio and serial films. Characters like the Shadow ruled the radio starting in 1932, but by 1941, one radio superhero was so popular that he was already getting a reboot by his second film serial. It wasn’t Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon or any of DC’s heroes, but a masked vigilante known as the Green Hornet. And 85 years ago, on January 4, 1941, the second serial focused on this character hit theaters with the hyperbolic title The Green Hornet Strikes Again!
Watching The Green Hornet Strikes Again! today will likely elicit two contradictory reactions. On the one hand, it’s shocking how well it holds up, and just how much modern superhero and sci-fi narratives owe to it. But this superhero romp is also mired in the strange narrative obsessions of its era, making it feel like an overly long superhero crime show that’s lacking a main character.
