The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet #1 cover by John Cassaday

Michael Uslan is the writer of Batman: Detective #27, The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights, Justice, Inc., and more; is author of The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir; and has served as an executive producer on many Batman films, The Lego Movie, and more. His latest project is the thrilling The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet, coming soon from Dynamite! He shared more about the series with Westfield’s Roger Ash.

Westfield: What is the genesis of The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet?

Michael Uslan: Actually, for me this project began many, many years ago! Back then, I was talking to both the literary property owners of the Lone Ranger and the literary property owners of the Green Hornet. I wanted to make a feature film that would tell the story of the Reid family and the transition from the old west and the days of the Lone Ranger to the modern day city of 1938 and the Green Hornet, with the passing of the torch from one generation’s champion of justice to another. I actually wrote the opening scene for that movie in the hopes that I might get President Ronald Reagan after his presidency to play John Reid as the Lone Ranger in his 80s in the 1930s. Unfortunately for me, when two major studios moved in, they made preemptive offers in the stratosphere that I could never match. And so, continuing what has become an 80 year streak, the rights to do one family saga with both characters remained elusive. One company wound up making a Lone Ranger movie and the other company went up making a Green Hornet movie. Ultimately, neither movie was my cup of tea. For the first time since college, I wound up walking out of the movie… The Green Hornet. I probably would’ve walked out of the Lone Ranger movie as well, but I saw it on an airplane, and common sense got the best of me.

As the years passed, and I became friendly with Nick Barrucci of Dynamite Comics, and then started working with him, we had a great experience on The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights. This was conceived to be the first historic team-up with these two famous radio characters. Nick had always enjoyed the team-up I wrote for DC Comics back in the 70s in the pages of The Shadow #11 in which The Shadow met The Avenger for the first time. That story was what motivated him to seek me out to write this crossover. Following that project, I gave Nick my bucket list of dream crossovers I would love to write some day as a graphic novel/comic book miniseries. Before long, he came back to me and said “I did it!” Nick had gotten the rights for the first time in 80 years to feature all three Street & Smith pulp heroes… Doc Savage, The Shadow, and The Avenger… together in one story. I just had to write that! And then, the day came when he reached out to me and said, “I did it!” For the first time in eighty years, a story could be written that would feature the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet in one adventure together! There are still three dream crossovers on that bucket list I gave to Nick… And I know for a fact that he is working on all three!

The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet #1 Green Hornet Design cover by Giovanni Timpano

Westfield: In your opinion, what makes this a good pairing?

Uslan: Are you kidding?! The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet were created by Fran Striker, the same guy and he purposefully made the Green Hornet the grand nephew of the Lone Ranger, as we move from one generation… Dan Reid, Senior and John Reid, two brothers who were Texas Rangers… to Dan Reid, Junior, son of the late Dan Reid, Senior and nephew to John Reid, better known as the Lone Ranger… To Britt Reid, son of Dan Reid, Junior, and better known as the Green Hornet.

The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet #1 Lone Ranger Design cover by Giovanni Timpano

Westfield: What sort of research did you do for the story?

Uslan: I am a history major and a history buff. I love alternative history such as books like Ragtime, The Alienist, and Carter Beats the Devil. With the exception of my graphic novel Archie Gets Married, all of my graphic novels have dealt with alternative history and involved tons of historical research, something I love to do! Just as I did with my hardback graphic novel, Batman: Detective #27, and with The Shadow/Green Hornet: Dark Nights, and Justice, Inc., this Lone Ranger/Green Hornet tale deals with true events in history and people who really existed, intertwined with fictional characters and fictional events.

Westfield: What can readers look forward to in the story?

Uslan: I hope that the readers will be as interested and entertained as possible in learning for the first time officially exactly how the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet are related and how the Green Hornet followed the precepts and methodology of his great uncle in a modern day, urban environment. They will discover what happened to the Lone Ranger after his days of wearing the mask and riding the great horse, Silver, ended. They will encounter real people in the stories and find out how they interacted with the Lone Ranger and/or the Green Hornet. Readers will learn of the strengths and bonds of family blood and the generational rifts that can tear a family apart.

The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet #1 preview page 1. Art by Giovanni Timpano.

Westfield: Aside from the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet, who are some of the other characters in the series?

Uslan: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill, Fiorello LaGuardia, Jesse Owens, Adolf Hitler, and many others are woven in and out of this family saga over time. Of course, Tonto, Kato, Casey, Dan Reid, Jr. also show up… often in surprising ways.

The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet #1 preview page 2. Art by Giovanni Timpano.

Westfield: You’re working again with artist Giovanni Timpano. What do you enjoy about collaborating with him?

Uslan: Gio and I are always operating on the same wavelength. We communicate back-and-forth. We share ideas. He comes up with things that always make the story even better. His illustration is superb and his graphic storytelling is cutting-edge and electric. When it comes to anything historic, he goes all out doing his research and making sure every detail is exact and accurate. Who could ask for a better full partner in producing a graphic novel/comic book miniseries?

Westfield: Any closing comments?

Uslan: Continuing something I have always enjoyed doing, the story has plenty of Easter eggs for those hard-core Lone Ranger or Green Hornet or dramatic radio or pulp fiction fans who possess a full command of the characters and their histories.

As a comic book writer, a comic book fan, a comic book historian, this is such a unique and special opportunity for me. This really has taken 80 years to happen! I would ask that fans support Dynamite and the kind of love and passion and effort that went into securing these rights and executing the story. I would love fans to really be supportive of this type of venture and take the complete five issue ride with us.

“Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear…”

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The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet #1