Speaking of comic books, here's famed painter Alex Ross' cover for the first issue of the upcoming Green Hornet miniseries, written by Kevin Smith and published by Dynamite Entertainment. Uh, if I'm not mistaken... have they made Kato a woman? Weird.
Now, I'm all for interesting gender-bending revisionist takes on old classics, and this actually isn't the first time there's been a female version of Kato -- in the 1990s NOW comic book series, the original Kato's much younger half-sister briefly assumed the role -- but something about this is just odd.
Sure, Kato was the Green Hornet's sidekick chauffeur, but he was also one of the first really cool pop culture examples of an Asian man kicking ass. Seriously, would anyone really give a damn about the old Green Hornet TV series if it wasn't for Bruce Lee as Kato? Just saying.
And yes, this is that Kevin Smith, of Clerks and Mallrats fame. At one point, during the recent rocky history of the Green Hornet movie getting made, Smith was attached to write and direct. This story is apparently based on the screenplay he wrote for the unproduced movie, circa 2004.
I imagine in that movie, Kato would've been played by Lucy Liu or Zhang Ziyi. I'm kind of glad that never got produced... though at this point, I'll honestly just be surprised if a Green Hornet movie ever gets made.
