Green Hornet: Blood Ties #2

Spinning out of Kevin Smith's Green Hornet, this second issue of Blood Ties sets a grim, street-level tone right from its cover — a battered Green Hornet, mask in place and hat pulled low, grimaces in clear pain as his gloved hands clutch his wounded side against a shadowy brick-wall backdrop. Johnny Desjardins's cover work captures the Hornet at a raw, vulnerable moment that feels a long way from polished heroism, making it hard not to wonder what kind of punishment this mini-series has in store. Ande Parks and Desjardins deliver a 2010 Dynamite entry that keeps the classic pulp vigilante feel alive while pushing it somewhere noticeably darker.