Matthews explores Green Hornet's future

Brett Matthews has detailed Dynamite Entertainment's third ongoing Green Hornet title.

The Matthews-penned The Green Hornet Strikes! is set in a near-future Chicago following the collapse of the US economy.

"Nick [Barrucci, publisher of Dynamite] came to me with a simple pitch," the Lone Ranger writer told CBR.

"Kevin Smith [Green Hornet] was doing the contemporary book that was the genesis of all this happening, obviously. He then wanted Matt Wagner to do a retro/classic/Britt Reid title [Green Hornet: Year One], and for me to do something a little out of the box that would take place after Kevin's.

"The line-up just made sense to me right from the jump, and I immediately wanted to push the timeline of mine out into the near future, and Dynamite was on the same page. The way we saw it, that gave each book a reason for existing, and it was playing to everyone's strengths.

"The future - and this is near-future, not sci-fi - is usually a direct response to the past," Matthews added, explaining his interest in exploring societal changes that might develop from the current state of the world, rather than a future populated with robots and space-ships.

The Green Hornet Strikes! - illustrated by Matthews' fellow Lone Ranger artist Ariel Padilla - will debut in May.