Sergeant Preston's Famous Family

There was a pleasant surprise waiting for me in the third issue of Dynamite Entertainment's Lone Ranger / Green Hornet mini-series entitled Champions Of Justice.

The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet are related. I believe this is largely common knowledge, at least for fans of either or both characters, though at times I see it referred to as a piece of trivia. Let's let Wikipedia explain it:

(Dan Reid Jr.) is the name of Captain Reid's son, the Lone Ranger's nephew, a character introduced in the radio series in 1942, who became a juvenile sidekick to the Masked Man, is Dan Reid.  

When (Lone Ranger co-creators George) Trendle and (Fran) Striker later created The Green Hornet in 1936, they made this Dan Reid the father of Britt Reid, alias the Green Hornet, thereby making the Lone Ranger the Green Hornet's great-uncle.

Got all that? When the man who would become the Lone Ranger's (sometimes named John Reid) Texas Rangers group was ambushed, his older brother Daniel Reid was among the victims. That man's son, Dan Reid Jr, fathered Britt Reid, who went on to become the Green Hornet.

In the book above, writer Michael Uslan added a very interesting element. In the scene below, The Lone Ranger and Dan Reid Jr visit the President who is in the process of honouring foreign lawmen for their assistance to the USA.

Uslan plays it coy in the book's notes but that can only be Sergeant Preston Of The Yukon in the scenes above. The family connection is detailed in the following two pages and in light of Preston's real life origins, no other Mountie character makes sense. Again, from Wikipedia...

Following the success of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet on Detroit radio station WXYZ ...the station owner, George W. Trendle, asked for a similar adventure show with a dog as the hero....The dog was originally called Mogo, but after criticism by Trendle, (writer Tom) Dougall re-christened the canine King. Dougall likewise created Sgt. Preston and the French-Canadian guide. Fran Striker, who also wrote for The Lone Ranger, contributed show scripts.

Nice work by Uslan to more directly connect Preston to both The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet due to their true-life origins. A tip of the hat to the writer for both the idea and the execution.

Of course now I expect a series featuring the three men in action together. I wonder if Uslan would be up to tackling that challenge?