It is about time we had an Appreciation thread for those forgotten heroes of the Old West. At one time, they were a large part of the Marvel stable of characters and then they were put on the shelf for “modern day” heroes. In my opinion, Marvel is cranking out too many title right now to hope to keep up quality, but after the inevitable pruning of failing titles, perhaps it is time to give a serious try at reviving the Western heroes. No mutants, no powers, no pseudo-technology: just a fast horse, a faster gun and a desire for justice.
So let’s review some of Marvel’s finest.
My personal favorite was Matt Hawk, the Two-Gun Kid. A lawyer who refused to wear guns, but then put on a mask and two guns to defend the town of Tombstone from all comers. Unlike most of the Western heroes, Matt had a regular supporting cast, which could easily have been expanded for more diverse stories.
He, of course, then became a time traveling hero, coming “back to the future” with Hawkeye, then going back to the Old West, then faking his death and creating a new identity, then dying for real, then coming back from the dead just to be brought back to the future again! Pretty much, he has hit every superhero trope that there is, and he is still going strong!
And then there was The Ringo Kid, a multi-racial character (although in those days he was called a “half breed”) with a white father and Native American mother (who was either Cheyenne or Cherokee--or maybe she was both?). There is lots of potential for stories from that background, and it fits Marvel’s current desire for a more racially diverse cast!
Not to mention he really rocked the all-black attire!
More in the mainstream, there was that favorite of the editorial office, the Rawhide Kid. He must be their favorite--after all, he is the only one to date to get a Marvel Masterworks edition. In fact, he had two volumes, which puts him two volumes ahead of everybody else on this list! I always found that favoritism odd, as he was about as plain vanilla as you could get: wanted for a murder-he-didn’t-commit, he roved the Old West with his horse and fought for justice. Also one of the more popular ones from days gone by was Kid Colt, Outlaw. He was wanted for a murder-he-didn’t-commit, while he roved the Old West with his horse and fought for justice. Both the Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt had an impressive number of issues to their credit.
But wait! There’s more! The Apache Kid, The Black Rider, The Outlaw Kid, The Reno Kid, The Ghost Rider (a/k/a Night Rider, a/k/a the Phantom Rider---talk about an identity crisis!), Matt Slade, and the Gunhawks (Reno Jones & Kid Cassidy). Truly, there are characters to be used, if Marvel ever wants to return to old-fashioned heroes who face down death and danger with no cop-outs like invulnerability or healing factors. They are people who choose to be heroes even though they could easily be hurt or die in the process, having no greater weapons than the people they fought.
The three-image policy prevents me from showing them all here, but it is time to appreciate them!