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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mighty_marvel_western_vol_1_1.jpg
L-R - Two Gun Kid (firing into the air), Rawhide Kid (firing two guns into the ground) and Kid Colt (firing off to his left, your right.note 

Masked men, lawmen, dudes, owlhoots and vigilantes! From the battle of the Alamo to the dusty streets of Tombstone, the men and women of the West that was are finally unearthed in this scrapbook of memories from the personal collection of the modern-day Phantom Rider! Featuring entries on the Black Rider, Tex Dawson, Gunhawk, Kid Colt, the Masked Raider, the Outlaw Kid, the Phantom Rider, the Rawhide Kid, the Steam Rider, the Two-Gun Kid, and more!

Marvel Westerns (2006) #1
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Characters

    Black Rider 

Black Rider

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/361540_176150_black_rider.jpg

Alter Ego: Matthew Masters

Notable Aliases: Cactus Kid, Black Mask, Dark Western Avenger, Morris Masters, Doc Masters

First Appearance: All Winners #2 (December, 1948)

At a young age Masters watched his parents get murdered by some looters. Wanting and seeking justice this young man grew to be a man and tracked the men who killed his parents. Calling himself the Cactus Kid, he shot and killed them. Arrested and pardoned, he went on to medical school and settled in Leadville, Texas. Now nick-named Doc by the local town folk, Morris led a good life, until he came across a land robber, not wanting to tarnish his reputation he became the Black Rider.


  • Clark Kenting: During his days as the Black Rider, his would-be girlfriend Marie Lathrop thought Matthew was a coward. In his disguise, he advised her not to be so harsh on him.
  • Cool Mask: Another bearer of the Eternity Mask.
  • Dramatic Irony: On passing the Eternity Mask to Dennis Piper, he warned him not to hand it over to the Scientists Guild, who'd originally made the Mask. Dennis would unwittingly do so. In fact, the part of Marvel Comics #1000 showing this came before the page showing Masters passing the mask to Dennis in the first place.
  • The Topic of Cancer: One of the few Western heroes to live out the end of the Wild West, Masters developed terminal cancer in the 30s.

    Kid Colt 

Kid Colt

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kid_colt_9.jpg
Kid Colt is about to shoot someone to the right of you.

Alter Ego: Blaine Colt

Notable Aliases: Mr. Jones, Johnny Colt, Kid Arbuckle, Blaine Cole

First Appearance: Kid Colt #1 (August, 1948)

Kid Colt was a nickname for Blaine Colt, a cowboy who was renowned for his quick draw and temper. He lived a relative easy and peaceful life until his father was murdered by bandits. Colt was furious and devastated with grief over his father's murder and sought out to find those that where responsible. When he finally found the murders, he challenged them to a gunfight. Kid Colt won and killed his father's killers. He was however wrongly accused of murder when he did this, even though it was a fair gunfight (which was not illegal in the Wild West during this period of time). He was branded an "Outlaw" and got a price on his head. From that point on, Colt was on the run for the law wherever he went. He traveled to many places in the West, trying to do what was right in fighting crime, but also himself trying to stay out of the long arms of the law.


  • Cool Horse: Like all Marvel western heroes, Kid Colt had a cool horse. His was named Steel.
  • Cool Shades: He wore a pair of round teashades during the Blaze of Glory miniseries, apparently trying to evade detection from the authorities.
  • Deadly Distant Finale: Kid Colt is killed in the Blaze of Glory miniseries, shot In the Back by the Bounty Hunter Gunhawk who was looking to claim the price on Colt's head.
  • The Drifter: A wanted man, Kid Colt keeps drifting from town to town so the law doesn't catch up with him.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Kid Colt had a notoriously short fuse. It was his temper that got him in the situation where he was branded an outlaw, it would continue to plague him throughout his career: landing him in scrapes that more level-headed heroes could have walked away from.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Kid Colt was branded an outlaw for killing his father's killers in a fair gunfight. (Some more recent retellings have had Colt admit that he is not sure if it was a fair fight or not, as he doesn't remember if he gave them a chance to draw.) Wherever he travels in the Wild West, he is a still a wanted man, and has to keep looking over shoulder for lawmen and Bounty Hunters.
  • In the Back: How Kid Colt dies in the Blaze of Glory miniseries: shot in the back by the Bounty Hunter Gunhawk who was looking to claim the price on Colt's head.
  • The Trope Kid: Or 'The Kid Trope' in this case.
  • Young Gun: Of all of Marvel's western heroes, Colt was the most impulsive and immature.

    Masked Raider 

Masked Raider

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7486054_marvel_comics_1001_masked_raide_nycc_variant.png

Alter Ego: Jim Gardley

Notable Aliases: Streak

First Appearance: Marvel Comics #1 (August, 1939)

The Masked Raider was the first adventurer of the Old West published by Marvel Comics. He was Jim Gardley, a young cowpoke in 1830s Texas. He was originally approached with the offer to serve as hired muscle for a powerful rancher. When he found out the boss wanted him to "convince" all the small ranchers in the area to sell their lands to him at dirt cheap prices, Gardley turned down the offer. The rancher then framed him for cattle rustling and had him jailed.

Escaping, Gardley started preparing himself to take revenge. He created the costume identity of the Masked Raider, perfected his aim and draw and partnered himself with a feral white horse by the name of "Lightning". His costume consisted of a red shirt, black pants, brown boots, a white hat and a black mask.


  • Cool Mask: One of the bearers of the Eternity Mask, made of Eternity itself, which grants whoever holds it power equal to whatever they face.
  • Dying Alone: Gardley was attacked and fatally wounded by unknown assailants in 1880. He was found by Dr. Matthew Masters, who removed the Eternity Mask from his face, inadvertently killing Jim.
  • Heroic Vow: On becoming the Masked Raider, he vowed to "forever fight the lawless, bring justice to the oppressed and help the poor."
  • Legacy Character: Aside from being the first bearer of the Eternity Mask, which passed through a lot of hands over the next two centuries, in the modern day there's a new Masked Raider running around.
  • Noodle Incident: The exact circumstances by which Jim found the Mask are unclear.
  • Retcon: Originally, there was nothing special about Gardley's clothing. It was just a disguise, made of ordinary cloth. The Eternity Mask stuff happened in 2019's Marvel Comics #1000.

    Outlaw Kid 

Outlaw Kid

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lance_temple_outlaw_kid_earth_616_from_blaze_of_glory_vol_1_2_0001.jpg

Alter Ego: Lance Temple

Notable Aliases: Masked Avenger of the West, Outlaw

First Appearance: Outlaw Kid #1 (September, 1954)

"Lance, in his grief, disowned that side of himself. (But) when the bandanna comes up, he is once again certain and sure. He is the Outlaw Kid and his mind is clear and he knows what must be done."
Dramatis Personae for Lance Temple, in Blaze of Glory

A lawyer and Civil War veteran living with his blind father. He promised his father that he would never take-up a gun again, but he wanted to right the wrongs in a near-lawless frontier so he donned a mask. Which caused him to experience a split personality, one for justice and one to obey his fathers wishes.


    Phantom Rider 

Phantom Rider

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/429016_phantom_rider1.jpg

Alter Ego: Carter Slade

Notable Aliases: Ghost Rider, Night Rider, Son of the Spirits, He Who Rides The Night Winds, Frontier Phantom, Phantom of the Plains

First Appearance: The Ghost Rider #1 (February, 1967)

Carter Slade, the first man to wear the mask, debuted in The Ghost Rider #1 (Feb. 1967). He battled evil while dressed in a phosphorescent white costume, complete with a full-face mask, cape, and the requisite white hat. Slade received his outfit and his white horse from Flaming Star, a Native American medicine man. He recruited a young sidekick named Jamie Jacobs whom helped him during his missions. Eventually, Carter was killed in a gunfight. Jamie Jacobs vowed to follow in the foodsteps of his friend and mentor.


  • Terror Hero: Slade relies on trickery to scare his foes, especially in the early stories when he's not yet an accomplished gunfighter. He doesn't actually have supernatural powers, but his enemies don't know that.

    Rawhide Kid 

Rawhide Kid

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rawhide_kid_ii.jpg

Alter Ego: Jonathan Clay

Notable Aliases: Johnny Bart, Johnny Clay, Jeb Kent, Trey, Dances-Naked-With-Glee

First Appearance: Rawhide Kid #17 (August, 1960)

When Johnny Bart was an infant, his parents, the Clays, were killed in a raid by Cheyenne Indians. The infant Johnny was overlooked by the Cheyenne raiders, however, and was soon found by Ben Bart, a Texas Ranger. Bart adopted Johnny and raised him on his ranch outside Rawhide, Texas. Bart named his adopted son "Johnny Bart." Ben Bart was one of the fastest gunmen in the Texas Rangers. When Johnny was sixteen, Ben, who by then had retired from the Texas Rangers, began teaching him how to use a gun. By the time that Johnny had reached his eighteenth birthday, Ben had taught him all he could, and Johnny had become even faster and better than Ben was at using a gun.

Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Johnny Bart went into Rawhide to buy the month's provisions for the ranch. Once he was gone, a drifter named Hawk Brown confronted Ben Bart and challenged him to draw his gun; Brown hoped to make a reputation for himself by outdrawing the renowned Ben Bart. Unknown to Ben, Brown had an accomplice named Spade hiding nearby Just as Ben drew his sixguns, Spade called out to Bart from behind, distracting Ben just as Brown and Spade had planned. Brown took the opportunity to gun Ben Bart down.

On his return, Johnny Bart found his adoptive father's corpse and buried him. Johnny vowed to avenge Ben Barr's death. He could tell that two men were responsible for Ben's death from the way the bullets struck him as if he had half turned around to see someone behind him. Johnny rode to Rawhide, where Brown and Spade were claiming that Ben Bart had started a fight with Brown and that Brown had outdrawn him fairly Johnny confronted Brown, who drew his guns on him. But before Brown could squeeze his triggers, Johnny drew his own guns and fired them, wounding Brown in the arm. Seeing Spade in the mirror about to shoot him from behind, Johnny, without turning around, fired over his own shoulders, hitting Spade in his gun arm. Johnny Bart left Brown and Spade to be taken into custody. Johnny declared he would not return home to the ranch, but would use his gun-fighting prowess to fight evildoers like Brown and Spade wherever he could, no matter what the odds were against him. Johnny called himself the Rawhide Kid after the town in which his gun-fighting career began.

Despite being declared an outlaw, the Rawhide Kid continued to defend the weak and helpless and to battle criminals. Among the most notorious or unusual of his many adversaries were the Cougar, the original Red Raven, the Ape, the Tyrant of Tombstone Valley, the Masked Maverick, Marko the Manhunter, and the strange alien called the Living Totem.

The Rawhide Kid sometimes joined forces with other legendary gunfighters, including Kid Colt, the second Phantom Rider, and the Two-Gun Kid. The Rawhide Kid even allied himself with members of the Avengers who visited his time period.

The Rawhide Kid was still an active gunfighter as late as 1897. It has not yet been revealed how, when, or where he died.


  • Blasting It Out of Their Hands: The Kid's usual M.O. (along with every other cowboy hero of the The '50s and The '60s). If the writers were feeling edgy enough, the hero might occasionally shoot the villain in the hand or shoulder, but shots intended to kill or seriously harm were a big no-no.
  • Cool Horse: Like all Marvel western heroes, Rawhide had a cool horse. His was named Nightwind.
  • Fiery Redhead: The Kid is a redhead whose hot temper sometimes lands him in trouble.
  • Gay Cowboy: The Kid in the eponymous 2003 limited series (but not in regular continuity, Earth 616 appearances). His over-hyped sexuality caused the books to be rated inappropriate for minors to read, even though the only indication he was gay was by offensive innuendos and implications.
  • Get Back in the Closet: This is supposedly the sole reason why the 2003'' miniseries Marvel MAX imprint, even if he was just somewhat hinted to be gay. Through constant and offensive innuendo.
  • The Gunslinger: Typical of Marvel Comics' western heroes of The '50s and The '60s, Rawhide is equal parts Trick Shot and Quick Draw, able to draw with blinding speed and always disabling his opponents without killing them.
  • The Trope Kid: The "Rawhide" Kid.
  • Twilight of the Old West: The 1985 miniseries is set in 1897 and has an aging Kid pondering the place of gunfighters in the new century.
  • We All Die Someday: The Rawhide Kid provides the final spoken line of the Spaghetti Western miniseries Blaze of Glory: The Last Ride of the Western Heroes:
    "Men die. Every single one of us. That's a fact and that's our fate."
    • The last page also gives us "Only the legends are forever."
  • Young Gun: In the 1985 miniseries, Rawhide acquired a sidekick named Jeff Packard, a.k.a. Understudy, who fit this trope.

    Two-Gun Kid 

Two-Gun Kid

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twogunkid.gif

Alter Ego: Matthew Hawk (Born Matthew Leibowitz)

Notable Aliases: Clay Harder, Matthew Leibowitz, The No-Gun Kid

First Appearance: Two-Gun Kid #60 (November, 1962)

One of the Wild West's most famous gun-fighters, Two-Gun Kid journeyed forward to modern times alongside the Avengers to face new challenges as a man out of time.


  • Badass Normal: No powers, only skill with guns.
  • Bounty Hunter: During the Civil War, Matt Hawk became a licensed bounty hunter and worked alongside She-Hulk, helping her to apprehend super-villains.
  • Cowboy
  • Domino Mask: A deliberate design choice to make him look more like a superhero.
  • Faking the Dead: When the dates of his "deaths" as both Matt Hawk and the Two-Gun Kid drew near, he faked his death as Matt Hawk so he could devote his Two-Gun Kid identity to foiling an international conspiracy aimed at controlling the world's economy.
  • Fish out of Temporal Water: One of reason because, the first time, he refuse to stay with the Avengers prefering return to his era.
  • Guns Akimbo: He use two pistols.
  • The Gunslinger: He is one of the fastest and best gunfighters of his time, rivaled only by Kid Colt and the Rawhide Kid.
  • Life Will Kill You: He eventually dies in his sleep in a New York hospital in 1942.
  • Something Person / The Trope Kid: He's a young man with two guns.
  • Time Travel: After the battle with Kang, Two-Gun offered his services to the Avengers and was awarded reserve membership in absentia while he explored 20th century America with Hawkeye as his guide. Howewer he became increasingly homesick, though, and later returned to his own era.
    • More later, however, it has been revealed that She-Hulk, after dealing with the Time Variance Authority, was given the chance to free one time traveling Avenger out of continuity limbo. She chose the Two-Gun Kid. It was clarified that his heroic nature prevented him from being returned to his own time, as he would inevitably try to fix things.
    • At some point in the future, Matt Hawk would became too old to continue crime fighting and returned to his past to a period analogous with the amount of time he had aged.
  • Trauma Conga Line: The deaths of his wife, his daughter and of his best friend Boom Boom Brown (deaths which might have been prevented with the modern medicine Two-Gun saw in the future) made him cynical and fatalistic.


Alternative Title(s): Gunhawks, Kid Colt 2009, Two Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid 1955, Outlaw Kid, Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid 2010, Marvel Westerns, Apache Skies, Red Wolf, Six Guns

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