Characters / Marvel Comics: Western Characters

• The Trope Kid: Rawhide Kid, the Two Gun Kid, the Ringo Kid (not related to John Wayne's Ringo Kid in Stagecoach), the Apache Kid, The Outlaw Kid, the Arizona Kid, the Prairie Kid, the Texas Kid, the Western Kid, the Gunsmoke Kid, the Dakota Kid and inversions Kid Colt and Kid Cassidy, all from Marvel Comics. According to Stan Lee, Marvel publisher Martin Goodman loved Westerns, and was particularly fond of this trope for some reason.

Apache Kid

Alter Ego: Aloysius Kare

Notable Aliases: Dazii, Alan Krandal, Allan Krandell, Dazii Aloysius Kare, Danzii Kane

First Appearance: Two-Gun Western #5 (November, 1950)

Alan Krandal is a kid who was raised by Apache Chief that fights for anything threatened in his homeland.

Arizona Annie

Alter Ego: Annie (last name unrevealed)

Notable Aliases: Arizona Girl

First Appearance: Wild West #1 (March, 1948)

A western hero with an attitude and a gun, Annie was one of the few female heroes of her time, but had a solid reputation as one of the fastest draws with a gun in the Wild West.

Black Rider

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Irony: On passing the Eternity Mask to Dennis Piper, he warned him not to hand it over to the Scientists Guild, who'd originally made the Mask.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

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.

• Acrofatic: Despite weighing 300 lb., the Fat Man was extremely strong and very agile. He liked to take people off-guard by running, doing a somersault, and taking them out, just like a bowling ball and the pins.
• Arch-Enemy: Iron Mask, a villain clad in bulletproof armour, fought Kid Colt more times than any other foe.
• Battle Boomerang: The Fat Man who is an expert in the use of his boomerang. In his first appearance, he is able to draw and throw a boomerang fast enough to knock Colt's gun out of his before he can fire, and then nail Colt in his left shoulder before he can draw his second gun.
• The Blacksmith: Iron Mask was a blacksmith who built himself a suit of bulletproof armour.
• Boomerang Comeback: Almost without fail, the Fat Man would throw a boomerang past someone, who would laugh at his obvious miss. They would continue to laugh until the boomerang came whizzing up behind them and either knocked them our, or knocked their guns out of their hands.
• Bulletproof Vest: Iron Mask, Kid Colt's Arch-Enemy, was a blacksmith who constructed a suit of bulletproof armour for his career of crime. Initially consisting of just a helmet and chest piece, he kept adding to it following his encounters with Colt until it was a full suit.
• Circus of Fear: Kid Colt twice fought groups known as the 'Circus of Crime'. In #106, he was forced to join a small a small travelling circus that visited small towns and used their circus skills to rob them. And #127, Colt's Archenemy Iron Mask organized a Legion of Doom consisting of several other foes of Kid Colt (Bennington Brown, Dr. Danger, and the Fat Man) who posed as circus performers to rob the inauguration ball of the new governor of Arizona.
• 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.
• Cut the Fuse: In #109, the Kid demonstrates his Improbable Aiming Skills by firing a shot that severs the burning fuse on a cannon, in what the narration describes as "a feat of marksmanship unequalled in recorded history".
• 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.
• Fat Bastard: The Fat Man is 300 lb. of bad attitude. A combination if Acrofatic, Stout Strength, and a Battle Boomerang make him far more dangerous than most people assume at first.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: A favourite tactic the Fat Man was to take a run-up and then somersault into people, flattening them like bowling pins.
• Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: In Rawhide Kid #49, Master of Disguise the Masquerader spies Kid Colt cleaning himself in a river and takes the opportunity to steal the outlaw's clothes to use as another disguise. When he gets to Willow Flats he dresses up as Colt, robs the payroll express and shoots the town's sheriff, Joseph Clay, the Rawhide Kid's brother.
• 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.
• Hollywood Magnetism: The parts of Dr. Danger's shtick that weren't archived through Ventriloquism were done through the use of magnets (or, as one commentator put it, "you know, those really powerful magnets you can only find in comic books"). The effects he achieves would be impossible with 21st century technology, let alone 19th.
• Hypnotic Eyes: Bennington Brown is a skilled hypnotist who can use his power on anyone he can make eye contact with. He can use his abilities to create illusions, slow down the reactions of others so he can seem to outdraw them, and prevent his victims from pressing charges against him.
• Identical Stranger: In Gunsmoke Western #64, Kid Colt encounters a fugitive named Sandy "Baby-Face" Smith, who looks uncannily like him. So much so, in fact, that Smith is able to steal Colt's distinctive calfskin vest and white hat and pass himself off as Kid Colt. Colt is only able to establish his true identity by demonstrating that he is the superior gunslinger.
• Inspector Javert: A recurring antagonist is Marshal Sam Hawk, a.k.a. 'the Manhunter', an honest lawman who was dogging Colt's trail because he honestly believed him to be an outlaw.
• 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.
• Knife-Throwing Act: Blade Benson was the knife thrower in the Circus of Crime who fought Kid Colt in Kid Colt, Outlaw #106.
• Legion of Doom: Kid Colt was one of the few Marvel western heroes to have enough recurring enemies to make this trope possible. In #127, Colt's Arch-Enemy Iron Mask (a blacksmith in bulletproof armour) recruited Bennington Brown (a hypnotist), Dr. Danger (a ventriloquist and master of magnets) and the Fat Man (a Fat Bastard skilled in the use of the boomerang) to form a Circus of Fear to stage a crime wave in Phoenix, where they naturally ran into Colt.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In #39, Colt encounters three bandits pulling a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax by pretending to be the legendary 'Ghost of Midnight Mountain'. During the fight, Colt gets knocked off the edge of the cliff and is holding on to a branch. One of the outlaws tries to drop a rock on his head, but suddenly sees someone that terrifies him and he falls off the cliff. When Colt reached the top of the cliff, he finds the other two paralyzed with terror. Colt rides away, wondering if the legends of Midnight Mountain really are true.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: The Scorpion wore a derringer fitted with a silencer on his forearm, with string leading from the trigger to his finger. With his hands gloved and his sleeves and jacket long, he would seem to "sting" targets merely by pointing at them.
• Outlaw Town: In Kid Colt, Outaw #101, Marshal Sam Hawk's daughter convinces Kid Colt to rescue him from a town run by outlaws.
• Pirate: In #109, Colt battle the Barracuda and his crew: pirates who prey on coastal towns on the Gulf of Mexico.
• Prison Episode: In #118, Kid Colt is duped into being arrested and sent to state prison. Once there he find himself Working on the Chain Gang with three villains he had sent there: "Bull" Barton, Dr. Danger, and the Scorpion.
• Ruthless Modern Pirates: Possibly stretching the definition of 'modern', but in #109 Kid Colt fought a pirate called the Barracuda and his crew who were preying on coastal settlements along the Gulf of Mexico. Set in the latter half of the 19th century, the Barracuda and his men sail a modern ship, dress in modern seafarers' clothes, use modern weapons, and invoke none of the tropes of A Pirate 400 Years Too Late (apart from attempting to make the Kid Walk the Plank).
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: In #39, Colt encounters three outlaws taking advantage of the reputation Midnight Mountain has for being haunted by pretending to be the Ghost of Midnight Mountain to scare people away from their hideout.
• Stout Strength: Much like The Kingpin, the Fat Man is a large mass of muscle, with nice layer of fat on top for decorative purposes. He is much stronger than an average sized man, and can throw and take a punch with the best of him.
• The Trope Kid: Or 'The Kid Trope' in this case.
• Ventriloquism: Dr. Danger was a highly skilled ventriloquist who combined throwing his voice with his mastery of magnet to convince people that he had a partner called 'the Invisible Gunman'.
• Walk the Plank: In #109, pirate captain Barracuda attempts to make Colt walk the plank after he catches him stowing away on his ship.
• Working on the Chain Gang: In #118, Kid Colt is duped into being arrested and sent to state prison. Once there he find himself working on a chain gang alongside three villains he had sent there: "Bull" Barton, Dr. Danger, and the Scorpion.
• Young Gun: Of all of Marvel's western heroes, Colt was the most impulsive and immature.

Masked Raider

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

Alter Ego: Lance Temple

Notable Aliases: Masked Avenger of the West, Outlaw

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

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.

• Alternate Identity Amnesia: Lance Temple remembers nothing from his actions as the Outlaw Kid, other than a vague feeling that he had been there.
• Hired to Hunt Yourself: Lance Temple hired himself to hunt himself, in the Blaze of Glory miniseries.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Blaze of Glory: has many of these in its final issue. But the best are courtesy of the Outlaw Kid.
  C'mon, you owlhoots! C'mon! You want a piece of me?! C'mon!!! I may be bound for hell but I'm Taking You with Me!
• Split Personality: Lance Temple, AKA the Outlaw Kid developed this in Blaze of Glory after his Secret Identity gave his gun-hating father a heart attack. Now Lance Temple searches for the Outlaw Kid to avenge his father's murder, unaware that the face behind the Outlaw Kid's mask is his own. Even by the end of the series, he hasn't fully recovered, though the two wind up becoming a pretty badass Split-Personality Team for a bit there.
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: Lance Temple becomes the Outlaw Kid if anyone pulls his bandanna over his face. In the final issue of Blaze of Glory, he does that himself.
• Split-Personality Team: Lance starts off Blaze of Glory wanting to avenge himself upon his other personality, the Outlaw Kid, who he believes killed his father. In reality, it was the shock of discovering his son was the Outlaw Kid that killed his father. As the 4th issue begins, Lance starts coming to terms with the truth, and willingly pulls his mask over his face to become the Outlaw Kid.
• The Hat Makes the Man: A more mundane example is Lance Temple's mask in Blaze of Glory, which if pulled over his face causes him to switch to his other personality, the Outlaw Kid.
• The Killer in Me: In Blaze of Glory, Lance Temple is hunting down the Outlaw Kid, unaware until the final issue that he is the Outlaw Kid. He is driven to tears when he finds out. Downplayed because he's the only one who thinks the Outlaw Kid is a killer, and it's an Internal Reveal to boot.

Phantom Rider

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

Alter Ego: Jonathan Clay

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

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

The Rawhide Kid (real name: Johnny Bart, originally given as Johnny Clay) is a fictional Wild West cowboy appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A heroic gunfighter of the 19th-century American West who was unjustly wanted as an outlaw, he is one of Marvel's most prolific Western characters. He and other Marvel western heroes have on rare occasions guest-starred through time travel in such contemporary titles as The Avengers and West Coast Avengers.

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.
• Killer Gorilla: In #39, Rawhide battles the Ape: a trained gorilla under the control of Mad Scientist Dr. Karlbad.
• The Magnificent Seven Samurai: The premise of The Sensational Seven miniseries. When Wyatt and Morgan Earp are taken hostage by Cristo Pike and his pack of pistoleros, Rawhide has no choice but to put together a posse of the greatest western heroes in the Marvel Universe - to rescue the Earp brothers and bring Pike to justice. Enter: Kid Colt, Doc Holliday, Annie Oakley, Billy the Kid, Red Wolf and the most overrated gun in the West: the Two-Gun Kid!
• Master of Disguise: In #49, Rawhide battles a villain known as the Masquerader. As no one had ever seen his true face he was able to easily disguise himself so no one would guess that he was a gunfighter. He was even able to disguise himself as people of different ethnicities, such as a Chinaman and Mexican. He even impersonated Kid Colt in order to put the two gunslingers at each other's throats.
• Mistaken for Gay: In The Sensational Seven, the openly gay Rawhide Kid figures his compatriot the Two-Gun Kid for gay based on his costume — stuff like the kerchief, the mask, the print on the vest. When they talk about it, Two-Gun is mortified and says he has to rethink his look, but Rawhide encourages him to keep it the same, saying that being tough is about standing your ground, being true to yourself, and not caring about what other people think.
• Obfuscating Disability: The Masked Maverick was really a rancher named Mason. Mason had been crippled in an accident and confined to wheelchair years earlier. After suddenly regaining use of his legs, he adopted the identity of the Masked Maverick and started rustling cattle to rebuild his failing fortune, keeping his regained mobility a secret.
• Only a Flesh Wound: The climax of The Sensational Seven comes when the Kid confronts Big Bad Cresto Pike. Pike is holding two hostages in front of him: Wyatt Earp himself, and the Kid's own father. The Kid shoots them both, hitting them just so they would drop, eliminating Cresto's advantage before killing him. The unlikelihood is lampshaded, as the rest of the Kid's posse state in awe that no one else in the world could have pulled that off.
• The Paralyzer: Rawhide once fought a villain called Scorpion who was an expert pharmacist. He developed a gun that fired plastic capsules containing a quick-acting paralytic. The capsule melted almost instantly, and the drug took effect as soon as the victim was struck by the capsule. Scorpion would later change his alias to Sting-Ray and go on to fight the Phantom Rider.
• The Psycho Rangers: In The Sensational Seven, when the Big Bad learns that the Rawhide Kid and the Seven are coming for him, he recruits a team composed of villainous counterparts of the Seven.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Rawhide once fought a villain wielding a paralysis gun called the Scorpion. The Scorpion later broke jail, changed his alias to Sting-Ray, and battled another western hero, the Phantom Rider.
• Shoot the Hostage: In The Sensational Seven, the Kid is face to face with Big Bad Cresto Pike, who is holding two hostages in front of him: Wyatt Earp, and the Kid's father. Without hesitation, he shoots them down non-lethally before fatally shooting Cresto. He's a Western hero, he has Improbable Aiming Skills as a matter of course.
• This Bear Was Framed: In #94, a man called Ace Fenton dresses up in a grizzly bear costume in order to rob the Pony Express. After almost getting caught by Rawhide and the Two-Gun Kid, Fenton starts persuading the locals that Rawhide has been training bears to rob for him. The next stage of his plan involves breaking into the courtroom during Rawhide's trial and dragging him away so it will look like Rawhide and the grizzly are in cahoots. It makes just as much sense in context.
• The Trope 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 final spoken line of the Spaghetti Western miniseries Blaze of Glory: The Last Ride of the Western Heroes, provided by the Rawhide Kid:
  "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."
• Weird West: Although most of Rawhide's adventures were standard horse opera stuff, he did also fight monsters which were not a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax. One particularly famous (or infamous) example was the Living Totem: a alien who looked like a totem pole with arms and legs.
• Young Gun: In the 1985 miniseries, Rawhide acquired a sidekick named Jeff Packard, a.k.a. Understudy, who fit this trope.

Ringo Kid

Alter Ego: Rand (First name unknown)

First Appearance: Ringo Kid #1 (August, 1954)

His father was Caucasian and his mother was a Comanche, and because of that he was an outcast from his heritage. He became a western gunfighter who dressed all in black. He received his nick name from practicing shooting bottles, because he liked the ringing sound they made. The Ringo Kid also had a sidekick named Dull Knife, and a horse named Arab.

Tex Taylor

Alter Ego: Tex Taylor

Notable Aliases: Prairie Kid

First Appearance: Wild West #1 (March, 1948)

Tex lived with his father on their ranch in Whisperin' Valley, near Wishbone, Texas. One day the head of the "Cattlemen's Protection League" attempted to extort protection money from Tex's father. His father refused and the head of the League rode off, threatening the man.

Tex joined the Army during the Civil War. While away in the Unior Army at war, Tex received a letter saying that his father had been killed and that he had sold the ranch to the League before his demise.

Tex returned to find that the head of the League had rigged an election and became Sheriff, afterwards forcing Tex's father to sign the ranch over to him, and then had him killed. Tex investigated matters and discovered that the town mayor was responsible for everything. The mayor was interested in the gold deposits on the ranch of Tex's father. Tex killed the mayor, and then vowed to spend his life hunting criminals all over the west and destroying them.

Two-Gun Kid

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.

Western Kid

Alter Ego: Tex Dawson

Notable Aliases: Gun-Slinger

First Appearance: Western Kid #1 (December, 1954)

Tex Dawson was the star of his own magazine in "Western Kid". He was a cowboy in the time of other famous Marvel cowboys such as Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt.