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Out of all the Marvel Masterworks I have read, this is the one I was probably least familiar with. I never really read any of the Marvel Westerns from the Silver Age. I don’t even have Volume One so I don’t know if I missed anything important but the anthology style of the tales makes me believe I didn’t. I was very surprised to open this up and thumb through it and find that it was very similar to the early Golden Age titles. The issues don’t contain singular tales, they had 3-4 scripted and drawn stories with a 2-page prose story in each title. That means the stories ranged from 5-7 pages. I usually am wary of this since it means that there may not be much of a story, but with Lee and Kirby, you never know. This bi-monthly title collected in this collection spans from February 1962 to August 1963.
Spoilers Ahead
-Rawhide Kid #26- The stories are very short and for the most part are just basic romps. Here’s a rundown of the selections. As a general rule, there are three Rawhide Kid stories, 1 other Western story and a prose story. The first story sees Rawhide Kid being chased by a bounty hunter (there’s a bounty on his head apparantally) but he stops to save a man from a gang. The bounty hounter let’s Kid go. The prose story features a stagecoach race which is as interesting as it sounds. The second story features a crazy old man who think Rawhide is his kid. Rawhide gets attacked by a gang and the crazy man sacrifices his life to save Rawhide. Turns out the man never had a son but always wanted one. The third story is of a greedy strongman whose greediness led to his demise. Finally, Rawhide battles a foe who is allegedly bulletproof. He’s not really and was just exchanging his oppenents bullets to blanks. Rawhide exposes his ruse.
-Rawhide Kid #27- Rawhide gets a job but is heckled by some of the guys. One of them turns on the group and brings his posse to steal from the nice owner. Rawhide saves the day, of course. In the second RK story, Rawhide helps a pioneer save his daughter from the Apaches. The final RK story features Rawhide escaping from a posse out for his bounty. Again he doesn’t attack them but abandons his chase to stop a cowardly man from hitting a horse. The posse catches Rawhide but they let him free and keep the animal beater. The prose story was about a horse that wasn’t afraid of bears and the other western story was of a burly man with a heart going after a girl he loved.
-Rawhide Kid #28- Rawhide finds himself in the desert without water. A man finds him, takes his guns, and leaves him to die. Rawhide eventually gets up in the care of a woman. Rawhide finds out the thief is her brother! Rawhide confronts him and the thief gets away, finding himself in the desert with a horse who ran off and no water, succumbing to the fat he meant for the kid. The prose story was a silly little crime mystery involving a traveling show and a man stealing while all the townspeople are at the show. Rawhide returns to battle a trick shooter in a traveling show and stops him from stealing from the show. We go back to non RK stories with a silent gunman who scared a feared gunslinger by using his poker face. Finally, Rawhide Kid wants a glass of milk at a bar and is attacked by some of the burly men there. Rawhide fights them off and enjoys a glass of milk.
-Rawhide Kid #29- Rawhide goes off to find Apache Joe for an old sheriff who is on his last days. Rawhide finds him, brings him back but doesn’t receive the pardon he was promised because the sheriff had died. Rawhide escapes before the new sheriff can arrest him. We head to the prose story, an entertaining tale of Indians on a reservation and the townspeople being scared of arrows indicating war. Turns out it was just the kids having fun. Rawhide comes back jumps into a random stagecoach (for reasons unknown) and the stagecoach is then attacked by some criminals. Rawhide stops them then rides off. We meet a character named Yak Yancy, a guy who took over a town before a small milita takes him down. Rawhide returns again and this time does a very noble thing, he allows a father to best him in battle to prove to the son that the father should be looked up to.
-Rawhide Kid #30- A hypnotist comes to town and causes trouble. He hypnotized Kid to try and use him to steal money. Kid does it but when the hypnotist tells him to kill a man, Kid doesn’t do it and the spell is broken. The prose story features a woman from the East coming to town and trying to help a man not sell his land. Turns out she was wrong about his motives and he sold his land for a profit. Rawhide battles Crow Mangum and his gang, who have been stealing land from the local villagers. Kid quickly puts an end to that. The back-up story is about a colt 45 and how a gun is only as good as the man who weilds it. Finally Rawhide Kid goes to a town for rest but ends up fighting anyway. He can’t avoid trouble!
-Rawhide Kid #31- Rawhide Kid battles a man named Rock Rorick a man who has been using his muscle and power to steal land from the other villagers. Rawhide turns the tables on him and defeats him, making him sell the land! The prose story features a rather silly story of sheep walking on another’s land. Rawhide Kid encounters a man named Dead-Eye Dawson, a feared lawman looking to take down Rawhide. When Rawhide saves Dead-Eye’s son, Dawson gives up being a man-hunter and Rawhide leaves. The back-up story is a prodigal son done western style where two brothers go in different paths. One is a farmer, the other becomes a crook. The crook ends up arrested and warns his nephew not to do what he did in life. Finally, Rawhide arrives in Lost Mesa and battles a whole town of criminals.
-Rawhide Kid #32- The title changes now, as the first story is now a robust 13 pages. The main story features Rawhide coming to a new town and working for a man. He makes everyone work as slaves by tricking them and Rawhide tries to tell the police. Unfortunately, the policeman is the cousin to the owner and he doesn’t believe the Kid. The Kid soon finds out that the man he’s working for is selling guns to the Apaches. This lead to the Apache’s turning on the man who sold the guns, Rawhide saving them, and the sheriff finding out the truth. With more pages the story has much more room to breathe and this was the best story of the volume so far. The prose story sees a group of apparantly homeless people being asked to leave but they are really wealthy industry owners. They end up in their hometown and are accepted. The back-up story is of a judge showing up in a ruthless town but being as gun-savvy as the rest. Finally, Kid has to deal with battling some meanies who stole his ammo. Kid wins, of course.
-Rawhide Kid #33- Kid saves a stagecoach from being attacked but is shot. He takes the bullet out then takes out a bunch of hombres working for Jesse James. Kid teams up with Jesse but when he doesn’t agree with his ways, he defeats Jesse and his gang. A sheriff confronts Kid but he rides away. Of course, the sheriff was looking to pardon the Kid for his crimes. Another good story, with a nice pencilling job by Jack Davis. The prose story is of an Eastern boy going out West to become a wrangler. The back-up sees a Confederate soldier looking for his brother in a Yankee town. It turns out that his brother is there, as the sheriff of the new town with no memory of his prior life. They reunite then ride out. Finally Kid falls in love with a girl but he doesn’t want to expose her to his life. He willingly allows himself to be defeated so the girl would not want to be with him. We’ve seen that story before but this was still a fun one.
-Rawhide Kid #34- Rawhide is at a fair and sees a man called Mr. Lightning, someone with very fast hands. Someone tells Lightning he should be a gunslinger and make real money, and he does! He actually takes down Rawhide in a draw, but Rawhide thinks he can just relax now that someone new is on the scene. Of course, Lightning is causing trouble everywhere he goes and an Apache asks Rawhide to intervene. They have their rematch and Lightning was quicker, but this time he was too quick, shooting into the ground. Rawhide takes him down and Lightning is finished for good. The second Rawhide story was also a bit longer and in this one he tries to help a caravan of stagecoaches. The old man shoots an Indian and when he is sentenced to death, Rawhide takes the blame to save the man’s family. The man is grateful and helps Rawhide escape. These were two really good stories. The prose bit for the issue was about a boy looking for revenge on the man who bushwhacked his father and the back-up was a touching tale of a Man of the West, a true pioneer who raises a family. Overall the best issue in the collection.
-Rawhide Kid #35- Rawhide Kid battles a threat called, The Raven. There’s a twist involved here with Kid being approached by a woman and the woman’s brother getting all pissy about it. Rawhide meets this Raven to capture him for the sheriff and the twist was seen a mile away. It was still fun. We get to the prose story, an unmemorable tale of an old man, the back-up is an origin of Doc Holliday, and finally a light-hearted tale of people’s perception of Rawhide, and how the myth is bigger than the man.
-The Bottom Line- I fairly enjoyed the Rawhide Kid stories but there seemed like there was too much going on here. Let’s start from the beginning. It starts with an introduction by Mark Evanier. He gives a history of Rawhide kid and how he came about in the Marvel Age of comics after Timely had a successful run of Western titles. It is something fit for wikipedia. The stories for the most part were way too short to really be of anything, and the prose stories here for the most part weren’t that great. Usually the back-up Western stories were fairly boring, too. Luckily the format changed a bit in issue #32. Instead of 5 stories, it was shortened to four and the first story was allowed to breathe a bit and the quality picked up immensely. The Rawhide Kid stuff definitely stole the show in this volume (as it should) and I am happy that the back-up stories were included but they really brought the volume down a bit. In the end I am waffling on this. The comics weren’t bad, but I just wasn’t terribly interested. Maybe I just don’t get into Westerns. Personally, if you like Westerns you would probably enjoy this, if you don’t, well, you are not missing out. Mild Recommendation to Avoid.
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