Twisted Trails of the Wold West by Matthew Baugh © 2006
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Twisted Trails of the Wold West By Matthew Baugh © 2006 The Old West was an interesting place, and even more so in the Wold- Newton Universe. Until fairly recently only a few of the heroes and villains who inhabited the early western United States had been confirmed through crossover stories as existing in the WNU. Several comic book miniseries have done a lot to change this, and though there are some problems fitting each into the tapestry of the WNU, it has been worth the effort. Marvel Comics’ miniseries, Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather was a humorous storyline, parodying the Kid’s established image and lampooning westerns in general. It is best known for ‘outing’ the Kid as a homosexual. While that assertion remains an open issue with fans, it isn’t what causes the problems with incorporating the story into the WNU. What is of more concern are the blatant anachronisms and impossibilities the story offers. We can accept it, but only with the caveat that some of the details have been distorted for comic effect. When the Rawhide Kid is established as a character in the Wold-Newton Universe he provides links to a number of other western characters, both from the Marvel Universe and from classic western novels and movies. It draws in the Marvel Comics series’ Blaze of Glory, Apache Skies, and Sunset Riders as wall as DC Comics’ The Kents. As with most Marvel and DC characters there is the problem with bringing in the mammoth superhero continuities of the Marvel and DC universes, though this is not insurmountable. In a roundabout way DC’s vertigo Preacher series is also connected to the WNU. The Saint of Killers storyline doesn’t directly crossover with any of the other miniseries, but it mentions several of the same novel and cinematic characters. The Preacher universe is difficult to reconcile with the WNU. It features a unique characterization of God that is at odds with that of many established WNU stories. Preacher also takes place in a universe where the American President (implicitly Bill Clinton) had a nuclear weapon dropped on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations. Since a nuclear strike in Arizona is incompatible with other WNU stories set in the late 20th Century I have taken the (admittedly odd) position that the 19th Century events may be included but the 20th century events take place in an alternate universe. The article is a work in progress. One day I hope it will connect with the extensive writings of J.T. Edson when Brad Mengle finishes his work on them. It will also connect with Andrew Henry’s work on the interconnected series westerns of the group of British writers collectively known as the Piccadilly Cowboys. There are also new connections being found all the time and it is a fond hope that the number of characters not yet covered here will eventually come into the fold. At present there are no solid crossover type links for Shane, Rooster Cogburn, Quigley Down Under, and a number of other favorites. (I hold out special hope that Six Gun Gorilla will one day be included.) Finally, I should mention the help of Rick Lai and Dennis Power. Rick did the vast preponderance of the work on all of the Spaghetti Western characters that appear here as well as for several of the television series. It was a fortunate coincidence that the research for this story overlapped his work in writing the story The Last Vendetta for Tales of the Shadowmen. Dennis is an authority on western fiction and western history and his help has been invaluable. SECTION 1. THE KID One of the deadliest gunfighters of the Old West was Johnny Bart, also known as the Rawhide Kid. The Kid was a diminutive man1 with fiery red hair who could draw as fast and shoot as straight as any man on the frontier. He started running from the law when he killed the men who had gunned down his Uncle Ben and he was branded a murderer. Despite his many good deeds and his extreme reluctance about killing he remained on the outlaw trail for most of his life. In the recent miniseries, Slap Leather by Ron Zimmerman and John Severin it is revealed that the Kid was gay2. More importantly for our purposes it also reveals that the Kid is a part of the Wold-Newton Universe who had met the Cartwrights and heard of the Lone Ranger. The Rawhide Kid (1845-?) Johnny Bart3 was born on a ranch in Texas, the youngest of three brothers. The Kid’s age was never given in the series, but we can deduce his year of birth by some circumstantial evidence. First, in Slap Leather, the Kid appears to be roughly the same age as “Little Jo 2 Cartrite.” A better clue comes in Rawhide Kid, Volume 2 a mini-series that takes place in 1897. In this story the Kid is not yet an old man but is showing signs of impending age. His hair is graying, and he sports a set of false teeth. A birth year of 1845 would fit with the Kid’s apparent age in both of these stories. During his early childhood, Johnny was orphaned by a Comanche raid on his parents’ ranch. His brothers also survived but the raid split them up and they were not reunited until many years later. Johnny was taken in by his uncle Ben4 a Texas Ranger with a ranch outside of Rawhide, Texas. Years later, when he became an outlaw, Johnny’s youth and the name of his hometown would inspire the nickname the “Rawhide Kid.5” When Johnny was sixteen, his Uncle Ben began to teach him how to handle a gun. Ben had been one of the best gunfighters the Texas Rangers had produced, but young Johnny soon outstripped him. He had a skill with pistols that was little short of magical. Two years later Ben Bart was killed in an unfair gunfight. He went to meet an outlaw face to face but the man’s partner gunned him down from ambush. The ambushers claimed it had been a fair fight but Johnny wouldn’t believe them. He challenged them and killed them all6. This brought Johnny the deserved reputation of a deadly gunfighter. It also branded him an outlaw. From about 1863-18757 the Rawhide Kid roamed the West, fighting outlaws, preventing Indian massacres, and staying a step ahead of the law. Most of his adversaries were gunfighters and other stock western villains. Occasionally he ran across proto-supervillains such as the Red Raven, or even alien monsters like the Living Totem. Through it all the Kid’s courage and amazing skill with his twin pistols won the day. In the course of his adventures the Kid also met a number of the great figures of the Old West, though the stories of most of these meetings are unknown. Issue #1 of Slap Leather provides this list: Wyatt Earp (“…Soooo overrated…”), Billy the Kid (…didn’t like him…”), Doc Holliday (“A disgusting man.”), Annie Oakley (“…a wonderful person.8”), and Wild Bill Hickok (“Very nice man.”) In earlier adventures the Kid had also met John Wesley Hardin, Johnny Ringo, Clay Allison and other. In 1878 the Rawhide Kid rode into the small Texas town of Wells Junction9. He befriended the local town sheriff, a friendly but ineffectual widower named Matt Morgan. He helped Morgan fight off the gang of a fierce outlaw called Cisco Pike and reconciled him with his difficult son. All of this is standard fare for a western hero, except for the motivation. The Rawhide Kid was actually helping Morgan because he had developed 3 a romantic interest in him. Morgan was oblivious to the Kid’s advances. He saw him as a friend and a valuable ally. Ultimately Morgan married the local school ma’rm and the Kid rode off into the sunset. At some point the in the late 1870’s or early 1880’s the Kid seems to have been pardoned for his alleged crimes. For a time he bought a small ranch near Shotgun Texas10 and settled there with a sidekick called ‘Kid Randy11.’ The Kid was well liked by the citizens of Shotgun and often used his skill with pistols to protect the community from outlaws. Eventually, he lost the ranch under unknown circumstances12. He took a job as a trick shot artist working for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show13 and was performing there in 1885. That year the Kid left the show to join a small band of gunfighters hired to protect the small town of Wonderment, Montana from a gang of nightriders. We don’t know much about the Kid’s career after this. His next (and final) recorded adventure took place twelve years later. His red hair was going gray and he was wearing false teeth, but he was still spry enough to outfight and outshoot much younger men. After he rode into the sunset a final time he disappeared from the pages of history. He could have been killed as his reflexes slowed with age, or he could have retired and lived quietly into the 20th century. If my estimate for the Kid’s year of birth is correct, he would have been 53 at the time of this final adventure. Of all of the Kid’s adventures it is his time in Wells Junction that interests us most. These few days give a fresh look at the old west of the Wold-Newton Universe and the characters who roamed it.