Real
Name: Johnny Clay
Rawhide Kid
Real
Name: Johnny Clay
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Outlaw
Affiliations: Golden Age Randy Clayton (sidekick), Nightwind (horse), Apache (horse), Two Gun Kid, Kid Colt
Silver Age Avengers, Ringo Kid, Phantom Rider, Apache Kid
Enemies: Golden Age Spade Brown, Hawk Brown, Grizzly Younger, the Living Totem, Grizzly, The Masquerader, the Acrobat, Gila Johnson, the Cougar, Count Zamora, el Tyrano, White Face
Silver Age Nightriders, Kang
Known Relatives: Ben Bart (uncle), the Clays (parents)
Aliases: Johnny Bart
Base of Operations: originally The Bart Ranch, near Rawhide, Texas; later mobile across the American West, c.1870s to 1890s.
First Appearance: Rawhide Kid #1 (Atlas, March 1955)
Powers/Abilities: Expert shot. Skilled rider.
History:
(Kid Colt #59, 121, 229, Mighty Marvel Western #1-46, Rawhide Kid I #1-151,
ga) After his parents were killed by Indians, the infant Johnny Clay
was adopted and raised by his uncle, Texas Ranger Ben Bart. Ben treated the
boy like he was his own son, and taught him to use a pistol; by the time
he was a teenager, Johnny was an expert shot. Johnny was a young man when
his foster father was gunned down by a pair of drifters, Spade and Hawk Brown;
enraged, Johnny hunted them down and killed them in a shoot-out. With nothing
to hold him to one place any more, Johnny began to wander the West lending
aid to those who needed it, becoming known as the Rawhide Kid.
(Fantastic Four I #405, Avengers Forever#4-6, Avengers I #141-143, West Coast Avengers II#18-19, Marvel Holiday Special 1996/4, Black Panther III #46-47, Rawhide Kid III #1-5, Blaze of Glory #1-4, Apache Skies #1-4, Rawhide Kid II #1-4) The Kid sometimes met and worked with other cowboys, such as the Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt, Phantom Rider and the Ringo Kid; he even encountered time-travelling superheroes from the next century while working with them, on more than one occasion. By 1885 he was working as part of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, when he took a job alongside his old allies to defend the town of Wonderment against a band of marauders calling themselves the Nightriders. The Rawhide Kid saw many of his oldest allies fall in the resulting battle, and was one of the handful of survivors. A little while later he worked alongside the widow of the Apache Kid; five years later, as he began to feel his age, he encountered the Bounty Hunter. This was his last recorded adventure, and it is believed he died shortly before the start of the twentieth century.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.
Thanks to Jess Nevins for allowing me to use information from his excellent Golden Age Heroes Directory and his Guide to Golden Age Marvel Characters. Thanks also to Richard Boucher & Darrin Wiltshire @ PR-Publications for permission to use information from their equally brilliant collection of Golden Age Sites, PR Publications. Their knowledge of Golden Age characters far outstrips my own.
CLARIFICATIONS: None.
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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