The Rawhide Kid Rides Again
When I was a little kid first reading comics, one of my favorite characters was the Rawhide Kid. In 2003, Marvel decided to bring back the Rawhide Kid in a mini-series called Blaze of Glory. It was supposedly a humorous take on the Kid as being gay. I said “supposedly humorous” because I didn’t read it.
Marvel is bringing back that Rawhide Kid in a new mini-series called The Sensational Seven. Although the change in the Rawhide Kid’s character still bugs me, I might give this series a shot. Written by Ron Zimmerman with art by Howard Chaykin the story will bring together some of the most popular Marvel western characters along with real western legends.
When Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp are taken prisoner, The Rawhide Kid sets off to rescue them. Along the way he meets up with The Two Gun Kid, Kid Colt, Red Wolf, Doc Holiday, Annie Oakley, Billy the Kid and others.
If this sounds like something that you’d like, then you might want to check out Zimmerman’s interview at CBR.com where he talks about his plans for the series.
“Blaze of Glory” was actually a very good 1999 miniseries by John Ostrander and Leonardo Manco, that brought back all of Marvel’s Western heroes in a too-short but otherwise excellent adventure.
“Slap Leather” is the one that made the Kid gay, and was awful.
In fact, Ostrander and Manco also produced an excellent Rawhide Kid miniseries called APACHE SKIES. Both of the Ostrander/Manco minis were somewhat Spaghetti Western-influenced, with grittier interpretations of the Marvel cowboys, and are criminally underrated/underappreciated.
I highly recommend hunting down the TPB collections.
Thanks for the correction, Chris. I vaguely remember the Apache Skies mini. I might have even read an issue or two — I’ll have to check it out again though.