Jonathan Clay (Earth-616)

I'll make sure no one ever forgets Ben Bart, or what happened here! I'll call myself the Rawhide Kid... and every time men hear of me, they'll remember how it all started!

-- Rawhide Kid

The man later known as the Rawhide Kid was born in the mid-1800's Midwest America. During his infancy, his parents were killed in a raid by Cheyenne Indians. The eldest son, Joe, fled during the raid in panic. Later, in an effort to expiate his guilt for deserting his family, Joe Clay became the sheriff of the town of Willow Flats. Another sibling, Frank, was captured by the Indians but escaped from them months later and eventually became a gambler. The infant, overlooked by the Cheyenne raiders, was soon found by Ben Bart, a Texas Ranger. Bart adopted the child and raised him on his ranch outside the town of Rawhide, Texas, and named his adopted son Johnny Bart. Johnny called Ben "Uncle Ben."

Shortly thereafter, Johnny Bart went into Rawhide to buy the month's provisions for the ranch. Once he was gone, a drifter named Hank Brown confronted Ben Bart and challenged him to draw his gun, hoping to make reputation for himself by outdrawing the renown Ben Bart. Unknown to Ben, Brown had an accomplice named Spade hiding nearby. Just as Ben drew his six-guns, Spade called out to Bart from behind as a distraction, and Brown took the opportunity to gun Ben Bart down.

On his return, Johnny Bart found his adoptive father's corpse and buried him, vowing to avenge his death. From the way the bullets had struck him, Johnny could tell that two men were responsible for Ben's death. Johnny rode to Rawhide, where he discovered Brown and Spade, who claimed that Ben Bart had started a fight with them 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 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.

Rawhide Kid in Blaze of Glory

The Rawhide Kid sought out many of the worst criminals in the region and defeated them. When he was still quite young, he found proof that a man named Barker had been rustling another man's cattle. The cattle's owner sent for the sheriff to arrest Barker and watched as the Rawhide Kid confronted Barker. Barker threatened to kill the Kid and began reaching for his gun, but the Kid rapidly drew his own guns and wounded Barker in his gun arm. Riding up, the sheriff accused the Rawhide Kid of shooting Barker without giving him a chance. The cattle owner who had witnessed the shooting from close by, protested that Barker was about to draw and that the Kid was justified in shooting him. Nevertheless, the sheriff insisted on arresting the Kid, who fled. From that time on, the Rawhide Kid was sought as 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 hero team Avengers who visited his time period.

In the late 1870's the Rawhide Kid became involved in the Railroad Wars between the mighty Santa Fe and Pacific Railroad and the small Colorado and Texas Line. At first this war was fought with shovals and pick-axes, but soon the Santa Fe and Pacific brought in hired gunmen. As a result, the owner of the Colorado and Texas Line called in some friends, including the Rawhide Kid. It was here that Rawhide became very close friends with Dazii, the Apache Kid, as they fought the much larger force with their courage, cunning and skill.

By 1885, however, the Rawhide Kid had run out of battles to fight and was working as the star performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, until "something better comes along." It was here that his old friend Reno Jones located Rawhide in order to enlist his help in the defence of the town of Wonderment, Montana, from the attacks of the murderous Nightriders. Rawhide agreed and joined Reno alongside of Kid Colt, the Outlaw Kid, the Two-Gun Kid, Red Wolf, the mysterious Gunhawk and Pinkerton agent Caleb Hammer. The heroes were successful in their defence of the town, but not without a huge cost. By the end of the final battle, Colt, Two-Gun, Outlaw Kid and the Gunhawk were all dead, leaving the Rawhide Kid to bury his old friends. Despite Reno's invitation to stay in the town, Rawhide pushed onwards accompanied by Caleb Hammer.

Rawhide Kid and Rosa Kare

The next year, in 1886, the Kid heard of the ambush and murder of his old friend, the Apache Kid, and decided to hunt them down, in particular the man who had arranged it, Billy Tyler. Tyler's father, William Tyler, was the president of the Santa Fe and Pacific R.R. and owned the town of Sagoro, Texas, where Billy was hiding out under his father's protection. The Kid entered town under the cover of darkness to avenge his friend, but was suprised when a woman confronted Tyler first. This woman turned out to be Dazii's estranged wife, Rosa Kare, now going by the name of the Apache Kid and claiming vengeance on those responsible for her husband's death. The Rawhide Kid helped her escape the town's pursuing authorities after she shot Tyler dead, and took a bullet in the process. After having heard each other's stories after they were out of danger, the Kid agreed to help Rosa in her attempts to help her people. As such, they headed to San Antonio to arrange a meeting with Geronomo of the Apache tribes. They were unaware at this point that the senior Tyler was so enraged at his son's death that he had ordered the entire town of Sagoro razed to the ground and had sent Colonel Richard Trask after the two adventureres to retrive the scalps of those responsible for his son's death.

While in San Antonio, the pair learned of Trask's pursuit, as well as the whites peoples' plan to relocate the Apache's children to a residential school so they could be raised in a more "civilized" manner. They came up with a plan to rescue the children by hijacking the train they were placed on, Trask witnessed this and he and Tyler gave pursuit in a train of their own. They met in the Apache Mountains, with the Rawhide Kid engaging Trask and his men while Rosa and the others were given a chance to escape. He told them to head to Wonderment, Montana, to look up Reno Jones and they would be well looked after. Rawhide meanwhile, dumped a powder keg into the stack of the train, causing the train to explode and fall into a deep gorge, killing both Trask and Tyler in the process. The Kid managed to escape, however, and was rumoured to have head toward Mexico to draw any more of Tyler's men away from Kare and the children.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

None.

Abilities

The Rawhide Kid was one of the most accomplished gunslingers in the American southwest. It is possible that he may have been ambidextrous, as he was able to wield two Colts simultaneously with equal degrees of accuracy. His marksmanship was so precise, that he could shoot a weapon from an opponent's hand, without causing any physical harm to his target. Although gunslinging was the Kid's specialty, he was also a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. In some cases, Rawhide even preferred defeating his opponents through physical force rather than through the use of his six-shooters.

Strength level

In his prime, the Rawhide Kid possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engaged in intensive regular exercise.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

For many years, the Rawhide Kid rode a horse named Nightwind. He also owned a horse named Apache.

Weapons

The Rawhide Kid carried twin Colt revolvers. On occasion, the Kid has also been shown using a one-handed sawed-off shotgun, a rifle and a Derringer.

Notes

The first sixteen issues of his first ongoing title were published by Atlas Comics, the Silver Age precursor to Marvel Comics. Marvel continued the series in 1960 where it spanned a total of 150 issues. Many issues printed during the 1970s were actually reprints of older Rawhide Kid stories.

Despite living in the 19th century, the Rawhide Kid has had several adventures with the Avengers.

This character appears in TSR Inc.'s RPG adventure The Weird, Weird West, and is a playable character at certain points of the plot. In the plot, he had forged an alliance with Kid Colt, Two-Gun Kid and the Phantom Rider due to a time crisis that had eventually left 1871 Dodge City raided by tiranossaurus rex. The western heroes had met time traveler Albert Einstein and decided to help him find a solution to the crisis, protecting him from "Faro" John Hobart's desperado gang while he worked. An initial fight with the player characters's time travelling heroes eventually led to an alliance where the western heroes helped them to forge an alliance with three warrying generals (Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and Genghis Khan) against a common alien threat.

In the 2003 Rawhide Kid MAX series, writer Ron Zimmerman and veteran artist John Severin created controversy by portraying the Rawhide Kid as a homosexual. Whether the five-issue story arc, "Slap Leather" is considered part of mainstream Marvel continuity or not remains to be seen.

The Rawhide Kid was one of the characters featured in Series A of the Marvel Value Stamps issued in the 1970's.

Marvel Value Stamp #56

Links

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