The Outlaw Kid is a fictional Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 hero in Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

' shared universe

Shared universe

A shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Work set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story....

, the Marvel Universe

Marvel Universe

The Marvel Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place, including those featuring Marvel's most familiar characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers.The Marvel Universe is further...

, whose comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series was originally released by the company's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics

Atlas Comics (1950s)

Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...

. A lesser-known character than the company's Kid Colt

Kid Colt

Kid Colt is the name of two fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first is a cowboy whose adventures have taken place in numerous western themed comic book series published by Marvel...

, Rawhide Kid

Rawhide Kid

The Rawhide Kid is a fictional Old West cowboy in comic books published by Marvel Comics. A heroic gunfighter of the 19th-century American West who was unjustly wanted as an outlaw, he is one of Marvel's most prolific Western characters...

 or Two-Gun Kid

Two-Gun Kid

The Two-Gun Kid is a fictional character, a cowboy gunslinger in the Wild West of Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe.-Publication history:...

, he also starred in a reprint series in the 1970s and a short-lived revival.

The Outlaw Kid was Lance Temple, an Old West lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 veteran living with his blinded father on a ranch. Though promising his father he would never take up a gun, he'd nonetheless felt the need to right wrongs expediently on the near-lawless frontier, and created a masked identity in order to keep his gunslinging secret.

Publication history

Comic-book artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 Doug Wildey

Doug Wildey

Douglas S. Wildey was a cartoonist and comic book artist best known for his co-creation of the 1964 animated television series, Jonny Quest for Hanna-Barbera Productions.-Early life and career:...

, later a noted animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 designer, illustrated three to four stories per issue of the 19-issue series The Outlaw Kid(cover dated Sept. 1954-Sept. 1957). Joe Maneely

Joe Maneely

Joseph "Joe" Maneely is an American comic book artist best known for his work at Marvel Comics' 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics, where he co-created the Marvel characters the Black Knight, the Ringo Kid, the Yellow Claw, and Jimmy Woo.An exquisite draftsman whose delicate yet solid, fine-line...

 provided most of the covers. Backup features were usually "The Black Rider," drawn by Syd Shores

Syd Shores

Sydney Shores was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America both during the 1940s, in what fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, and during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books....

, or an anthological Western tale. An additional Outlaw Kid story appeared in Wild Western #43 (May 1955). Well over a year after the original series ended, two other Outlaw Kid stories by Wildey, presumably from inventory, saw print, in Kid Colt, Outlaw

Kid Colt

Kid Colt is the name of two fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first is a cowboy whose adventures have taken place in numerous western themed comic book series published by Marvel...

#82 (Jan. 1959) and Wyatt Earp #24 (Aug. 1959).

Comics historian Ken Quattro called the series Wildey's most "noteworthy" Western work:
When Marvel began reprinting the series in The Outlaw Kid vol. 2, #1-30 (Aug. 1970 - Oct. 1975), it became the best-selling among the company's Western reprints. Gil Kane

Gil Kane

Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...

, John Severin

John Severin

John Powers Severin is an American comic book artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat; for Marvel Comics, primarily on its war and Western comics; and for the satiric magazine Cracked...

 and Herb Trimpe

Herb Trimpe

Herbert W. "Herb" Trimpe Herbert W. "Herb" Trimpe Herbert W. "Herb" Trimpe (b. May 26, 1939, is an American comic book artist and occasional writer, best known for his work on The Incredible Hulk and as the first artist to draw for publication the character Wolverine, who later became a breakout...

, among others, provided new cover art. When the 1950s Wildey material ran out, Marvel commissioned new stories, by writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 Mike Friedrich

Mike Friedrich

Mike Friedrich is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series Star*Reach, one of the first independent comics...

, followed by the unrelated Gary Friedrich

Gary Friedrich

Gary Friedrich . is an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' Sgt...

, with art by Marvel Western veteran Dick Ayers

Dick Ayers

Richard "Dick" Ayers is an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on some of the earliest issues of Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four, and as the signature...

. Yet with these new stories, in issues #10-16 (Oct. 1972 - June 1973), sales dropped, after which the title began re-reprinting Wildey's work. Wildey reprints also appeared in the 1970s Marvel series Mighty Marvel Western (#9) and Western Gunfighters.

The Outlaw Kid reappeared in the four-issue limited series

Limited series

A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....

 Blaze of Glory: The Last Ride of the Western Heroes (2000), by writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 John Ostrander

John Ostrander

John Ostrander is an American writer of comic books. He is best known for his work on Suicide Squad, Grimjack and Star Wars: Legacy, series he helped create.-Career:...

 and artist Leonardo Manco

Leonardo Manco

Leonardo Manco is an Argentine comic book artist and penciller.-Bibliography:Manco is best known for his dark and gritty style on such titles as Hellstorm , Blaze of Glory , Apache Skies , Deathlok Vol.3 and Hellblazer .Other work by Manco has included Archangel #1 , Werewolf By...

, which specifically retconned that the naively clean-cut Marvel Western stories of years past were merely dime novel

Dime novel

Dime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S...

 fictions of the characters' actual lives. It was revealed here that Temple's father, who did not want him gunslinging, had died from the shock of learning of his son's alter ego, and that a guilt-wracked Temple, blaming himself for his father's death, developed a split personality and was unaware he was the Outlaw Kid. Indeed, he was actually searching for the Outlaw Kid in the miniseries. He dies in the last issue, helping defend the town of Wonderment. His last act was to use dynamite to kill some opponents, noting his father would have been happy he did not use a gun. As series writer John Ostrander

John Ostrander

John Ostrander is an American writer of comic books. He is best known for his work on Suicide Squad, Grimjack and Star Wars: Legacy, series he helped create.-Career:...

 explained,

Legacy

The mutant Outlaw

Outlaw (comics)

Outlaw is a fictional character created by Marvel Comics for their series' Deadpool and Agent X. She is a mutant with the abilities of superhuman strength, durability, and an uncanny aptitude with firearms....

 of Agency X

Agent X

Agent X is a fictional mercenary whose adventures have been published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Agent X #1 , by Gail Simone and UDON....

is a descendant of the Outlaw Kid.

List of Doug Wildey's Outlaw Kid stories

This list is incomplete.

• The Outlaw Kid #1 (Sept. 1954)

"The Beginning!"

"Jaws of Death!"

"A Killer's Trap!"

• The Outlaw Kid #2 (Nov. 1954)

"The Fast Gun!" a.k.a. "The Fast Draw" (rep. Vol. 2, #3)

"Redman's Revenge!"

"Fury at Echo Pass!"

• The Outlaw Kid #3 (Jan. 1955)(rep. Vol. 2, #1)

"Hostage"

"Breakthrough"

"Showdown"

• The Outlaw Kid #4 (Mar. 1955)

[cover]

"Ghost Town"

"Death Battle"

"Rruummbblle"

• The Outlaw Kid #5 (May 1955)(rep. Vol. 2, #2)

"Two of a Kind"

"The Newcomers"

"Flames of Violence"

• The Outlaw Kid #8 (Nov. 1955)

"Helping Hand"

"Gun Law"

"The Outsider"

• The Outlaw Kid #10 (March 1956)(rep. Vol. 2, #3)

"The Fast Draw"

"Renegade Rout"

"Stand Up and Fight"

"The Man Behind the Guns"

• The Outlaw Kid #11 (May 1956) (rep. Vol. 2, #4)

"Losers Take Nothing"

"Six-gun Gamble"

"Fang and Claw"

"The Riddle of Scorpion Creek"

• The Outlaw Kid #12 (July 1956)

"Six-Gun Menace"

"The Riddle of Fargo Pass"

"Badman's Choice"

"Range War"

• The Outlaw Kid #13 (Sept. 1956)

"Flames Along the Border"

"Bully's Bluff" (rep. Vol. 2, #7, Aug. 1971)

"Scourge of the Plains"

"Appointment With Danger"

• The Outlaw Kid #14 (Nov. 1956)

"Whistling Lead"

"Gunning for Trouble"

"Gun Duel"

"The Land Grabbers"

• The Outlaw Kid #15 (Jan. 1957)

"Duel in the Desert"

"Guns For Hire"

"Six-Gun Challenge"

"Along The Outlaw Trail"

• The Outlaw Kid #16 (Mar. 1957)

"Six-Gun Meeting"

"Redmen on the Rampage"

"Treachery on the Trail"

"Law and Order"

• The Outlaw Kid #17 (May 1957)

"Gunning For Trouble"

"Empty Holsters"

"Fists of Steel"

"Showdown at Sunup"

• The Outlaw Kid #18 (July 1957)

"Menace on Main Street"

"The Ambushers Strike"

"Six-Gun PayoFf"

"The Kid's Revenge"

• The Outlaw Kid #19 (Sept. 1957)

"When the Owlhoots Rode"

"Revenge of the Redmen"

"Gun Crazy"

"Treachery in Caliber City"

• Wyatt Earp #24 (Aug. 1959)

"The Man Behind the Guns" (reprint #10?)

REPRINTS

Information will go above when sourced.

• The Outlaw Kid Vol. 2, #5 (April 1971)

"Empty holsters!"

"Fists of steel!"

"Showdown at Sunup!"

"Gunning for Trouble!"

• The Outlaw Kid Vol. 2, #6 (June 1971; re-reprinted #22, June 1974)

"Redmen on the Rampage!"

"Six-Gun Meeting!"

"Law and Order!"

• The Outlaw Kid Vol. 2, #9 (Dec. 1971; re-reprinted #25, Dec. 1974)

"Gun Law"

"The Outsider"

• The Outlaw Kid Vol. 2, #10 (June 1972)

"The Origin of the Outlaw Kid"