KID CASSIDY

Real Name: Richard Cassidy

Identity/Class: Human (Old West era)

Occupation: Gunslinger, former soldier

Group Membership: Nightriders, formerly the Confederate States Army

Affiliations: Marcel Fournier, Jed, Tarantula (Clay Riley)
formerly, Rachel Brown, Reno Jones

Enemies: The Dawson Gang, Reverend Graves, Grey Fox, Gunhawk, Caleb Hammer, Reno Jones, Colonel Johnson, Kid Colt, Outlaw Kid, Rawhide Kid, Red Wolf (Johnny Wakely), Two-Gun Kid, Warren Worth

Known Relatives: Unnamed father (deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile in Montana
formerly, the Cassidy plantation, Georgia

First Appearance: Gunhawks#1 (October, 1972)

Powers/Abilities: Kid Cassidy was an able gunfighter, hand-to-hand scrapper, and horserider. As a Nightrider, he employed tactics similar to that of the Klu Klux Klan, including lynchings.

History: (Gunhawks#1 (fb)) - Richard Cassidy was the son of a wealthy plantation owner in Georgia, and grew up as a friend of Reno Jones, one of the plantation slaves. When the Civil War broke out, Richard joined the Confederate Army. After the Confederates surrendered to the Union, he returned to the plantation where he found Reno. After learning that Union soldiers had killed his father and taken Reno's lover Rachel Brown, Richard resolved to saddle up with Reno and scour the west for some trace of Rachel.

(Gunhawks#1) - After a year of fruitless searching, Cassidy and Jones decided to hunt buffalo, needing the money to continue. With no experience at hunting buffalo, they met up with Jed, an old man who was an experienced buffalo hunter, and he took them under his wing. They told Jed all about their pasts. When the Dawson Gang came to slaughter Jed's herd, Cassidy and Jones rode against him, and after killing Dawson himself, they found a locket around his neck with a picture of Rachel. They set after the rest of his gang to find out how they met her.

(Gunhawks#2) - Cassidy and Jones caught up to the last member of the gang and learned from him that they had sold her to a plantation owner in River City. Cassidy came up with a plan to rescue her; he brought Reno in to River City, claiming he had caught a criminal, and some of the townsfolk treated Cassidy like a hero. Some men told Cassidy that he should have brought Reno to them because their boss paid good money for "darkies," and brought Cassidy to meet Colonel Johnson. The Colonel was happy to let Cassidy join his team since they were both ex-Confederates, and when he heard about Reno, he had Cassidy lead a team back to River City to break Reno out of jail and brought him to the plantation to be a slave. While Cassidy was at dinner with the Colonel, Reno led the other slaves in a breakout, and overthrew the plantation staff. Cassidy learned from the Colonel that Rachel had been kidnapped from the plantation in an indian raid, and turned the Colonel over to his slaves, who murdered him. Cassidy and Jones set off to continue their search for Rachel.

(Gunhawks#3) - Cassidy and Jones were taken captive by the U.S. Cavalry led by Captain Warren Worth, who suspected them of selling rifles to the Cheyenne. Cassidy watched as Worth led his men in an assault upon a Cheyenne village at Medicine Creek. Cassidy escaped from the cavalry during the confusion, but was horrified by what he saw them do the villagers, saying it made him feel ashamed to be an American.

After the cavalry had departed with the remaining Cheyenne and Reno as their prisoners, Cassidy searched the ruins of the village for survivors, and met up with Rachel Brown, who had returned with a party led by Grey Fox, the Cheyenne whose property she had become. Grey Fox thought Cassidy was an enemy and attacked him, but Cassidy bested him in combat. Cassidy refused to kill Grey Fox because his people needed him, but was told by Rachel that Grey Fox would lose face because Cassidy wasn't a brave himself. Cassidy asked to become a brave, and was soon set up for his first task: to run across a bed of hot coals barefoot.

(Gunhawks#4) - Cassidy made it across the hot coals, and was soon prepared for the next trial, to have white-hot spearheads pressed against his chest. Grey Fox offered him a piece of buffalo hide to bite, but Cassidy replied that he took his pain "straight." Rachel tried to get Cassidy out of Grey Fox's camp, but he refused to leave without satisfying honor. He was finally sent to his final trial, to face a grizzly bear with nothing but a knife, but was so weak that he collapsed after being place in the pen. He was saved when Reno appeared, having been captured by Grey Fox's people, and Reno slew the grizzly.

(Gunhawks#5) - Reno was traded off by Grey Fox to the Reverend Graves, while Rachel tended to Cassidy's wounds. Reno escaped Graves and came back for Cassidy just as the cavalry attacked Grey Fox's camp, but Graves followed Reno, and Cassidy shot Graves dead to save Reno. After they had buried Graves, they witnessed the aftermath of the attack on the camp, and Reno saw Rachel riding away with Grey Fox. Respecting Rachel's wish that Reno not know what had become of her, Cassidy knocked him out from behind.

(Gunhawks#6) - When Reno came to, he angrily faced off with Cassidy, intending to kill him. Reno took a shot at Cassidy, but missed on purpose. However, Grey Fox was watching from the trees and tried to shoot Captain Worth, only to hit Cassidy instead when Rachel threw off his aim. Cassidy died, and Reno believed that he was responsible.

(Blaze of Glory#4 (fb) - BTS) - Cassidy survived being shot, and by 1885 had become an employee of Clay Riley, who was seeking to drive out the townspeople of Wonderment, Montana.

(Blaze of Glory#1) - Cassidy led an army of men garbed as Nightriders into Wonderment and ran amock, destroying buildings and lynching many of the town's black population. Cassidy recognized Reno Jones among the townspeople, but missed a chance to kill him. When Reno and Marcel Fournier rode out of Wonderment to find help, Cassidy let them ride by without sniping them.

(Blaze of Glory#3) - Cassidy led his Nightriders back into Wonderment, causing even more destruction, but the Rawhide Kid, Kid Colt, the Outlaw Kid, and the Two-Gun Kid rode into town and drove them off. Later, when the bounty hunter Gunhawk and Pinkerton agent Caleb Hammer attempted to ride into Wonderment, Cassidy had them both taken captive. After learning that they were after Kid Colt, he decided to let only one leave, ordering them to face each other in a gunfight to see who would live, but the Ghost Rider suddenly appeared, giving them a chance to escape. Knowing that Clay Riley had a special hatred for the Ghost Rider, Cassidy sent a rider to inform him of the development so that Riley would give him what he needed to finish the job.

(Blaze of Glory#4) - Cassidy was joined by Riley for their final assault upon Wonderment, but were unprepared for the clash that awaited them, as the outlaws brought in by Reno had trained the townsfolk to fight back, and the local tribes were brought in by Red Wolf. The Ghost Rider killed Riley, but Cassidy managed to wound him, and was surprised to find that the Ghost Rider was Reno. Before Cassidy could kill him, the Outlaw Kid set off an explosion that knocked Cassidy over, and Jones strangled him to death.

Comments: Created by Gary Friedrich, Syd Shores and Sol Brodsky.

Blaze of Glory and Gunhawks offer two different versions of the characters' origins. According to Gunhawks#1, Cassidy and Jones were friends, Jones wasn't a slave, Jones eventually fought in the Civil War, and the two rode as comrades after the war. Blaze of Glory asserts that much of this was fabricated by dime novels, and that Jones was a slave and that he and Cassidy were only really friends when they were children. It also altered the circumstances of Cassidy's death somewhat, depicting it as occurring in a saloon instead of the Native village.

Now, this would seem to place Gunhawks out-of-continuity, buuut...well, Jones and Cassidy wouldn't have much history to cover then, would they? I've included the series in both of their bios, and made the conflicting accounts match as best as I could. It's best to believe that while the events of Gunhawks#1-7 may be the "dime novel" version, there's at least some truth in there that applies to the post-Blaze of Glory retconned Reno and Cassidy.

The American Civil War ended in 1865, and Gunhawks#1 opened one year later, so the events of the Gunhawks series would be set in 1866-1867.

Kid Cassidy was impersonated by a Space Phantom in Avengers Forever#5.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Kid Cassidy should not be confused with:

• Kid Colt, Blaine Colt, heroic gunfighter of the old west, @ All-Western Winners#2

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters