Real
Name: Unrevealed TEXAS KID
Real
Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human (Old West era)
Occupation: Adventurer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Benito Dawson, C.E. Humboldt, Spot, unidentified Placer City sheriff
Enemies: Lucas "Luke" Caswell, Rance "Comanche" Hotaling, Sykes Trent, Dalton Wells, unidentified saloon barman
Known Relatives: None
Aliases:"Robin Hood of the Range" (see comments)
Base of Operations: Mobile across Western USA (see comments)
First Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics#1/3 (January 1940)
Powers/Abilities: Texas Kid carries two six-shot pistols. He is a sufficiently skillful equestrian and marksman to be able to confidently fire with both pistols simultaneously while riding down a steep slope, presumably directing Spot with his knees. His horsemanship enables him to lean over in the saddle and snatch up objects from the ground while galloping, and he can quick-draw fast enough to shoot the gun out of the hand of a man who already has their gun out and trained on him when their attention momentarily lapses. He carries a lariat, and so is presumably at least somewhat proficient with same.
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 160 lbs.
Eyes: Brown (see comments)
Hair: Black
History:
(Daring
Mystery Comics#1/3 (fb) - BTS) - Texas Kid was an adventurous
cowboy who operated in the "Old "West." He rode a well-trained white
horse he called Spot.
(Marvel Mystery Handbook) - In 1879...
(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - he was
active in California.
(Daring Mystery Comics#1/3 (fb) -
BTS) - Over the space of a handful of days Texas Kid came across
two recently burnt-out cabins.
(Daring Mystery Comics#1/3) - While riding
the ridge trail above Red Rim Canyon the Texas Kid spotted three masked
raiders burning a third ranch down in the valley below. Firing as he
went, the Kid rode rapidly down the rocky slope, prompting the trio to
hastily ride off. The Kid momentarily began to pursue before realizing
there might still be someone trapped in the burning cabin. Abandoning
the chase, the Kid rode back to the conflagration and had Spot kick down
the wooden door. Inside the Kid found a man,...
(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - Benito Dawson,...
(Daring Mystery Comics#1/3) - lying on the cabin floor. Scooping Benito up and carrying him into the open, the Kid realized the rancher had been shot. Dying, Benito informed the Texas Kid that the raiders were trying to drive the smaller ranchers off the range, had stolen half his stock the day before, then returned that day to steal the money he had saved towards his imminently due mortgage payment. When he tried to fight, they had shot him. Benito tried to inform the Kid who he suspected was the raiders' leader, but died before he could get the name out.
Vowing to bring the raiders to justice, the Kid set off after them, soon spotting a hat one of the raiders had dropped during their rout. Moments after snatching it up, Texas Kid spotted Placer City coming into view in the distance, and decided to continue his hunt there. Leaving Spot behind a hotel, the Kid donned the raider's hat as he began wandering through the town, hoping it might elicit a reaction from its owner or one of the owner's friends. Figuring the local saloon was a good place to check, the Kid entered and informed the barman he was looking for a friend who might be sporting a new hat. Before the barman could respond, the Kid's lure bore fruit, as another saloon patron, Luke...
(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - Caswell,...
(Daring Mystery Comics#1/3) - suddenly held his gun to the Kid's back, informing him that it wasn't healthy to wear someone else's hat. Revealed as the raider who had lost the hat, Luke told the barman to get his compatriots,...
(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - Rance...
(Daring Mystery Comics#1/3) - "Comanche"...
(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - Hotaling and Sykes...
(Daring Mystery
Comics#1/3) - Trent. However, watching Luke via the mirror
behind the bar, Texas Kid noticed Luke turning his head towards the
barman as he uttered this command, and used this momentary lapse in
focus to spin round, swiftly drawing a pistol to shoot Luke's gun from
his hand. As Comanche and Trent appeared, Texas Kid escaped through an
open window and rode out of town on Spot, evading the raiders' shots.
The Kid hid out of sight up on a butte until after dark, then returned
to the town once night fell. Unseen, he watched through
an open window as the raiders counted the money
they had stolen from Benito and discussed their plans to raid the
Humboldt Ranch the next day. Deciding he had heard enough, the Kid shot
out the lamp lighting the room, and in the few moments it took the
raiders to overcome their surprise and light a new lamp, he entered the
room, snatched the stolen money and left behind Luke's hat.
Formulating a plan to take down the raiders permanently as he rode for the Humboldt Ranch, Texas Kid reached it by daybreak and approached...
(Marvel
Westerns: Outlaw Files) - C.E...
(Daring Mystery Comics#1/3) - Humboldt hoping to convince the rancher to cooperate.
(Daring Mystery
Comics#1/3 - BTS) - Learning from Humboldt that all he and the
three other ranchers who had been targeted all had mortgages with the
same banker,
(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - Dalton...
(Daring Mystery
Comics#1/3 - BTS) - Wells, the Kid suspected Wells had to be
behind Luke's gang, using them to drive ranchers off so Wells could take
their ranches. Ripping into half each bank note retrieved from Luke, the
Kid packaged one half of the money up with a message purporting to be
from Luke, stating he had gone to "the hideout." The Kid instructed
Humboldt to show the raiders no resistance and hand over his own money,
then ride into Placer City, throw the package into the bank, and enlist
the sheriff's help in assembling a posse to follow Wells to the raiders'
lair.
(Daring Mystery Comics#1/3) - When the raiders arrived at the Humboldt Ranch a few hours later, Texas Kid watched from hiding as Humboldt pretended to be cowed into submission, after which he followed as the trio of robbers headed off to their hideout. He followed them to a box canyon in the Lone Jack Mountains, but after he sneaked closer to confirm this was their base he was spotted by Comanche as he returned to Spot. More careful than Luke had been the day before, Comanche held the Kid at gunpoint and delivered him to Luke. After the Kid was tied up, Luke demanded to know what Kid had done with the money he had taken, but Kid defiantly refused to talk, even when threatened with being dragged on a rope behind the raiders' horses.
Wells' sudden arrival interrupted the interrogation, as well as prompting the Kid to admit he had suspected the banker's involvement. Concluding that the torn money the banker was complaining about was the cash the Kid had taken, Luke threatened to shoot the Kid if he didn't tell them where the other halves of the notes were, then struck the captive in rage when the Kid informed them that the sheriff had the rest of the torn money, suddenly realizing that Wells had been tricked into visiting the hideout. Before the outlaw could shoot the Kid however, the sheriff and his posse arrived. Humboldt gratefully identified the Kid as the man who had enabled the gang to be brought to justice, and asked the cowboy for his name. Mounting Spot to ride away, the adventurer informed the rancher that folks just called him the Texas Kid.
(Marvel Westerns: Outlaw Files) - Texas Kid was among a
group of individuals believed to be in Pennsylvania in 1881 for some
"remarkable occurrences" (see comments). Some time after this an
unidentified party wrote a report on the Kid, suggesting he might be
qualified to become "a potential operative" and recommending further
investigation into him.
Comments: Created by Ben Thompson.
His nickname, the Robin Hood of the Range,
seems strangely inaccurate - though Robin Hood is associated with
fighting injustice, he's predominately known as someone who robbed those
who had made themselves rich by preying on the poor, which isn't how
Texas Kid acts in his single story.
Why does he call his horse, which is
uniformly white with no apparent darker patches, Spot? Why does he call
himself the Texas Kid when he seems to be operating in California? Why
does his appearance in Daring Mystery Comics#1/3 end with the blurb
"Read the Texas Kid again next month" when he's not in the next issue,
or, indeed, any subsequent issue? Truly, the Texas Kid is a man of many
mysteries.
Despite being called Texas Kid, the only
story he appears in has him visiting Placer City, which his handbook
entry identifies as the city now known as Placerville, in California. So
I'm ASSuming he wandered across the "Wild West" in general, though given
our evidence comes from a single example it's entirely feasible he
normally operated in Texas, or came from Texas but normally operated in
California. To muddy the waters further, the raiders he follows are
based in the Lone Jack Mountains - the only Lone Jack Mountain I could
find is in Idaho, so presumably it's not that one.
His handbook entry describes his eye color as
black, presumably because in the only close up we get that shows his
eyes clearly the eyes are just black pinpricks with a white background.
Since normal humans don't have black irises and there's nothing to
suggest Texas Kid is other than normal human, it's since been discussed
within the Handbook writing team and we've concluded the seemingly black
eyes are just a limitation of the 1940s coloring and he has dark
brown irises.
I have used Texas Kid's handbook image as a supplemental image rather than his main because, though it is the only full body shot of him, it depicts him wearing Luke Caswell's hat rather than his own.
The "Remarkable Occurrences of 1881" mentioned in passing in Outlaw Files is a reference to an unseen "crisis-level event" that was stopped by an assemblage of Old West heroes of the era. Per the author of that specific entry, Ronald Byrd: "Earlier in the nineteenth century at least two sources predicted that the world would end in 1881. Thanks to the Western heroes, it didn't." It's certainly true that in the real world predictions for the end of the world have come and gone - anyone else recall the world ending in 2012 per the Mayan calendar? And as Ronald said, 1881 was another such year. English soothsayer Ursual Southeil, better known as Mother Shipton, made a number of prophecies in the 16th century; though less well remembered than, say, Nostradamus, her predictions were nevertheless well known in her day, and were later gathered and published in a collected edition in 1641. A later 1862 edition authored by Charles Hindley added a few fake new predictions intended to boost the book's notoriety and thus sales; to enhance the apparent veracity of Shipton's foresight, Hindley added mentions of the telegraph and steam engine, making it seem that Shipton had predicted these recent innovations hundreds of years prior to their invention, and with Shipton's reputation for accurate prophecy thus boosted, Hindley added a predicted apocalypse in 1881, only 19 years in the future. Though Hindley ultimately admitted his chicanery in 1873, belief in his added prophecy had taken sufficient root in the public conscious that it caused major alarm in England in 1881, with those who believed the world was about to end seeking shelter in churches to pray for salvation. On Earth-616, the main Marvel Earth, the Shipton prophecy was apparently real, but luckily Armageddon was averted. It's not much of a stretch to accept such an event occurring in the Old West - 616 is replete with such near-disasters in modern times, and we've got evidence that such events have happened throughout history; c.f. the Brood invasion of ancient Egypt battled by the Brotherhood of the Shield (S.H.I.E.L.D.#1 (2010)); Llan the Sorcerer's prehistoric attacks on Earth, such as the one stopped by the Tribe of the Moon; or the crisis battled by the Avengers 1,000,000 B.C.
This profile was completed 05/31/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Texas Kid has no known connections to:
Spot was Texas Kid's horse, with hooves strong and sharp
enough to kick down wooden doors with ease and above average
intelligence enabling the horse to follow at least basic instructions
such as where to stay without being tethered.
--Daring Mystery Comics#1/3
Note: Spot got a headshot in the Appendix: Cowboy Horses of the Old West section of the Marvel Pets Handbook.
Although lacking spots, perhaps Spot got his name because he was as
smart and loyal as a dog, and Spot was a very common name for dogs
back in the day. Or maybe Spot had excellent vision, and he could spot
things and make his rider aware of them. Coach from Cheers used to be
known as "Red," not because he had red hair, but because he read a
book...the joke works better when told verbally, because the spelling
difference between the homophones is not apparent...
--Snood
Benito Dawson was a rancher out by Red Rim Canyon, whose mortgage was held by Dalton Wells. As a result his land was coveted by Wells and he was targeted by Wells' subordinate Luke Caswell, When he tried to resist Caswell's gang of raiders he was fatally shot, and his cabin was set on fire.
Texas Kid came to his aid, but was too late to save the dying rancher, who died soon after being pulled from the burning cabin and before he could reveal his suspicions that Wells was behind the attack.
--Daring Mystery Comics#1/3
C.E. Humboldt was a rancher living a few hours' ride from Placer City. His mortgage was held by Dalton Wells, making him a target for Wells' subordinate Luke Caswell.
Discovering Humboldt was due to be robbed, the Texas Kid forewarned him and enlisted his aid in ensuring the gang faced justice. Following the Kid's instructions, Humboldt feigned surrender when Caswell's gang confronted him, handing over his cash and promising to abandon his property, after which the rancher rode into Placer City, delivered a package designed to lure Wells to the outlaws' hideout, and enlisted the sheriff's aid in forming a posse. They followed the corrupt banker to the gang's hideout, where Humboldt was present to witness them being arrested and to thank the Texas Kid for his help.
--Daring Mystery Comics#1/3
The unidentified sheriff of Placer City was easily convinced by rancher C.E. Humboldt to form a posse to capture the outlaws that had been plaguing the region, attacking local ranchers. He led his posse in following the gang's secret boss, the banker Dalton Wells, to the gang's hideout in a box canyon near the Lone Jack Mountains, arriving in time to prevent Luke Caswell from killing the captured Texas Kid.
Announcing he had overheard Wells confirming his guilt, the sheriff promised the corrupt banker that he and his subordinates would all hang.
--Daring Mystery Comics#1/3
 |
 |
 |
| Left to right: Trent, Caswell, Comanche | Dalton Wells | Saloon barman |
Dalton Wells employed Luke Caswell, Sykes Trent and Rance "Comanche" Hotaling to drive out local ranchers whose mortgages he held, so that he could buy out their ranches cheaply. Ranchers who resisted, such as Benito Dawson, were murdered and their ranch houses burned down. Though not apparently a member of the gang, the local saloon owner seemed to be sufficiently in on the scheme to happily assist Caswell when he drew a gun on the investigating Texas Kid in the bar, even suggesting Caswell take his captive into a back room to avoid the chance of witnesses walking in on them. Thanks to Texas Kid the gang and Wells, though perhaps not the saloon barman, were subsequently brought to justice.
--Daring Mystery Comics#1/3
images: (without ads)
Daring Mystery
Comics#1/3, p20 (p1 of story), pan1 (main image)
Daring
Mystery Comics#1/3, p27 (p8 of story), pan7 (headshot)
Daring
Mystery Comics#1/3, p20 (p1 of story), pan1 (riding
Spot)
Marvel
Mystery Handbook, Texas Kid entry (taken from Daring Mystery
Comics#1/3, p23 (p4 of story), pan3) (full
body shot, wearing Luke Caswell's hat)
Daring
Mystery Comics#1/3, p22 (p3 of story), pan1 (Spot)
Daring
Mystery Comics#1/3, p21 (p2 of story), pan6 (Benito
Dawson)
Daring
Mystery Comics#1/3, p25 (p6 of story), pan8 (Humboldt)
Daring
Mystery Comics#1/3, p28 (p9 of story), pan7 (Sheriff)
Daring Mystery
Comics#1/3, p23 (p4 of story), pan4 (Trent,
Caswell, Comanche)
Daring Mystery
Comics#1/3, p26 (p7 of story), pan2 (Wells)
Daring Mystery Comics#1/3, p22 (p3 of story),
pan5 (barman)
Appearances:
Daring Mystery Comics#1/3
(January 1940) - Ben Thompson (art), other credits unknown
First Posted: 09/01/2021
Last updated: 08/28/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright
info
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should check out the real thing!
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