Numbering continued into Weird Western Tales #12. The "New52" initiative revived the title in 2011, refer to All-Star Western.
Although the Western Comics' popularity had waned with the coming of the Silver Age, editor Dick Giordano ushered the genre into a new era with the return of All-Star Western. Revived after its cancellation nine years prior, the first issue reprinted several classic Pow-Wow Smith tales, but also promised to introduce readers to "a new breed of blazing Western adventure" with issue #2. Scripter Robert Kanigher lived up to the issue's hype with the debut's of Outlaw and El Diablo. His first story, with artwork by Tony DeZuniga, forced Rick Wilson to abandon his dreams of becoming a Texas Ranger like his father.
While running with a nefarious group of outlaws known as the Fenton Gang, a stagecoach robbery turned murder forced Wilson to become an unwilling outlaw, evading the father he idolized. Kanigher and artist Gray Morrow presented a weirder Western tale from Mexico in the issue's other story, which saw the mysterious El Diablo thwart a stagecoach robbery and aid a pregnant woman giving birth. What made El Diablo so intriguing however, was the hero's unique secret identity. Bank teller Lazarus Lane was in a coma after being struck by lightning and awoke only when El Diablo was needed.
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