Rawhide Kid

The man later known as the Rawhide Kid was born in the late 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."

One of the fastest gunmen in the Texas Rangers, Ben retired when Johnny was 16, and began teaching him how to use a gun. By the time Johnny reached his 18th birthday, Ben had taught him all he could, and Johnny had become even faster and better than Ben had been at using a gun.

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.

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. 
 
By the late 1870's Johnny allied himself with the Apache Kid during the Railroad Wars. 
 
Then by 1885, Johnny had run out of wars to fight, so he started to work for the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. There his old friend Reno Jones enlisted his help along with other western legends to help protect his town called Wonderment in Montana against a band of mercenaries known as the Nightriders. 
 
In 1886, Johnny learned that his old friend and ally the Apache Kid was murdered. He teamed-up with the Apache Kid's wife Rosa, who now called herself the Apache Kid out of respect of her late husband, to take down the murders and save a group of Apache children.     
 

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 gun slinging 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.

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.