Real
Name: Johnny Bart (His original last name was Clay.)
Occupation: Gunslinger
Identity: Publicly known
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States, wanted as
an outlaw
Other Aliases: Various
Place of Birth: Unrevealed
Place of Death: Unrevealed
Marital Status: Single (as far as is known)
Known Relatives: Ben Bart (adoptive father, deceased),
Frank and Joe Clay (brothers, deceased)
Group Affiliation: None
Base of Operations: The American West in the second half
of the Nineteenth Century
First Appearance: RAWHIDE KID (first series) #1
Final Appearance: The Rawhide Kid's death has not yet been depicted.
History: When Johnny Bart was an infant, his parents,
the Clays, were killed in a raid by Cheyenne Indians.
Johnny's oldest brother, Joe, fled during the raid in
panic; later, in an effort to expiate his guilt for deserting
his family during that Indian attack, Joe Clay became
the sheriff of the town of Willow Flats. Another brother,
Frank, was captured by the Indians but escaped from them
months later; he eventually became a gambler.
The infant Johnny was overlooked by the Cheyenne raiders, however,
and was soon found by Ben Bart, a Texas Ranger. Bart adopted
Johnny and raised him on his ranch outside Rawhide, Texas.
Bart named his adopted son "Johnny Bart." (Johnny's
original first name, given him by his parents, has not
been revealed. Johnny called Ben "Uncle Ben.")
Ben Bart was one of the fastest gunmen in the Texas Rangers.
When Johnny was sixteen, Ben, who by then had retired
from the Texas Rangers, began teaching him how to use
a gun. By the time that Johnny had reached his eighteenth
birthday, Ben had taught him all he could, and Johnny
had become even faster and better than Ben was at using
a gun.
Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Johnny Bart went into
Rawhide to buy the month's provisions for the ranch. Once
he was gone, a drifter named Hawk Brown confronted Ben
Bart and challenged him to draw his gun; Brown hoped to
make a reputation for himself by outdrawing the renowned
Ben Bart. Unknown to Ben, Brown had an accomplice named
Spade hiding nearby Just as Ben drew his sixguns, Spade
called out to Bart from behind, distracting Ben just as
Brown and Spade had planned. Brown took the opportunity
to gun Ben Bart down.
On his return, Johnny Bart found his adoptive father's corpse
and buried him. Johnny vowed to avenge Ben Barr's death.
He could tell that two men were responsible for Ben's
death from the way the bullets struck him as if he had
half turned around to see someone behind him. Johnny rode
to Rawhide, where Brown and Spade were claiming that Ben
Bart had started a fight with Brown 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 own 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. But then, 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 bun. 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.
Nevertheless, 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 Avengers who visited his time period.
The Rawhide Kid was still an active gunfighter as late as 1897.
It has not yet been revealed how, when, or where he died.
Height: 5 ft. 10 in.
Weight: 185 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red
Strength Level: The Rawhide Kid possessed the normal
human strength of a man of his age, height, and build
who engaged in intensive regular exercise.
Known Superhuman Powers: None
Other Abilities: The Rawhide Kid was one of the fastest
and most accurate gunmen of his time, rivaled only by
such legendary gunfighters as Kid Colt. The Rawhide Kid
was a superb hand-to-hand combatant and a brilliant horseman.
Weapons: The Rawhide Kid carried two Colt six-shooters.
Transportation: The Rawhide Kid rode a horse named Nightwind,
one of the fastest of his era.
