Wild Western #56 — Nick Peron

Aug 16

Aug 16 Wild Western #56

The Jaws of Doom!

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Offered a state pardon, Kid Colt goes to meet with Marshal Chandler in room 13 of the local hotel.[1] Instead, he is ambushed Hack Leonard and his gang. They have come to get revenge against Kid Colt for all the times he interfered with their plans. After they heard word that Marshal Chandler was going to pardon the Kid, the gang decided that it was now or never to get their vengeance. Not one to surrender, Kid Colt easily shoots the guns out of the outlaw’s hands and leaps out the window into the street below. Landing in a wagon below, Kid Colt rides it slowly enough for the outlaws to get onto their horses and start following him. Once they get close enough, Kid Colt kicks the barrels out of the back of the wagon into the path of the men chasing the. While Hack and his men are tripped up by the barrels, Kid Colt’s own horse, Steel, catches up and Kid Colt leaps onto him. Later, Hack Leonard comes up with a scheme to stop Kid Colt from reaching Marshal Chandler. He orders Bulldog Baines to go and get a stage. Kirk Vale is told to lure the marshal onto the stage and they are all to meet in Blue Boulder.

Later, in the town of Carvallo, the Marshall expresses his frustrations over not being able to find Kid Colt to hand him a pardon. That’s when Bulldog Baines tells the marshall he that he can take the lawman to Kid Colt, saying that the Kid is hiding out in Blue Boulder. He agrees to take the Bulldog’s coach to that location but along the way, the outlaws draw their guns on Marshall Chandler. However, the lawman refuses to surrender without a fight. As they struggle inside the coach, the Kid Colt secretly climbs on top of it. Although Kid Colt manages to save Marshall Chandler, the stagecoach ends up rolling off a cliff and landing in the river below with the pardoning paperwork still on board. Kid Colt figures that ends his hopes of clearing his name, but Chandler figures there’ll be another pardon coming his way soon enough.

Recurring Characters

Kid Colt, Steel

Continuity Notes

This state pardon would be for the crimes that made Kid Colt an outlaw. There are various different accounts of how Kid Colt became an outlaw as told in Kid Colt: Hero of the Weast #1, Kid Colt Outlaw #11, 39, and Kid Colt #4. The consistency of all these stories is that Kid Colt becomes a wanded man after killing the man (or men) responsible for murdering his father (and or other family members).

The Lair of the Killers!

While riding through a ghost town, Arab — the Ringo Kid’s horse — is suddenly frightened by something, throwing the Ringo Kid of his back. As he is recovering from the fall, a gang of masked men point their guns at him and order the Kid to surrender. He is taken into a nearby stable where he is questioned. They want to know why Ringo has come to Phantom City. The Ringo Kid explains that he is only passing through. That’s when another masked man says that this isn’t the man they set their trap for. However, since the Ringo Kid knows about their operations he can’t leave alive. As it turns out they were waiting to catch a man from the railroad as they don’t want the railroad to come through this abandoned town. The leader of the gang tells them to stash Ringo in the tack room, saying that they will deal with this intruder as they finish their next act of sabotage.

Meanwhile, Ringo’s father Cory Rand and his friend Dull Knife are waiting for the Kid at the grave of his mother, Dawn Star.[1] They grow concerned that Ringo hasn’t arrived and they suspect that he may be in trouble. After paying their respects to Dawn Star, the two men head north to try and try and pick up Ringo Kid’s trail. Along the way, they come across a recently constructed rail line and remark how it wasn’t there the last time they passed through and how quickly the progress of man is changing the fact of the west. That’s when Dull Knife and Cory spot some masked men on the side of a mountain planting explosives. Moments later, there is an explosion that sends rubble falling down onto the tracks below. With a train heading on a collision course with the rubble, Cory tells Dull Knife to follow after the crooks while he tries to stop the train.

Dull Knife follows the masked outlaws to Phantom City and when he begins looking around he spots the Ringo Kid’s horse tied up at one of the hitching posts. Dull Knife then follows two of the outlaws as they go to eliminate Ringo Kid. They take the Kid to an abandoned mine shaft, but Dull Knife ambushes the two would-be killers. Once the outlaws are shoved into the mine, Ringo causes the entrance to collapse on them. The pair then ambushes the rest of the Phantom City gang and takes the survivors into custody. When they go to the nearby town they are reunited with Cory Rand who managed to save the train. After the outlaws are turned over, the construction of the railroad through Phantom City can now being.