Blaze of Glory: The Last Ride of the Western Heroes

Comic Info

Blaze of Glory #2

Reprints Blaze of Glory #1-4 (February 2000-March 2000).  The town of Wonderment, Montana finds itself under assault from midnight raiders who threaten the city made up of freed slaves and poor.  A call goes out for help for the small town, and the heroes of the Old West respond.  It is the last stand for the town of Wonderment…and it could be the last ride of many of the legends of the West.

Written by John Ostrander and illustrated by Leonard Manco, Blaze of Glory:  The Last Ride of the Western Heroes presents the Marvel Western heroes in a new adventure which tells the final days of many of Marvel’s classic characters.  Originally the series was slated to be two big issues, but the comic was broken down into four issues.

I think Marvel’s (and DC’s) Western heroes are very interesting.  Along with classic literary figures and folklore, Western characters were some of the first “super heroes”.  Both Marvel and DC incorporated these characters into their “universe” where they existed hand-in-hand with superheroes like the Avengers and Justice League.  Blaze of Glory modernized these heroes and finally provided an end for some of the characters stories.

Blaze of Glory #4

With stories based in the past, it was always assumed that heroes like the Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt, and the Rawhide Kid died.  I remember reading The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe which listed all the characters in “The Book of the Dead” but listed the Western heroes as Final Appearace:  Unknown.  I don’t know if it has ever been said that Blaze of Glory is canon for Earth-616 (the standard Marvel Earth), but it is a fun ride.

I like the darker, more realistic Western presented in Blaze of Glory.  Turning outlaws into heroes has been a long tradition and this kind of plays with the idea that not all outlaws are really Robin Hood type characters.  I like how the Gunhawks story (which always seemed a bit too good to be true in the original story) was rewritten with Reno and Cassidy and Outlaw Kid’s schizophrenia.  The biggest bummer however was the death of my favorite Western hero Two-Gun Kid (the Dan Slott She-Hulk series kind of dealt with this).

I would have enjoyed a whole series based on the Western heroes like this.  I think with the success of comics like Scalped and shows like Justified that a Western themed comic could still work (ok Jonah Hex didn’t help that argument).  Blaze of Glory had a bit of a spin-off in the four issue Apache Sky.