All Western Winners #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAll Western Winners #2 (Winter 1948) is one of the most debut-dense issues Timely Comics produced in a single calendar year, serving as the launch pad for the Black Rider — a masked, secret-identity frontier doctor named Matthew Masters — who would become significant enough that the very title eventually retooled itself around him. The issue represents a snapshot of Timely's deliberate pivot away from the fading superhero genre toward the Western anthology format that would sustain the publisher's output for the better part of a decade. By gathering Kid Colt, the Two-Gun Kid, and the newly introduced Black Rider under one cover, it established the trio of characters that would anchor the lineage running continuously from this issue through Gunsmoke Western well into the 1960s. The Black Rider's concept — a man of medicine who reluctantly dons a disguise to fight injustice — imported the masked-avenger formula from the superhero era and planted it squarely in the Old West, a template Marvel's western line would refine for years.
In "The Syndicate of Six-Gun Terror," the Cactus Kid—once a feared gunman now a healer—returns to the frontier as a doctor in Leadville, Texas, only to be drawn back into violence when the outlaw Blast Burrows threatens rancher Jim Lathrop and his daughter Marie. When silence and scorn follow his initial refusal to act, Matthew Masters dons the guise of the mysterious Black Rider to protect the innocent, proving that even a man who left the gun behind can still answer the call of justice. Written by Leon Lazarus and illustrated with gritty precision by Syd Shores—both inks and pencils—this 1948 Western gem features a compelling moral reckoning, all captured in a striking cover by Shores.
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The issue was published by Timely Comics under the editorial stewardship of Stan Lee, who oversaw Timely's wholesale genre shift after superheroes lost commercial momentum in the postwar years. Notably, the indicia of this issue still reads 'All Winners' — the imprint of the superhero anthology the title had just replaced — even though the cover and masthead had already moved on, a small clerical artifact reflecting just how abrupt that transition was. Artist Syd Shores, a Timely Bullpen veteran who had illustrated superheroes throughout the 1940s, was the creative force behind the Black Rider feature and would define the character's look across most of his subsequent adventures. The writer credits for many stories in this issue remain uncertain or are reconstructed from secondary research, which is typical of Timely's notoriously sparse production records from this period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Black Rider (alter ego: Matthew 'Doc' Masters), created by artist Syd Shores and published by Timely Comics in the Winter 1948 issue.
- The Black Rider's origin establishes Masters as a former young gunfighter who received amnesty from the Governor of Texas, then trained as a physician before reluctantly returning to masked vigilantism in Leadville, Texas; Jim Lathrop, Marie Lathrop, and the villain Blast Burroughs appear in this debut story.
- Kid Colt (Blaine Colt) and his horse Steel appear in this issue; Kid Colt had debuted in his own title just months earlier (Kid Colt #1, August 1948), making this one of his earliest crossover appearances.
- The Two-Gun Kid (Clay Harder) and his horse Cyclone also appear; Harder had debuted in Two-Gun Kid #1 (March 1948), making him Marvel's earliest continuing Western character.
- The indicia of this issue still carries the title 'All Winners' rather than 'All Western Winners,' reflecting the speed of Timely's genre pivot from superheroes to westerns.
- The issue sits at the head of a long publishing chain: the title would run through Western Winners, then Black Rider, then Western Tales of Black Rider, and finally Gunsmoke Western (#32–77), an unbroken numbering sequence stretching to 1963.
- After debuting here, the Black Rider grew prominent enough that the anthology series renamed itself Black Rider beginning with issue #8, giving him his own eponymous title that ran bimonthly from March 1950 to November 1955.
- The Black Rider character proved internationally popular, particularly in Brazil, where publisher Rio Gráfica launched a dedicated series in 1952 that ran to 245 issues, 15 annuals, and two special series.
Cast · 10 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Young gunman Matthew Masters, the Cactus Kid, wiped out the Davis Gang in a small town in Texas. As a reward, the governor of Texas pardoned him of his previous crimes and helped him become a doctor, abandoning his life as a gunfighter. Years later, now a doctor, Matthew settles in Leadville, Texas. When outlaw Blast Burrows terrorizes local rancher Jim Lathrop and his daughter Marie, Matthew does nothing to help, earning Marie's scorn. Later, when he learns the Lathrops are to be wiped out by Burrows, he disguises himself as the Black Rider, and eliminates the gang, saving Marie from Burrows.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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