Kid Colt Outlaw #127

Marvel's western frontier gets a dose of old-fashioned villainy in this March 1966 issue, as the cover — penciled by Larry Lieber and inked by Dick Ayers — puts Kid Colt face-to-face with the imposing, iron-helmeted Iron Mask in what looks like a rocky canyon standoff. Bullets spark off Iron Mask's metal visage as he looms over the Kid, taunting that nothing can stop him, while the cover copy promises four rip-roarin' villains for the price of one in "Iron Mask and His Circus of Crime." It's a nicely tense 12-cent package that delivers both a memorable antagonist and the kind of energetic Western action that kept Marvel's cowboy titles going strong well into the Silver Age.