“In the western — as, of course, in most hero stories — the child can imagine himself in a world that is simple, clear-cut and well ordered,” observed Frederick Elkin in The Psychological Appeal of the Hollywood Western.
That entertainment niche is filled by superheroes now — more fantastic figures fit for a more fantastic world.
In fact, there was always significant crossover between the superhero and western genres, given dual-identity western heroes such as Zorro, the Lone Ranger, and the Durango Kid.
Although he’s now largely forgotten, the latter was quite well known in his day.
“The Durango Kid, in his black outfit and mask, looks cool and mysterious on movie posters, which may explain why he survived long enough to appear in 65 films,” noted author Evan Lewis.
Charles Starrett starred as the hero beginning in 1940.
“In 1949, Magazine Enterprises struck a deal through the legal department of Columbia Pictures to publish the exploits of the movie hero, the Durango Kid, in comic book form,” noted Bill Harper in Alter Ego. “The studio received a 15 percent commission, of which Charles Starrett, who acted the title role, received 50 percent.”
“In 1940, the first Durango Kid movie was released, titled simply The Durango Kid. Although Starrett approached the role as he did any other western, the fans and theatre owners clamored for more. Five years later (1945), the Dark Phantom of the Prairies again leaped into the saddle of his white horse Raider and rode the thin line between good and bad on the silver screen in The Return of the Durango Kid. Over half of the 65 Durango Kid features had been produced before Magazine Enterprises introduced the comic version on the stands in Sept.-Oct. 1949 dateline. The magazine outlasted the movie career of both Durango and Starrett by three years, ending with issue 41 in 1955.”
Comics creator Bill Black eventually used Starrett as a springboard for his character Captain Paragon (a favorite of mine). But that, as they say, is another story…
“Durango,” by the way, is a place name originating from the Basque urango and meaning “water town” or “well-watered place.” I imagine they were a welcome sight in the old West, just like the masked hero who was named for them.
By 1940, the costumed avenger was already a familiar and well-established subgenre of westerns. Take, for example, Max Brand’s 1925 novel Jim Curry’s Test. To avenge his slain father, Curry adopts the identity of the Red Devil, an outlaw who steals from the guilty, repays the innocent, and never kills.
In his book The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger: The 4,000-Year History of the Superhero, Jess Nevins notes that “…two types of costumed avengers — crimefighting vigilantes and Robin Hoods — were the dominant types of costumed avengers in western fiction through the 1920s. The 1930s would see the crimefighting vigilantes become dominant, first with Fran Striker and George Trendle’s Lone Ranger (on radio from 1933, in film from 1938) and then Oscar Schisgall’s Masked Rider (in pulps and novels from 1934).”
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