Rawhide Kid (3rd Series)

(Marvel, 2003, 2010)
™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Now that (it is to be hoped) we’re all over the shock of the whole “gay Rawhide Kid” thing, what really matters is the approach Zimmerman takes with the material; the politically correct “cowboy who just happens to be gay” or the more extreme “he’s one gaaaaaaaaay cowboy”?

It should come as no surprise to anyone knowing Zimmerman’s work that his Johnny Bart is so hot, he’s flaming. For the record, his Rawhide Kid is no swishy, effeminate fairy — he’s a gossipy, fussy gunslinger who uses a cigarette holder, which might have been cutting-edge “outrageous” camp decades ago but now is the exclusive province of office jokes and Morning Zoo Crews.

It’s a portrayal that isn’t so much offensive as silly and more than a little sad — “Gay” Johnny Bart is a Saturday Night Live sketch, rather than an actual character. Which is a shame, since Zimmerman pretty much plays the other parts of his story (here it comes) “straight”; clearly, the man knows his Western clichés and stereotypes (anyone who knows “Kid Shaleen” is all right with me) and takes a perverse pleasure in popping them. And the art by Severin should shame artists a third his age.

— S.A. Bennett

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