Masked Raider


The Masked Raider is an alias of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The original character went by the name of Jim Gardley and appeared in comic books published during the 1930s and 1940s period known as the Golden Age of Comic Books, he was created by writer and artist Al Anders. Jim Gardley was a gunslinger and former rancher active during the American frontier, he was one of the few individuals that held the Eternity Mask for a short period. In Marvel Comics #1000, it was revealed how the Golden Age Masked Raider died and a new character, yet unidentified, had taken up the name and was in the possession of the Eternity Mask.

Publication history

Created by writer-artist Al Anders, Jim Gardley first appeared in the Timely Comics' anthology series Marvel Comics #1, and ran through issue #12 of the by-then retitled Marvel Mystery Comics.
The first Western character published by Timely, the predecessor of Marvel Comics, the Masked Raider is Jim Gardley, who with his horse Lightning dedicates his life to fighting the lawless and bringing justice to the oppressed.
He is unrelated to the Charlton Comics series Billy the Kid, which for its first eight issues was titled Masked Raider.
In the milestone issue Marvel Comics #1000, the comic aimed to celebrate the long history of Marvel Comics, in which it was shown that the long-forgotten original character had died and a new legacy character had taken up the Masked Raider mantle and was in the possession of Eternity Mask, a powerful mask that various characters over the course of history have worn. The yet-unnamed superhero reappeared in the Incoming! one-shot. Marvel Comics announced in 2019 that a new Masked Raider series would be published in 2020 with the new hero.

Reception

In American Comic Book Chronicles, Kurt Mitchell and Roy Thomas write that the Masked Raider is "a lifeless Lone Ranger imitation."