OUTLAW I (Rick Wilson)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Robert Kanigher and Tony DeZuniga

Outlaw (Rick Wilson)

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Rick Wilson
Occupation: Ranger
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Sam Wilson (father); Maria Wilson (mother; deceased)
Base of Operation: Old West, late 1800s
Gender: Male
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
First Appearance: All-Star Western Vol. 2 #2 (October-November 1970): "Draw Death"
Creators: Robert Kanigher and Tony DeZuniga

HISTORY

The Texas sands of Wild Stallion Mesa were soaked with blood on that dark day in the late 1800s. A young Mexican girl watched as her father was gunned down by bandits for the chest of gold her carried. A young Texan boy saw his own father struck with a bullet by the same outlaws. Rising out of the dust, the boy proved every bit the marksman that his Texas Ranger father was. In an instant, the killers lay dead at his feet. Rick Wilson was barely eight years old.

Captain Sam Wilson was in no hurry to see his son fulfill his dream of being a Texas Ranger but no one could deny that he thrived on Rick's companionship. Since Maria Wilson had been slain by an unknown gunman (whom she had described with her dying breaths), Sam couldn't bear to let the boy out of his sight. The youngster had vowed to find his mother's killer when he joined the Rangers and Sam feared where the path to vengeance might take him.

Paloma, the orphaned Mexican child, filled a void in the Wilson household, one that Sam tried to deny. Insisting that she needed the guiding hand of a kind woman to bring her up like a lady, the Captain sent her to a childless couple in Purple Ridge. Within days, Paloma had fled her adoptive parents and returned to the Wilson homestead. Informed that "the good Dios chose YOU to be my family ... you and Rick," Sam knew better than to argue.

The family unit was joined by another scarred soul when Rick was in his thirteenth year. The boy had rescued a hawk that was being attacked by two cougars and nursed it back to health. As he peeked in at his son that night, Sam grinned at the glare the hawk was giving him as if he was Rick's own watchdog. The bond between the hawk and the young man would never be broken.

All through his teens, Rick polished his sharpshooting skills. By the time he was eighteen, he'd achieved a degree of accuracy that led even his accomplished father to admit that he would hate to face his son in a shoot-out. Still, the gray-haired Ranger kept dragging his feet and tired of waiting for something to happen and tired of being treated like a kid, Rick finally exploded at the man he'd idolized. Packing a few belongings, Rick rode off, telling his adoptive sister that he was going to prove himself a man and that his father wasn't going to like it. The hawk, silent as ever, followed in the sky above.

A year later, Captain Wilson was called upon to investigate a stagecoach robbery, one in which two men had been gunned down in cold blood. A third man, who'd pleaded in vain for a non-violent robbery, was the only bandit who was positively identified. He wore tan pants, a light green shirt open at the chest, a dark green vest, brown poncho and black hat and had brown hair -- and the face of Rick Wilson.

In the streets of Purple Ridge, Rick was called out -- by his father. Paloma tried to intercede, pleading with her father and brother to settle things peacefully, but neither would listen. Rick proved the quicker draw by a fraction of a second and left his father bleeding on the dusty ground. Typical of Rick's skills, the shot had been aimed carefully enough to only graze the old man -- but it had taken its toll. Flatly announcing that he had no son, Sam walked from the doctor's office and past a crowd of slack-jawed townspeople to nail up a picture on Rick Wilson: "Wanted ... Outlaw."

That night, Rick had a vision of a man cloaked in black who rode an ebony horse. He warned of "a 'welcoming committee' of two ... up ahead" and vanished as abruptly as he'd appeared. The manifestation of the California-based horseman in Texas fuelled the supernatural legend of El Diablo. Though unnerved by the words of "the devil," Rick found the warning reaffirmed by the hawk, which was circling ominously over a secluded spot near Wild Stallion Mesa. His partners in crime, it seemed, did not like to share.

Within the hour, Captain Wilson and his posse discovered the money from the stage robbery at the mesa ... alongside the corpses of the Fenton Brothers. The man that the siblings had intended to ambush was long gone. [All-Star Western #2].

Rick soon found that he wasn't truly accepted anywhere. Even the outlaws who worked with him viewed the son of a Texas Ranger with suspicion. During a train robbery, half of the Dix Gang took advantage of Rick's precarious position atop the locomotive to ambush him while the rest of the bandits held Sam at gunpoint in a car below. On separate fronts, the Wilsons killed their respective assailants but the chasm between father and son was as wide as ever. Sam Wilson had no son [All-Star Western #3].

In retaliation for Captain Wilson's capture of outlaw "King" Coffin, the bandit's gang abducted Paloma and vowed to kill her if their leader was not freed. As the horrified townspeople watched, Wilson refused to make a deal, defiantly placing the noose around Coffin's neck when the hangman himself refused. Rick rode into the crowd, snatched Coffin and demanded an alliance and a place to cool off. At the encampment, Rick wasn't simply cool, he seemed as cold as his father, callously allowing Coffin to shoot at the hawk and make advances on Paloma.

It had all been a pretext, of course. Once the gang's guard was down and most of the men were drunk or sleeping, Rick stormed into Coffin's room as the villain was attempting to rape Paloma. The livid bandit pursued the brother and sister, with only the savage claws of the hawk preventing Coffin from shooting them. In an underwater struggle with "King" in whitewater rapids, only Rick survived. The rescue of Paloma and the defeat of her kidnappers had no discernible impact on Sam Wilson. He had no son [All-Star Western #4].

During a visit to his mother's grave, Rick froze at the sound of a "klik" of a gun behind his right ear. Captain Wilson finally had the drop on the outlaw. In handcuffs, Rick made a futile attempt to escape from Sam's deputy and grab his gun but the old Texas Ranger shot the weapon out of his hand. The young man's jail time however was measured in hours thanks to a prison break engineered by "Gunpowder" Grimes to free one of his men. Rick went along for the ride, even helping hold off his father and a posse, but a musclebound member of the gang pronounced him a spy. Under a barrage of slaps and accusations, Rick exploded and began hammering back at the big man. The young outlaw observed that "only the chill of Gunpowder's gun pokin' into my ribs stopped me from killin' him." Rick hands were tied behind his back and he was tossed into a derelict train car for the night.

The gang had been gearing up for an assault on Purple Ridge during their 50th anniversary Founder's Day celebration. Filling the abandoned locomotive with dynamite the following morning, they intended to send the time bomb rolling into town and take advantage of the destruction that followed. The central target in the impending robbery was a golden horseshoe that was to be awarded to the winner of a sharpshooting contest. As the train moved inexorably towards Purple Ridge, Rick heard the shriek of his hawk. The bird's beak furiously tore at the ropes around his wrists until Rick's hands, now covered in blood, were free. As he defused the explosives, the outlaw was stunned to see his father riding alongside the car.

Rick's father followed his son's hawk to him and proposed that the two of them take on the Gunpowder gang together. Though Rick's heart had soared when he heard his Dad call him "son," the situation was far from good, particularly after Captain Wilson's horse was shot. Taking refuge beneath the stalled train, father and son prepared for a last stand as Gunpowder grabbed a stick of his trademark dynamite. They used the last of their ammunition to create sparks that lit Gunpowder's dynamite, setting it off. After the blast had subsided, his father gave him his badge, promising to tell the others the truth about his son so that they would know he never an outlaw but a secret Ranger.

The day was capped when Sam and Rick competed against one another in the sharpshooting contest. A beaming Paloma announced that it ended in a tie. The trio rode off into the sunset, still in a state of euphoria. Sam vowed that they would fight together as father and son [All-Star Western #5].

POWERS AND WEAPONS

Rick Wilson is a master sharpshooter. He is accompanied by a hawk that has warned him of danger on more than one occasion.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Outlaw in chronological order click here