Black Rider

Major Story Arcs

At a young age Mathew Masters watched his father get murdered by some looters. Wanting and seeking justice this young man grew to be a man and tracked the men who killed his father. Calling himself the Cactus Kid, he shot and killed them.

Arrested and pardoned, he went on to Medical school in Mexico and settled in Leadville, Texas. Now nick-named Doc by the local town folk. Mathew led a good life, until he came across a land robber, who shot a patient that he was curing. The young girl that he liked, Marie Lathrop, called him a coward because he didn’t confront the killer. Confused by his feelings and his medical jurament and not wanting to tarnish his reputation he used a black mask and became the Black Rider, the mysterious hero of the West.

His horse, trained to seems an old fragile animal is a in reality a wild furious beast called Satan who helps the Black Rider in his murderous crusade against the criminals and killers in the Far West, beginning first in Leadville and eventually extending his influence across all the West.

The character had been revived in the special Marvel Comics #1000 (2019). In 1880 Dr Masters tried to rescue the Masked Rider, but the later died when Masters removed the Eternity Mask form his face. Doc Masters became regretful and inherited the Mask. Later in the middle of the Great Depression, the Black Rider gave the Eternity Mask to Ferret, a thief that tried to rob his house. The action turned Ferret to rethink his actions and later he became a detective.

International popularity

Brazil

The Black Rider was famous in Brazil where he starred a 245-issue run with 15 annuals and 2 specials, with the title: “Cavaleiro Negro“, by publisher RGE. Mattew Master was renamed “Heron Robledo”,

When the American material was over, RGE began to publish original stories created by Brazilian writers and artists. They also used stories of the characters Durango kid and Gringo and replaced those characters in the stories with Black Rider.