(Fantastic Comics 018, 1941)
The Black Rider is a ruthless bandit chief who has not only terrorized the countryside but has had the audacity to kidnap Bill Carrol, Captain Kidd's best friend, an unforgivable sin.
While the Black Rider & Co. might look like they are straight out of a comic set in the American West, Captain Kidd's 1941 adventures have taken place exclusively in Africa, and given the mention of a city called Tanga above, I think that we can pretty confidently place this comic somewhere in present-day Tanzania, in the part that was then Tanganyika (yes, okay, there's also a couple of Tangas in Burkina Faso. I just don't think that they're the right ones, okay?).
Though the Black Rider manages to overpower Captain Kidd and stick him in a booby-trapped airplane during their first encounter this is absolutely not enough to dissuade even novice two-fisted adventurer, let alone a grizzled veteran like Kidd. Kidd's return gambit is to storm the Black Rider's HQ and machine gun the entire gang.
The entire gang bar the Black Rider, that is, because it's time for the dramatic revelation that the Black Rider is... A LADY???!!! Specifically, she is the daughter of the original Black Rider, out for revenge since he was killed by vigilantes but now on her way to a British colonial jail and/or execution. Please note that the Black Rider pulls the old "roughly the same size as an adventure hero until unmasked" trick, going from a burly six foot to a slender 5'6" in about one panel.
Categorized in: Colours (Black), Generica (Riders), Origin (Cross-Dressing Characters, Legacy Characters)
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