The masked Western hero . . . derives from literary precedent (in this instance the Zorro novels). In the comics The Lone Ranger was undoubtedly the first protagonist to wear a mask, a convention not conspicuously picked up by other newspaper strips. It is an altogether different matter in the comic books where the trend towards masked and, when at all possible, costumed Western heroes has been overwhelming from the start. There have been Durango Kid, the Outlaw Kid, the Masked Raider, Nighthawk, the Ghost Rider, and countless other who have donned mask or disguise for the most arbitrary (and often the most laughable) of reasons. The real motivation, of course, has always been crassly commercial: to try and relate the Western tradition to the vastly more popular (to the comic book audience) concept of the superhero. Only in Red Wolf was an intelligent attempt made at organically incorporating elements of the super-hero ethos into the Western mythos; because of its very sophisticate and intricate weaving together of two distinct traditions, the experiment unfortunately failed, and it is not likely yo be tried again in the foreseeable future. (203, 205)