These would've maybe felt like dad comics even at the time; feel like Marvel's marketing missed some opportunities.

I was being sarcastic on Twitter when I said Leonardo Manco drew about 90 different limited series for Marvel and I don't think any of them were huge books even if some of them probably should've been? I was 60% sure I had this series in the garage, but still bought the first two from a quarter bin the other day: from 2002, Apache Skies #1-2, written by John Ostrander, art by Leonardo Manco.

I had to research this a little, since I remembered Blaze of Glory getting a bit of a push from Marvel, but this would've been a couple years later. I also didn't remember offhand if the Apache Kid was a pre-existing Marvel western character or something created by Ostrander and Manco here: there had been an Apache Kid series in the fifties, although it may not have greatly resembled this version. That was okay, though: Marvel had long since established that the adventures of their western heroes were often adapted into dime novels, which explains why "historical accuracy" wasn't usually a buzzword for them. Regardless, this series opens with the death of the Apache Kid, and his wife Rosa and the Rawhide Kid are gunning to avenge his death, although neither knew the other at the start of their vendetta. ("Maybe you weren't so good a friend!" Rosa tells Rawhide, when that comes up.)

In the best western tradition, one of the skunks that gets gunned down is the son of a railroad baron, who starts a campaign of terror against Rawhide and Rosa; while Rosa had maybe a new mission to start on: to free the prisoner of war, Geronimo...!

I don't have Blaze of Glory right next to me, but I think this book was even better looking than that. I was mildly surprised this had been collected in a trade, but also feel like it would do better in a different format. Like, if it was a slightly smaller size, but shelved with other westerns, it might do some numbers. Also, while I know Manco did a long stint on Hellblazer, did Marvel make him sign a non-compete: it is a complete mystery why he doesn't appear to have done a Jonah Hex yet.