I'm 40% sure I got my dad this one already, but why not?

The Lone Ranger strikes me as neither pessimistic nor genre-savvy, so he maybe doesn't know that having a good feeling about anything is a recipe for disaster! Well, that feeling probably won't last, anyway. From 2009, the Lone Ranger #17, "Resolve" Written by Brett Matthews, art by Sergio Cariello. Cover by John Cassaday.

Despite still being relatively new to the job, this issue the Lone Ranger and Tonto stop some robbers and a runaway stage, with a relative minimum of violence: I've been reading too much Jonah Hex, because I was expecting a shotgun blast to the face, an arrow to the neck, and a guy thrown to his death, but the robbers are brought in alive. The Ranger and Tonto return the stage to the bank, with the tied-up robbers, and also drop off a big lump of silver with an old lady whose fence got smashed in the chase.

While Butch Cavendish and Winston Marle continue their respective plots, the Ranger and Tonto visit Linda and her boy Dan: while the Ranger is a terrible cook, he's still a catch! He tries to have a talk with Linda and explain his feelings; which kind of looks like he maybe thinks he can be the Lone Ranger and still have a family, which seems like a pipe dream. Sure enough, Dan interrupts them, saying someone was there asking for the Lone Ranger...to be continued! 

 I've read a few of these, but I'm not sure why Cavendish was a psycho-killer in this: he's in a room full of people he'd already killed in that panel there, with a prospective victim trying to buy his way out, and Cavendish is seemingly uninterested in the money. I maybe just like the idea of even a bad guy, being self-aware enough to realize he didn't like what money was making him. This series only ran 25 issues, and there's ads in the back for Man With No Name, Zorro, and the Boys, which Dynamite had picked up after DC dropped it. You'd suspect the Boys to be the sales juggernaut there, and I feel like it sold better than anything else mentioned here, but I'm not sure it was overwhelmingly so.

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I would love to see an episode where the bad guy was like "The Lone Ranger? AND Tonto?...alright, pack it up. We'll try this two states over."

There's a Lone Ranger movie on TV, and Mr. Morbid asked, so we've got a second before I give this to my dad: from 1976, the Lone Ranger #27, featuring "The Election" and "The Protectors" Written by Paul S. Newman, art by José Delbo.

In the first story, a crooked politician tries to fix Colorado's election, against honest lawyer Len Wylie--nah, the first (and seventh!) governor of Colorado was John Long Routt! Admittedly, that feels like it would've been a pain in the ass to look up in 1976, so we'll move along. The crook had been spying, stealing Wylie's schedule, so he could get there first and rent everything ahead of him. The Lone Ranger, Tonto, and Wylie stage a sting operation: some goons get the schedule, but then catch Tonto watching them. The crook falls for a fake meeting, and the Lone Ranger arrives in time after Tonto misses a meeting. Annoyingly, the Ranger doesn't arrest the crook, saying he'd get his punishment on Election Day, which hopefully didn't backfire on him: "...he's in jail, we've got photographic evidence of his crimes, the Lone Ranger AND Tonto testified against him, and he's still 40 points up in the polls?"

"The Protectors" has the pretty traditional protection/extortion racket, which is on the verge of going under after the Ranger and Tonto stop several of his schemes, and the people have turned against him. So, the extortionist makes a big push: some of his men rob a supply wagon, while others hit the bank. The next day, since the bank owner had been a 'customer' of his, the extortionist makes a big show of reimbursing the bank, out of his own pocket, which of course he does with the bank's own cash. Except, the Lone Ranger had covered the bills with green dye, which was all over the bad guys' hands.

Also this issue: the Incredible Hulk, in a Hostess Cup Cakes ad! Which were from years ago, but still feel too modern to appear in a Lone Ranger comic? Anyway, just looked up, and caught a Lone Ranger fist-fight that also involves them punching each other down a hill. Which just makes me think stuntmen were cheap as heck back then...Also, the Lone Ranger and Tonto just did that thing Batman always does, where somebody's still talking and they're long-gone. Rude. Read more!

Much grimmer than the movie, but more accurate to the source material?

Well, maybe. From 2006, the Lone Ranger #3, written by Brett Matthews, art by Sergio Cariello.

John Reid may not have been able to save his parents and brother, but he does have some impressive woodworking skills, as he carves a mold then melts his Texas Rangers badge to make a silver bullet. Before he starts his quest for vengeance, the newly masked Lone Ranger visits the grave of his mother, and in turn is visited by Tonto, who looks more like Conan here. The Ranger pistolwhips Tonto, then apparently sets fire to his house and takes off on Tonto's horse, unwilling to be deterred from his mission.

It has to be disappointing, or at least anti-climactic, when he finds his target dead, an apparent suicide. Tonto somehow got there really quickly, and does return the punch owed to him, but John seems spent, giving Tonto his silver bullet, saying he only had the one murder in him. Still, there was money there, which Tonto suggests could be put towards a horse. Elsewhere, Butch Cavendish makes something like a campaign speech, then receives a telegram from his hired killer, advising that the Lone Ranger remained. On the next page, the killer murders a woman, then has to go back when he hears a baby crying, to finish the job...that's a little dark for this. But there's a little light in the end, when at the horse lot...I'm pretty sure that's not where you buy horses, but whatever...John is introduced to the toughest horse out there, a silver-colored beauty recovering after a fight with a buffalo. Do horses fight buffalo that often? Maybe Silver's just a jerk. Read more!