Set in the old west, it stars the titular gunfighter.
Kid Colt was a nickname for Blaine Colt, a cowboy who was renowned for his quick draw and temper. He lived a relative easy and peaceful life until his father was murdered by bandits. Colt was furious and devastated with grief over his father's murder and sought out to find those that where responsible. When he finally found the murders, he challenged them to a gunfight. Kid Colt won and killed his father's killers. He was however wrongly accused of murder when he did this, even though it was a fair gunfight (which was not illegal in the Wild West during this period of time). He was branded an "Outlaw" and got a price on his head. From that point on, Colt was on the run for the law wherever he went. He traveled to many places in the West, trying to do what was right in fighting crime, but also himself trying to stay out of the long arms of the law.
Kid Colt provides example of:
- Acrofatic: Despite weighing 300 lb., the Fat Man was extremely strong and very agile. He liked to take people off-guard by running, doing a somersault, and taking them out, just like a bowling ball and the pins.
- Arch-Enemy: Iron Mask, a villain clad in bulletproof armour, fought Kid Colt more times than any other foe.
- Battle Boomerang: The Fat Man who is an expert in the use of his boomerang. In his first appearance, he is able to draw and throw a boomerang fast enough to knock Colt's gun out of his before he can fire, and then nail Colt in his left shoulder before he can draw his second gun.
- The Blacksmith: Iron Mask was a blacksmith who built himself a suit of bulletproof armour.
- Boomerang Comeback: Almost without fail, the Fat Man would throw a boomerang past someone, who would laugh at his obvious miss. They would continue to laugh until the boomerang came whizzing up behind them and either knocked them our, or knocked their guns out of their hands.
- Bulletproof Vest: Iron Mask, Kid Colt's Arch-Enemy, was a blacksmith who constructed a suit of bulletproof armour for his career of crime. Initially consisting of just a helmet and chest piece, he kept adding to it following his encounters with Colt until it was a full suit.
- Circus of Fear: Kid Colt twice fought groups known as the 'Circus of Crime'. In #106, he was forced to join a small a small travelling circus that visited small towns and used their circus skills to rob them. And #127, Colt's Archenemy Iron Mask organized a Legion of Doom consisting of several other foes of Kid Colt (Bennington Brown, Dr. Danger, and the Fat Man) who posed as circus performers to rob the inauguration ball of the new governor of Arizona.
- Cool Horse: Like all Marvel western heroes, Kid Colt had a cool horse. His was named Steel.
- Cut the Fuse: In #109, the Kid demonstrates his Improbable Aiming Skills by firing a shot that severs the burning fuse on a cannon, in what the narration describes as "a feat of marksmanship unequalled in recorded history".
- The Drifter: A wanted man, Kid Colt keeps drifting from town to town so the law doesn't catch up with him.
- Fat Bastard: The Fat Man is 300 lb. of bad attitude. A combination if Acrofatic, Stout Strength, and a Battle Boomerang make him far more dangerous than most people assume at first.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: A favourite tactic the Fat Man was to take a run-up and then somersault into people, flattening them like bowling pins.
- Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: In Rawhide Kid #49, Master of Disguise the Masquerader spies Kid Colt cleaning himself in a river and takes the opportunity to steal the outlaw's clothes to use as another disguise. When he gets to Willow Flats he dresses up as Colt, robs the payroll express and shoots the town's sheriff, Joseph Clay, the Rawhide Kid's brother.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Kid Colt had a notoriously short fuse. It was his temper that got him in the situation where he was branded an outlaw, it would continue to plague him throughout his career: landing him in scrapes that more level-headed heroes could have walked away from.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Kid Colt was branded an outlaw for killing his father's killers in a fair gunfight. (Some more recent retellings have had Colt admit that he is not sure if it was a fair fight or not, as he doesn't remember if he gave them a chance to draw.) Wherever he travels in the Wild West, he is a still a wanted man, and has to keep looking over shoulder for lawmen and Bounty Hunters.
- Hollywood Magnetism: The parts of Dr. Danger's shtick that weren't archived through Ventriloquism were done through the use of magnets (or, as one commentator put it, "you know, those really powerful magnets you can only find in comic books"). The effects he achieves would be impossible with 21st century technology, let alone 19th.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Bennington Brown is a skilled hypnotist who can use his power on anyone he can make eye contact with. He can use his abilities to create illusions, slow down the reactions of others so he can seem to outdraw them, and prevent his victims from pressing charges against him.
- Identical Stranger: In Gunsmoke Western #64, Kid Colt encounters a fugitive named Sandy "Baby-Face" Smith, who looks uncannily like him. So much so, in fact, that Smith is able to steal Colt's distinctive calfskin vest and white hat and pass himself off as Kid Colt. Colt is only able to establish his true identity by demonstrating that he is the superior gunslinger.
- Inspector Javert: A recurring antagonist is Marshal Sam Hawk, a.k.a. 'the Manhunter', an honest lawman who was dogging Colt's trail because he honestly believed him to be an outlaw.
- Knife-Throwing Act: Blade Benson was the knife thrower in the Circus of Crime who fought Kid Colt in Kid Colt, Outlaw #106.
- Legion of Doom: Kid Colt was one of the few Marvel western heroes to have enough recurring enemies to make this trope possible. In #127, Colt's Arch-Enemy Iron Mask (a blacksmith in bulletproof armour) recruited Bennington Brown (a hypnotist), Dr. Danger (a ventriloquist and master of magnets) and the Fat Man (a Fat Bastard skilled in the use of the boomerang) to form a Circus of Fear to stage a crime wave in Phoenix, where they naturally ran into Colt.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In #39, Colt encounters three bandits pulling a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax by pretending to be the legendary 'Ghost of Midnight Mountain'. During the fight, Colt gets knocked off the edge of the cliff and is holding on to a branch. One of the outlaws tries to drop a rock on his head, but suddenly sees someone that terrifies him and he falls off the cliff. When Colt reached the top of the cliff, he finds the other two paralyzed with terror. Colt rides away, wondering if the legends of Midnight Mountain really are true.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: The Scorpion wore a derringer fitted with a silencer on his forearm, with string leading from the trigger to his finger. With his hands gloved and his sleeves and jacket long, he would seem to "sting" targets merely by pointing at them.
- Outlaw Town: In Kid Colt, Outaw #101, Marshal Sam Hawk's daughter convinces Kid Colt to rescue him from a town run by outlaws.
- Pirate: In #109, Colt battle the Barracuda and his crew: pirates who prey on coastal towns on the Gulf of Mexico.
- Prison Episode: In #118, Kid Colt is duped into being arrested and sent to state prison. Once there he find himself Working on the Chain Gang with three villains he had sent there: "Bull" Barton, Dr. Danger, and the Scorpion.
- Ruthless Modern Pirates: Possibly stretching the definition of 'modern', but in #109 Kid Colt fought a pirate called the Barracuda and his crew who were preying on coastal settlements along the Gulf of Mexico. Set in the latter half of the 19th century, the Barracuda and his men sail a modern ship, dress in modern seafarers' clothes, use modern weapons, and invoke none of the tropes of A Pirate 400 Years Too Late (apart from attempting to make the Kid Walk the Plank).
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: In #39, Colt encounters three outlaws taking advantage of the reputation Midnight Mountain has for being haunted by pretending to be the Ghost of Midnight Mountain to scare people away from their hideout.
- Stout Strength: Much like the Kingpin, the Fat Man is a large mass of muscle, with nice layer of fat on top for decorative purposes. He is much stronger than an average sized man, and can throw and take a punch with the best of him.
- The Trope Kid: Or 'The Kid Trope' in this case.
- Ventriloquism: Dr. Danger was a highly skilled ventriloquist who combined throwing his voice with his mastery of magnet to convince people that he had a partner called 'the Invisible Gunman'.
- Walk the Plank: In #109, pirate captain Barracuda attempts to make Colt walk the plank after he catches him stowing away on his ship.
- Working on the Chain Gang: In #118, Kid Colt is duped into being arrested and sent to state prison. Once there he find himself working on a chain gang alongside three villains he had sent there: "Bull" Barton, Dr. Danger, and the Scorpion.
- Young Gun: Of all of Marvel's western heroes, Colt was the most impulsive and immature.
