Superheroes and cowboys are both classic hero archetypes, and these AI visualizations are hardly the first example of the two shaking hands. Sometimes, one character directly draws from the other, such as the masked vigilante Zorro serving as inspiration for Batman … both in-universe and behind the scenes. Other times, existing superheroes get the cowboy treatment, like in the 1997 DC Elseworlds story “Justice Riders,” which reimagines members of the Justice League in the Wild West.
Of course, even without such makeovers, neither DC Comics nor Marvel Comics has a shortage of heroes and villains influenced by the history and aesthetic of the Wild West. For some reason, live-action versions of cowboy-inspired superheroes have been rare, but arguably the most prominent is Sam Elliott’s Caretaker in 2007’s “Ghost Rider.” After all, he turns out to be Carter Slade, an Old West-themed Ghost Rider known in the comics as the Phantom Rider.
