The main difference between westerns and comic book movies is that westerns are limited by not being able to have special powers or magical abilities.
I don't know, I can remember Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, and Gene Autry doing some pretty fantastic things when I was a kid, things that, in the real world, border on superhuman. Look at the movie "Rustler's Rhapsody," made several years ago, and you might get some idea of what I mean. The things that Rex O'Herlihan did for laughs, like his phenomenal shooting, or his outlandish wardrobe and moral code*, were quite common in the old B westerns, and no one ever questioned it. No one ever wondered how a wandering cowboy, with no obvious source of employment, could afford a champion race horse or expensive guns and equipment, any more than we question why someone from a planet with a red sun can fly, lift tremendous weights, and in impervious to bullets. The Lone Ranger was as much a superhero, in his own universe, as Batman ever was in his, and they both even wore masks and had secret identities.
Call him Sir Lancelot, Hopalong Cassidy, or Captain America, the character and his motivations are essentially the same, and their stories are, basically, interchangeable.
* For those who might be interested, the code of ethics of the B movie cowboy include:
1. Live each day with courage
2. Take pride in your work
3. Always finish what you start
4. Do what has to be done
5. Be tough, but fair
6. When you make a promise, keep it
7. Ride for the brand
8. Talk less and say more
9. Remember that some things aren’t for sale
10. Know where to draw the line.
There were others, but those were the most common.
