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| I've never quite figured out Kid Eternity. His basic concept has too many contradictions. Is he completely dead? You'd think so, since he hangs around Heaven (aka Eternity) with a celestial agent. But in his earthly visits he seems mortal. He can be knocked out or injured and seems to fear being killed (again?) by the latest villain. Mr Keeper is also a puzzle. He too seems able to have a physical form while on earth. He just chooses not to most of the time. Kid E's stories are rather repetitive: he gets in a jam, calls up a series of historical characters until he finds the right one, and the story ends.
Despite all this Kid Eternity appealed to enough readers to support 36 appearances in Hit Comics and 18 issues of his own mag. Years later DC got hold of him and retrofitted him into being an unknowing tool of the forces of Evil and Mr Keeper was Evil and Eternity was Evil and Evil Evil Evil. Bleah. [Oh, and his late grandpa molested him. The lovely world of DC.] |
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| There are certainly a lot of inconsistencies.
If this is issue #1 there is no origin story.
if there is one elsewhere, please point me at it.
but in this book, He not only calls on Historical characters he calls on mythical ones as well - Paul Bunyan, the Amazons. Also when usually he calls on someone for one activity, in the Amazon story, the Amazons stay around while he calls on several individuals who come and go.
I'm too much of a realist to enjoy these stories where modern day characters interact with historical characters.
Quite common in DC stories in the 50's and early 60's. Rip Hunter the best example.
These people instantly get involved in whatever happens where they are pulled to and then apparently forget about it instantly when they return to their normal times.
Too silly!
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| The origin story of Kid Eternity is in his first appearance, Hit Comics #25. Here's the link: comicbookplus.com/?dlid=14664 |
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| I posted this over at Hit Comics #25, but as it is relevant here, I will re-post it here.
[As the guy with the pointy ears would say, 'fascinating!'
There is a belief that Mac Raboy might have drawn this, and Otto Binder wrote it. And there are definitely some panels that look like Raboy.
This has been denied by 'experts.' BUT.
Over at Fawcett we have a character who is a young boy who meets a wizard who lives at the Rock of Eternity and gives a young boy a magic word which allows him to call on a number of mythical gods for his powers. So, OK. Here we have a young boy who is taken by a supernatural being to 'the beacon of Eternity' where he speaks the magic word 'Eternity' which allows him to call up mythical and historical characters who help him in his fight against evil. Hmm. Co-incidence? hard to believe.
Returning to Mac Raboy and Otto Binder,these guys are Captain Marvel and Marvel Boy alumni.
So the possibility that these two might have thought up a variation on the Fawcett formula and pitched it to Quality is not impossible.
And 'experts' can be wrong.
Further thought. Don't know how the dates gel, but suppose DC has already cancelled Captain Marvel and Fawcett has already decided to fold up its comic business and a couple of the creators get together and say well, if we can't do Captain Marvel, and Fawcett has folded, is there another way we might be able to use those concepts for another company?
Certainly, the existence of the character in the first place now makes some sense to me. And why he would be given his own title.
Fascinating!
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Link to the book: Hit Comics 25 (fiche)]
Incidentally there are no less than 3 different copies of
Kid Eternity #1 on the site! |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | Spring 1946 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: Quarterly |
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| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Kid Eternity; Mr. Keeper |
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| Content | Genre: Superhero |
| Notes | Inside front cover. |
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| Comic Story | Terror From the Tomb (12 pages) |
| Synopsis | The beastly Thuggoths, evil counterparts to the phoenix, emerge from an Egyptian tomb, and the Kid summons King Tut to re-imprison them. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Kid Eternity; Mr. Keeper; Atlas (introduction); William Tell (introduction); Johann Schleyer (introduction); Tiglath IV (introduction); King Tut-ankh-amen (introduction); The Thuggoths (villains, introduction for all, all die) |
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| Comic Story | The Land of the Amazons (11 pages) |
| Synopsis | Kid Eternity must combat Queen Matilda and her Amazon-like sisters, who were enslaving men until she was finally shown how superior men were. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Kid Eternity; Mr. Keeper; Carrie Nation (introduction); Paul Bunyan (introduction); Patrick Clancy (introduction); Queen Matilda and her Amazons (villains, introduction for all); Matilda's husband (introduction); Dr. Trask (villain, introduction) |
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| Comic Story | Blasting the Bank Robbers (8 pages) |
| Featuring | Snap Shotz |
| Content | Genre: Adventure | Characters: Snap Shotz (introduction) |
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| Text Story | There Lies the Treasure (2 pages) |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Characters: Mysto the Magician |
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| Synopsis | Football practice can get you to the head of the line. |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Children | Characters: Hinky Dooly |
| Notes | This is the first appearance of this feature. However, Hinky in this story is a slightly older boy with black hair: starting in the next issue, he is depicted as a younger boy with blonde hair. |
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| Comic Story | The Black Diamond of Doom (14 pages) |
| Synopsis | Kid Eternity chooses to finish off the evil Kali with his own fists, sending him to a watery grave. |
| Content | Genre: Superhero | Characters: Kid Eternity; Mr. Keeper; Porthos (introduction); Alphonse Bertillion (introduction); Charlie Paddock (introduction); Lord Byron (introduction); Kali (villain, introduction, death); Savarda (villain, introduction) |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
