Kid Eternity was a big star over at Quality Comics during the 40s, being featured in Hit Comics #25-60 (D'42-S'49) and 18 issues of his own titles (Spr'46-N'49). A good career in anyone's eyes. In fact, based on popularity and longevity, he should have been in the Freedom Fighters.

 

The Kid was actually dead, killed before his rightful time and brought back with the ability to become an invisible spirit and travel back and forth from the Afterlife with his "guardian angel" Mister Keeper. More importantly he could summon any person from history, myth or legend with his help by saying, "Eternity!"

 

DC reprinted several of his adventures in Superman #245 (Ja'72), Superboy #185 (My'72), Wanted #4 (D'72), and Detective #439 (Ma'74) and #444 (Ja'75) so I was familar with him. His stories were both light-hearted and dark at the same time with great artwork. I enjoyed the various personages he called on including the then recently deceased like Thomas Edison and Will Rogers.

 

His own Bronze Age revival took place in, of all places, Shazam! #27 (F'77) where The Elders' Mercury summons to help Billy and Captain Marvel in Philadelphia to Sivana's team of historical villains brought back by his Reincarnation Machine. (The next issue would see it used to ressurect Black Adam!) Kid E summons the appropiate historical heroes and with a surprise helper, defeats Sivana!

 

I didn't realize it at the time but they had a Quality hero arrive on Earth-S where the Fawcett heroes lived. Of course with the Kid's powers, he could have been visiting but Sivana knew who he was.

 

Later in Captain Marvel's excellent and under-rated World's Finest series in 1982, the Marvel Family are aided in several adventures by legendary helpers. In #279 (My'82), he was discovered doing this and Captain Marvel Junior says that he's his brother!!

 

In #280 (Ju'82), Shazam reveals that after their parent's deaths, the two brothers (Freddie and Christopher or Kit Freeman) are seperated to live with their grandfathers. At the same time that Captain Nazi killed his grandfather and crippled Freddie, leading Captain Marvel to share his power and create Captain Marvel Jr., Kit and his grandfather were attacked by a Nazi sub, killing both. When Kit arrived at the Pearly Gates, Mister Keeper and Shazam (who was helping out because of the war) discovered their mistake. Freddie was supposed to die and Kit live, so to compensate him, he was given the powers of Kid Eternity.

 

So this celestial error caused two heroes to emerge, despite being published by two different publishers!

 

Kid stuck around the SHAZAM! feature after this until it ended in Adventure Comics Digest #498. He didn't appear during the Crisis on either Earth-X or Earth-S. After that there was a Kid Eternity book that involved the Lords of Chaos and Order and that Kid was killed off in JSA #1. The less I think about that, the better! 

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  • Wait a minute -- Kid Eternity was killed off? But wasn't he a Vertigo character for a while? I had the miniseries and the ongoing ...
  • I think the total of my experience with Kid Eternity was his origin reprint from Secret Origins in the early '70s. I don't even remember the new one getting killed in that first issue of JSA, but I do have it. He didn't leave much of an impression. Doing a little research though, I learned that version has been brought back to life (shocking I know) in the Teen Titan's book by Brother Blood back in 2006.

    I always did like the idea of his power, being able to bring people through time to help him out.
  • Now that you mention it, I remember A Kid Eternity in Teen Titans but I don't know if it's supposed to be the Vertigo one or a new one!

    Completely forgot about Secret Origins. Thanks and it shows how popular his reprints must have been. Surprised he wasn't revived sooner.
  • The one brought back in Teen Titans is supposed to be the same one who was killed in JSA.
  • So a Quality hero and a Fawcett hero turned out to be brothers in a comic published by DC?! That is a weird little nugget of info. Was it because they both co-incidently had the same surname, originally? So once they are in the same universe, they just have to be related?

    Now that you mentioned it, I think I remember Kid Eternity dying at the start of JSA.

    Of course, my chief interest in Kid Eternity is the Vertigo three-parter written by one G Morrison esq. Sadly, I only have the first 2 parts (as yet unread), and I'm still looking out for the third...

    I'm guessing they must have been ok if Clark went on to buy the ongoing series...
  • Actually, Kid Eternity's real name wasn't given in the Quality series. I think that they were linked solely due to the similarity of their origins.
  • If you’d’ve asked me before I read this thread how many Kid eternity stories I have read, I would have said one, but reading this discussion reminded me of a few more. The one I remember is the one from Detective Comics #439, but I doubt I’ve read it more than twice. (Incidentally, I still think it’s a crime that the lead story by steve Englehart was left out of the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told anthology, but I digress.) I’ve read the stories from Wanted #4 and Secret Origins #4 as well, and although I own the story from Shazam! #27 I’ve never read it.

    I know I picked up some Kid Eternity Vertigo issues at a quarter sale, but when the character was killed off shortly afterwards in JSA I never bothered to read them. Apparently there was a three-issue series from 1991 as well as a 16-issue 1993 series. Whatever issues I have are from the 1993 series, so unfortunately I don’t have the particular third issue Figs is waiting to find.

    If DC ever decides to release an Archive edition of his Golden Age run I will certainly buy it.
  • Figserello said:
    So a Quality hero and a Fawcett hero turned out to be brothers in a comic published by DC?! That is a weird little nugget of info. Was it because they both co-incidently had the same surname, originally? So once they are in the same universe, they just have to be related?
    Now that you mentioned it, I think I remember Kid Eternity dying at the start of JSA.
    Of course, my chief interest in Kid Eternity is the Vertigo three-parter written by one G Morrison esq. Sadly, I only have the first 2 parts (as yet unread), and I'm still looking out for the third...

    I'm guessing they must have been ok if Clark went on to buy the ongoing series...

    Actually, I bought the entire ongoing series from the quarter bins, and didn't understand a single bit of it. But I'll try anything if it's that cheap. (Not everything, but anything.)
  • Huh. I didn't know Kid Eternity was an import to DC. I would like to see him on the Freedom Fighters.
  • If they picked the Freedom Fighters solely on popularity, even excluding Blackhawk, the six should have been Plastic Man, Doll Man, Kid Eternity, Phantom Lady, Human Bomb and either Midnight, the Jester or their Manhunter.
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