TEX's BACK-ISSUE QUEST EPISODE 8

Well hello there my brothers!!!

    I hope it's all fried, dyed and laid to the side!! It's all great in TEX's home state! It's time for some some Golden-Age, back-issue-type cheer!

It's my copy of Hit Comics #25 from Quality Comics, published in 1942!! This comic features the 1st appearances of Kid Eternity and Mr. Keeper!! Kid Eternity is Kit Freeman, a child killed by a German U Boat during WWII. Upon reaching the Pearly Gates, it was found that Kit died 75 years before his time. As compensation, Mr. Keeper, the angel responsible for the clerical error, returned to him Earth with  new powers, including invisibility, intangibility and the ability to summon any historical or mythological character to his aid by speaking the word, "ETERNITY".  Mr. Keeper tags along to guide his new charge.

This comic isn't easy to find anymore AT ALL. I am stoked to have it in my collection. On to the fun facts!

FUN FACT 1: In 1956, Quality ceased publication and was considered defunct.

FUN FACT 2: DC bought all of Quality's intellectual properties, even though some had already gone into the public domain - including Kid Eternity.

FUN FACT 3: In the 1970s, DC revived Kid Eternity, but did not put him on Earth X (where the other Quality properties dwelled), rather he was retconned into the Marvel Family on Earth S, which was populated by the intellectual properties that DC had bought from Fawcett Comics. This took place in Shazam vol 1, #27.

FUN FACT 4: Kid Eternity actually was given no name, neither was his grandfather. DC chose the name, Christopher "Kit" Freeman, the brother of Freddy Freeman AKA Captain Marvel, Jr..

FUN FACT 5: Sheldon Moldoff is the cover artist - it was previously thought to be Mac Raboy. 

    So, I've been reading this craziness, that is Grant Morrison's take on Kid Eternity:

I'm not loving it. It's painted frenetically by Duncan Fredo, which, for me, takes a lot away from the story when you can barely tell what's happening in the panels. Morrison takes a lot of license here and changes Kid Eternity from a wandering adventurer with heaven-given powers, to a molested kid, duped by the Lords of Chaos in a wild plot to take down the Lords of Order, because humanity needs chaos (and death, and destruction and catastrophe) to evolve. Good and evil are flipped on their heads. 

Nope. Didn't love it. At all. 

A few years ago, DC's New 52 offered up an updated version that was much, much better:

This Kid Eternity, was Christopher Freeman who, along with his father, was shot and killed. He returned from the dead with the power to communicate with the newly dead. He gets a job at the morgue and uses his powers to track down his murderer. Jeff Lemire rocked this one. I hope to see it return someday.

ENJOY!!!

Thanks for reading!!