Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Exit Stage Left: Kid Eternity #18

This was the final issue of the Kid Eternity series, and the final appearance of the charater during the Golden Age. The first story involves an escaped criminal arranges to have a lookalike arrested in his place. When his new employer gets suspicious, he is tossed down an elevator shaft. Kid Eternity called on Friar Tuck and John Sevier (I'm glad they provided some background on him) to help take out the gangster. It's fun stuff with some nice Crime genre violence. The middle story is Peachy, a humour strip. This one is pretty good, as it features one of those Three's Company type misunderstanding. Peachy is concerned that her Dad is always beating her Mom - turns out it was only at bridge.

The final tale is about a ship that was sabotage by its owner to collect insurance. Kid Eternity rescues the Captain and brings the owner to justice with the help of Captain Ahab (apparently he could be used because Melville's writing 'brought him to life), the Greek God of the Northerly Wind and Napoleon's top swordsman. Obviously, the were reaching to come up with interesting dead people at this point. The brilliant move at the end of the story was bringing all of the drowned sailors back to seek revenge. Between Hit Comics and his eponymous series, Kid Eternity appeared in over 100 stories during the 1940s. After this issue, he would not be seen again until 1972, as a reprint. It was a clever idea that apparently outstayed its welcome, but at least Kid Eternity went out on a solid note.

1 comment:

joe dec said...

I loved the KID ETERNITY reprints in the DC 100 page specials. Always creative stories and some darn fine art work. OUTSTAYED ITS WELCOME!!!! Kid Eternity is welcomed to my collection anytime.