Book of the Week: The Complete Kid Eternity; Volume 3

 As a long time comic book reader and superhero fan (since the 1970s), some of my favorite heroes were popular long before I was ever born. One of those that I found was "Kid Eternity. Kid Eternity is a teenage super-hero with the ability to summon historical, fictional and mythological figures as his champions. Fortunately, the original 1940s stories have been reprinted and one of them is the Book of the Week! I recently enjoyed The Complete Kid Eternity: Volume 3 (E) by Gwandanaland Comics #1215-E   

ABOUT THIS VOLUME - The Complete Kid Eternity; Volume 3 -  This volume collects Kid Eternity stories from issues #1 through #5 of his Own comic book.   Gwandanaland and Midcentury Comics has his complete stories --- the biggest and best KID ETERNITY collection in print! KID ETERNITY appeared in 36 issues of Hit Comics, plus his own 18-issue series.

WHO IS KID ETERNITY? - Kid Eternity is a comic book superhero created by Otto Binder and Sheldon Moldoff who debuted in Quality Comics' Hit Comics #25 in 1942. The greatest gift ever bestowed upon any mortal has been extended to a youthful American boy.....KID ETERNITY!...He can become invisible! He can change to any character in history or mythology...merely by pronouncing the word “Eternity”....Thus came his own name, KID ETERNITY, and with him, on his Earthly travels, is that humorous character from “the other world,” The Keeper!

ORIGIN AND ABILITIES

• The Afterlife Error: Originally a nameless boy killed alongside his grandfather when a German U-boat sank their boat during World War II, he reached the afterlife 75 years too early due to a clerical error by a supernatural bureaucrat named Mister Keeper. 

• The Magic Word: To correct the mistake, Keeper sent him back to Earth with ghostly abilities and the power to summon any historical, mythological, or fictional figure to aid him simply by speaking the word "Eternity." 

• Abilities: Flight, intangibility, invisibility, and the necromantic summoning of champions like Hercules, historical leaders, or literary figures

In 2012, DC Comics, under a banner of "National Comics," published a one-shot story of Kid Eternity that hooked me. It was well written and illustrated, and was a nice revival of the character. Sadly, it only lasted that one issue. However, that ignited my desire to read all the classic Kid Eternity stories from the 1940s.

(Image: the 2012 One-shot that unfortunately didn't kick off a new series, but I thought it was great!)