National Comics: Eternity #1 (Sept. 2012)

Wow! Go and read this right away!

I'm becoming a devotee of Jeff Lemire's writing. This one-shot reads like a teleplay. I wouldn't be the first to speculate that for Warner Bros., DC functions as a sort of R&D lab. If so, this comic book is a great pilot. By the time you're done, you want this to be a TV show.

In a recent interview at Comic Book Resources, Jeff Lemire gave up some surprising tidbits concerning the nature of the DCnU, saying:

"As far as I know, and I might be corrected on this, the "National Comics" titles are out of continuity because I know that there is a Madame Xanadu one and it has nothing to do with the New 52 Madame Xanadu. So no, I don't make any reference to any other DC Universe character. It is a self-contained, totally out-of-continuity take on the character. We just kept the original name and stuff."

Also, he'd originally wanted to include Eternity in his Justice League Dark title.

Keep reading...

Summary

From National Comics: Eternity #1. Art by Cully Hamner and Derec Donovan.

 

Unlike the reinvented Ray, Eternity has many things in common with his past incarnations.  The DCnU Kid Eternity is never called by that super-hero name, but his "real" name is still "Christopher Freeman" (which was a DC invention, not Quality; see Cosmic Teams: Kid Eternity). He also maintains a special relationship with the dead, and meets a mysterious man called Mr. Keeper...

The story opens a year after Freeman has become "undead" at the young age of 26 (d.o.b. 10/11/84). He died after an argument with his father (a police detective), on the street. Both were the victims of a drive-by shooting, probably connected to his father's dealings. After the blackness, Christopher woke up and was pulled into the afterlife by the voice of his dead father. Chris failed to bring his father back with him.

Chris meets Mr. Keeper.

Freeman's real job intersects nicely with his supernatural abilities, he works in the morgue of the local police department, under Captain Phillips. From there, he is well positioned to solve the murders before him. When it came to examining one Darby Quinn, Chris laid down on a gurney next to the corpse and made physical contact with it. This drew him into the realm of the dead, where he found Quinn's spirit, and escorted it back to Earth. There he also encountered Mr. Keeper, who failed to deny Chris access to Quinn. Back on Earth, Quinn tried to give Freeman clues about his death, which led to his home. Clues led to one of his tenants, a girl named Sally. When he tracked her down, he learned that Quinn had tried to rape her and that she'd killed him in self defense. He convinced Sally to turn herself in and won favor with his boss, to boot, for solving the crime.

Afterwards, Freeman was again visited by Mr. Keeper who suggested that the two of them were alike, but that their "domains" were different, and Chris should be careful not to cross the line. Then he disappeared.