Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Dial E For Eternity--The Chase!!

Unlike most Kid Eternity stories, this one does not begin with Kid and Mr. Keeper just loafing around, waiting for trouble to find them.

No, we begin with Emperor Palpetine Savarda congratulating his padawan student for graduating from evil school!



But it turns out that Kali is more like Kylo Ren than Darth Vader...





D'oh!!

Well, this has Keeper concerned...


Well, that is interesting.

This is the first time we've been told that evil people can get into Eternity. Yes, we've seen some people whom, by today's standards, could be considered something less than good. But Svarda is the first confirmation that bad guys get into Eternity, too.

Now, do they all share the same Eternity? Or are there separate sections for good and evil souls? Kid Eternity's cosmology has been careful to avoid specific mentions of heaven or hell or to tie itself to any particular religious doctrine.

Stay tuned...we'll have more talk about the evil dead soon enough.

Anyway, Keeper is worried about Kali...

OK, but what's the deal with the so-called black diamond?


Well, that's the (threadbare) plot for the rest of the story: Kali tries to get the black diamond, and the Kid tries to prevent him from getting it.

Oh, yeah, Kali leaves a trail of bodies...

In their first confrontation, Kali has the upper hand...until:


Porthos!!


But Kali is clever...


...and Porthos apparently has poor night vision.

So Kali has gotten away (get used to that sentence), so Kid calls upon:

Alphonse Bertillon!!

And he's successful!


Another confrontation, and (again) Kali gets away.

Time for...

Olympic champion Charley Paddock!!

Unfortunately...

Paddock can't handle tear gas!

It's time for boat-based fighting!


Sadly, the Kid gets tossed overboard as (again) Kali escapes!


Don't fret for the Kid, though...


Lord Freakin' Byron?!?

Sure enough, Byron did swim from Asia to Europe via the Hellespont! Kid Eternity teaches us something new every story!! (I'm not sure Byron was a fast enough swimmer to catch a motor boat, but just roll with it--he's a lord!!)

Finally--enough with the summoning--Kid will deal with Kali himself!!






Cold, Kid...

Wait...only Porthos and Charley Paddock actually failed. And what lesson did you learn from them--don't fight in the dark, and watch out for tear gas?!? Neither of those had the least influence on your final fight with Kali!! I mean, it's a nice moral and all--but it doesn't fit the story in the least!!

Still, we have another rarity--the story finishes with Mr. Keeper actually complimenting Kid!!

So, after 17 stories, the standing are...

Achilles 1
Antony, Marc 1
Atlas 2
Barry's father 1
Bernhardt, Sarah 1
Bertillon, Alphonse 1
Blackhawk 1
Boone, Daniel 1
Bunyan, Paul 2
Byron, George Gordon 1
Canary, Martha “Calamity” 1
Clancy, Patrick 1
Cody, “Buffalo” Bill 1
Columbus 1
Corbett, Jim 1
Custer, George Armstrong 1
de Leon, Ponce 1
Don Quixote 1
Emery 1
Galahad 1
Griffiths, Albert 1
Hercules 1
Hickok, Wild Bill 1
Holmes, Sherlock 1
Houdini 1
Hyer, Tom 1
Jackson, Andrew 1
Jeffries, Jim 1
Kidd, William 1
King Arthur 1
Leander 1
Mercury 3
Murphy, Charles 1
Napoleon 1
Nation, Carrie 1
Noah 1
Nobody 1
Osceola 1
Paddock, Charley 1
Pheidippides 1
Pinkerton, Allan 1
Plastic Man 1
Porthos 1
Prometheus 1
Robin Hood 1
Samson 2
Schleyer, Johann 1
Solomon 1
Sullivan, John L. 1
Tell, William 1
Thor 1
Thurston, Howard 1
Tiglath IV 1
Tut-ankh-amen 1
Vercingetorix 1
Washington, George 1
Webster, Daniel 1
Zbyzko, Stanislaus 1

NEXT: The Kid stars in--SHOWBOAT!!

From Kid Eternity #1 (1946)

2 comments:

anthrax2525 said...

I think the main ingredients for a writing a Kid Eternity story were access to an encyclopedia and rotgut liquor.

snell said...

Can't argue with that--Odin knows I need Wikipedia to find some of these characters he calls...