We saw the
Madame X from this event some time back, but I had been looking forward to this one: from 2012,
National Comics: Eternity #1, written by Jeff Lemire, art by Cully Hamner and Derec Aucoin.
Confession: Jeff Lemire has never clicked for me. I don't know why--he had a run on
(Extraordinary) X-Men, he's had a bunch of books at Dark Horse, ooh, he had a
Moon Knight run, that one I know I didn't love. This is a perfectly reasonable updating for Kid Eternity, which really reminded me of the
iZombie TV show--which I loved, but the Kid doesn't have the supporting cast to back him up, (This issue did predate that show, though.) Here, the Kid is the survivor of a drive-by shooting, where his father was killed, but that has left him with an unusual power: he can reach into seeming Purgatory, to bring back the spirit of a recently deceased, for 24 hours. The Kid works in the police morgue, and tries to use his powers to solve crimes; despite the fact that he's barely doing his actual job, he keeps seeing a weird guy in the real world and Purgatory, and oh yeah, this recently murdered ghost is kind of a prick.
While the Kid puts together the clues, and keeps his job for another day, the weird guy introduces himself as Mr. Keeper, and tells him he'll have to learn the rules. He can't or won't tell him said rules, that's a rule right there...I already hate him. And, for good measure there's a cliffhanger ending, seemingly setting up the next episode, but this is like a pilot that didn't go to series. Man, Kid Eternity is a hook I want to like, but the
Grant Morrison/Duncan Fegredo mini has a massive retcon that breaks the idea of the character, and is a bit too murky for its own good; while
Nocenti's version was interesting but I don't think readers were ready for it in 1993.
Hmmm. Not a bad start. This one certainly had potential, so I'm curious where Lemire would've taken the character & concept.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I don't remember Keeper being so actively unhelpful like this version is. Maybe he'd eventually soften up & stop being as much of a dick as he is now, but probably not.
I never read Morrison's version, but I am aware of the changes he made, especially to Mr. Keeper & how he was, if not outright stated, was implied to be a pedophile, so no likie there. Totally unnecessary change.
I did own the 1st issue of Ann Nocenti's run tho, and I liked what she was laid down to that point. I think her version was the better Vertigo version to go with. Too bad most people didn't care for it.
You didn't like Lemire's Moon Knight? I loved the covers of course, but also his story overall. It certainly played with the ambiguousness of whether or not Khonshu was real or a product of his mental illness, but I can see why he wasn't everyone's cup of tea. At least he wasn't Max Bemis.
Speaking of Lemire, I only really have enjoyed his Black Hammer stuff, and if you haven't gotten to immersed into that world, please do yourself a favor and go do it. You'll be glad you did.
I read The Terrifics last year, which lemire wrote the first 14 or so issues of. It was definitely the bit of his work I liked the least, but I couldn't say for sure I liked it better than Gene Luen Yang, who took over after him.
ReplyDeleteI gave up on Lemire's Descender after 8 or 10 issues. It was too slow-paced and the things about the story I was interested in didn't seem to be what Lemire wanted to write about.
He’s definitely an acquired taste depending on what he’s working on/writing about.
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