Wait, Deadman is a publicly known figure? How?...ghost writer?

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. Read more!