He began his life in comics with his death. He and his grandfather died when in 1941 a Nazi u-boat sank his fishing vessel. Shortly thereafter he was brought before an eternal power figure who informed him that he was taken 75 years too soon, a mistake had been made. To balance this problem, the kid, initial stories left him unnamed, is given a sort of existence to share with an resident of eternity, Mr. Keeper, who was the one who made the error that led to the kid's death. In times of trouble he call say the word eternity and a ghostly form of a morally good person of the past will appear. Whether he seeks the wisdom or some other talents of the ghost, it is his role to pursue the cause of good. He was similar therefore to the Captain Marvel family, where their form changes from common man or woman, into a nearly godlike powerful hero. But the ability to tell a story and call upon the wisdom or power of a famous person of ages gone by was something that should have allowed some fine stories. And while some were cute, some were funny, they rarely rose above the common or average. Despite this, I liked the character.
When the company that produced Kid Eternity comics went belly up, DC Comics bought the library of characters. They also bought the library of Fawcett Comics. When DC created a setting for all of their characters it was the wisdom of the day to place characters from outside of DC's mainstream upon worlds that could be called, alternate earths. In the case of Kid Eternity, while his publisher, Quality, was placed upon Earth-Quality, and in different form, Earth-X. Kid Eternity however was made to be a part of Earth S, the earth featuring Captain Marvel and assorted characters. It was due to the similarly to the Marvel family.
And he wasn't much used. Then Grant Morrison and Duncan Fegredo revised the character, making him in control of demonic forms who take on the appearance of the good persons called to appear, and also, the innocent origin now featured a paedophile Grandfather, and he is not taken to a heavenly site to explain his false death, and return, but a pocket dimension where Lords of Chaos gift the kid with powers, to serve their needs. And over time, he realizes both his need to become heroic, and his roots as a completely nameless and faceless common man.
The point of my writing this is that I like this character, and I think most people don't sense how great he might become. He can call upon other worldly beings to serve him. He can turn invisible, and apparently, is able to be, as has been shown, respawned and alive again. He can draw upon persons from millennia back, and the stories could be far better, if only the people creating the stories weren't limited by the sense of what has happened before. Based on his respawning, he can be almost a celestial joy rider playing chicken with danger. He can go back into the time stream and delve information that leads to greater human knowledge of events. There is a parlor game from the intellectual world where in you are asked What Great People from History would you most like to meet? Well, imagine with his powers, he could become fully knowlegable about esoteric events, meet the Christ, or the Buddha, perhaps. His wisdom would make him absolutely formidable, as he has millennia to draw from, and, by his powers he could take on advisors, such as Caesar or Hannibal in case of war. Christ, Buddha, or Jean Cauvin, or whoever to help him with religious, spiritual information that could elevate human existence.
I am not saying, to anyone, that I can do better. I am not able to translate the ideas I have to script. But I think it should happen that someone takes on Kid Eternity with modern sensibilities and genre busting, concept expanding stories.
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