Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities National Comics...

... a name pulled out of the past to be one of the new DCU's next titles! It'll apparently consist of oversized one-shots featuring characters who haven't been 'updated' yet.

First up: Kid Eternity! I'm pretty excited about this- they're giving him yet another origin, but at least it isn't similar to what appears to be happening with poor Lilith.

This time around, Christopher Freeman will be a coroner who uses his ability to help murdered people solve their own murders. Not a bad set-up. The cover image in the solicit shows Kid E. waking up with a toe tag on his huge bare feet and his trademark shades. Apparently he's in the morgue.

Kid E.'s issue is to be written by Jeff Lemire. Maybe he'll bring Kit with him to JL Dark.

Waiting in the wings are Madame X (as in Xanadu? I don't know.), Rose and Thorn, and Looker (from THE OUTSIDERS- well, once upon a time).

That sounds pretty interesting. There are scores of characters they could use to keep this series going.

I went looking for more information and found this :

MADAME X, written by Rob Williams with artist Trevor Hairsine and a cover by Fiona Staples, starts off with a clear vision of who did it — but the real challenge is trying to prove it. As an upstart law firm’s psychic consultant, MADAME X uses tarot cards to divine the truth behind cases, helping skeptical lawyers gather evidence that will hold up in court.


ROSE AND THORN, written by Tom Taylor with artwork by Neil Googe and a cover by Ryan Sook, is a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde story about Rose Canton, a good girl with a very bad side: Thorn, an ass-kicking femme fatale out for revenge.


LOOKER, written by Ian Edington with art by Mike S. Miller and a cover by Guillem March, tells the story of Emily Briggs, a model who loved looking at herself in the mirror—until the day she couldn’t. Turned into a vampire, LOOKER prowls the dark underbelly of NYC’s elite modeling world, hunting all predators, including the creature that spawned her.


More vampires! Ugh. We need something new besides vampires and zombies.... although the idea of an ex-model taking out her exploiters is sort of poetic, in a gory way.

Kid Eternity and Madame X sound like the most interesting ones to me.

I am so stoked about the National Comics....I am definitely buying! Eternity yes!! Madame X yes!!! Rose and the Thorn yes!! and Looker YESSSSSSS!!! perfect!

It's weird to me how a minor 90s plot development (from a not very well-respected Outsiders series - though I liked it) about Looker turning into a vampire has been such an integral part of her character ever since.

Instead of being a sub-plot that was dropped (like most things from that series), vampirism has informed every one of Looker's appearances since then. And now it's her whole character in the DCnU.

Just seems weird to me.

But in truth, it probably is a better hook than what Looker had going on before - plain jane bank teller turns into beautiful super-hero with THE most so-awful-it's-amazing costume in the entire DCU.

This was actually a very popular way to format comic books during the early Golden Age. David McKay (King Features) had Feature Book, United Features had Single Series and Dell Comics had Four Color Comics. Basically, each issue is a one-shot, but they are all tied together under a single banner. In the Golden Age, it was a huge success (Four Color Comics being the long running comic book periodical by # of comics).

I've always liked the concept and wonder if could succeed in the modern era. The best part about it is you can just buy whatever issues interest you. (Also the worst part sales wise).

For me, the Eternity issue by Lemire & Hamner is certainly intriguing enough to try. Really more for Lemire's story and Cully Hamner's art than anything, since Kid Eternity is one of the most oft-butchered characters in the DC pantheon (and THAT'S saying something).

A few things to keep in mind:

- $3.99 price point. DC is expecting sales to be lower than normal.

- Besides Lemire & Hamner, most of the creators involved are not well known. That isn't a bad thing at all, but it also lends a certain amount of 'not sure what you're going to get'.

- National Comics is an old Quality Comics series. I wonder if they'll be using more Quality Comics titles & trademarks to lock them in? Bozo the Robot, anyone?

Is it just me or does this version of Kid Eternity sound a bit like the premise of Pushing Daisies?

Or the original premise for iZombie, before they went in a different direction.

I am looking forward to this!