Friday, October 19, 2018

Dial E For Eternity--MURDER Is The Mother Of Invention!!

Today, we have a Kid Eternity tale so chock full of legal, ethical and moral conundrums, it feels more like a 1980s piece than 1948.

We start with Kid Eternity peeking in windows, looking for someone who needs his help.


Really, Kid? You can't wait for actually trouble to crop up?

Anyway, what's wrong with our young scientist?

You'd think so, Keeper--but Kid isn't taking "no" for an answer!


And here comes the help--lots of it!

Hermann von Helmhotlz!!

But he's going to need help!


Charles Steinmetz!! This is his second summoning--and this time, he's going to do more than throw wrenches at alien machinery!!

Except...


Wilhelm Röntgen!! That's three top physicists called in. This will be solved in no time at all, then?

Eventually, maybe?!?

OK, we have to stop and ask--is this really "your" invention anymore, Pierce? You sat by and watched for two and a half hours--it looks like you didn't participate in any way--as three of the greatest scientists in history "solved the problem" and finished the invention for you!! This seems to go a bit beyond collaboration--and you're taking all the credit and the money!!

I mean, if I were writing a comic, and couldn't finish it, and called in Will Eisner and Jack Kirby and Darwyn Cooke to finish it for me, do I still get to call it mine? If I made a movie, and couldn't figure out how to end it, and Kid called in Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and John Huston to complete it while I stood around and watched, can I really say that it's my movie?!?

Anyway, Pierce's problems are solved, and his amazing X-ray device will make him rich. Except...

He's working for Magnus Corp? Will he invent the Metal Men?!?

Oops!!

It seems that "work you do while employed by us belongs to us" clauses were around back in 1948, not just more modern and evil times!

And while, yes, they are kind of questionable, ethically...

...Pierce knew about it! And still used the company laboratory to make it! So you should have known this was happen!!

Well, there's only one solution:



Steal it, using violent physical assault!! Which kind of counter-balances any sort of moral argument you had against Magnus.

An opportunistic gangster is patrolling the streets, looking for good opportunities:

So, the next step--willingly throw in with bank robbers!!


And they clean out the vault!!


And innocent employees are going to be blamed!!

But, greedy crooks can't stop at just one bank...

So, this town is small enough that it only has two banks, but it can support an entire criminal gang?

The best part is...

...now Pierce has graduated from assault and bank robbery to cop killing!!

Aww, but he's all upset about it!

Well, Minelli knows how to work the device now, so who needs Pierce?


Neanderthal!! This is the second time Kid has summoned an unnamed Neanderthal (as opposed to the times he summoned an unnamed cave man, or a cave man named Og). And here's something I bet you didn't know...

Neanderthals had bullet-proof skulls!!

Well, our primitive takes care of the crooks, so the story is over, right?

But Pierce doesn't repent, and won't turn himself in!

Man, this guy is kind of a train wreck, huh? Guess we need some more story to straighten him out!

Great--is everybody at this company morally bankrupt?!?



Jeez Louise, you were going to straight up shoot this guy in the back?!?!? What the hell is wrong with you, Pierce?!?

Well, that act of violence seems to have shocked him to his senses--finally. But can he get the invention back?

Daedalus!!


And so...


Wait, wait wait.

You mean the banks funds weren't insured?!? And Magnus Electronics kept 100% of their funds in that bank--in cash?!?!? What the hell--are you an electronics firm, or a money laundering front for a drug cartel?!?!

You know, that's good and all. But Pierce did physically assault Mr. Graspe, and fire a gun at him, and willingly participated in a bank robbery where a police officer was killed. So whether or not Magnus presses charges is just the smallest, least important part of the legal jeopardy Pierce is facing!

As to the invention?

Pierce, you can't relinquish a claim you never had! Nice try.

And Magnus was so nice, none of this story ever needed to happen! All the violence and mayhem? Pointless!

So now Pierce can get rich while sitting on death row!

"Go straight"?!?! He's going to prison!!!

This was the 66th Kid Eternity story, and our standings are...

Abu 1
Achilles 4
Adam 1
Antony, Marc 2
Apollo 1
Aramis 2
Arnold, Benedict 1
Arthur, King 2
Astor, John Jacob 1
Athos 2
Atlas 3
Attila The Hun 1
Attucks, Crispin 1
Baker, Lafayette 1
Barry's father 1
Barton, Clara 1
Bernhardt, Sarah 1
Bertillon, Alphonse 2
Blackhawk 1
Bloodhounds (Legree's) 1
Bluebeard 1
Bolivar, Simon 1
Boone, Daniel 1
Bowie, Jim 1
Boyd, Belle 1
Brady, Diamond Jim 1
Breitbart, Zishe 1
British Tank crew 1
Bucephalus 2
Bunyan, Paul 3
Byron, George Gordon 2
Caesar, Octavian 1
Cagliostro, Alessandro 1
Calhoun, John C. 1
Canary, Martha “Calamity” 1
Cannon, John W. 1
Capulet, Juliet 1
Carden, Foster 1
Carpenter, Daniel 1
Cave Man 1
Cherry Sisters 1
Christian, Fletcher 1
Clancy, Patrick 1
Cleopatra 1
Cody, “Buffalo” Bill 2
Colt, Samuel 1
Columbus, Christopher 2
Corbett, Jim 3
Corcoran, Peter 1
Crockett, Davy 1
Cronson, Gerald 1
Crusoe, Robinson 1
Custer, George Armstrong 1
D'artagnan 2
d'Aubigny. Julie 1
Daedalus 1
Davis, Richard Harding 1
de Bergerac, Cyrano 2
de Leon, Ponce 1
de Rais, Gilles 1
Decatur, Stephen 1
Discus Thrower 1
Dockstader, Lew 1
Dracula 1
Drake, Sir Francis 1
Dupin, C. Auguste 1
Edison, Thomas 1
Emery 1
Ericson, Leif 2
Fagin 1
Fairbanks, Douglas Sr. 1
Faraday, Michael 1
Fink, Mike 1
Frankenstein's Monster 1
Franklin, Ben 1
Galahad 1
Geronimo 2
Goliath 1
Gotch, Frank 1
Gothicus, Claudius 1
Grant, Ulysses S. 1
Graymalkin 1
Greb, Harry 1
Griffiths, Albert 1
Gulliver, Lemuel 1
Hamilton, Alexander 1
Hatfield, John 1
Hathorne, John 1
Hauser, Kaspar 1
Henry, Patrick 1
Hercules 2
Hermann, Alexander 1
Hickathrift, Tom 1
Hickok, Wild Bill 1
Hippocrates 1
Hodges, Joe 1
Holmes, Sherlock 4
Hopkins, Matthew 1
Horatius Cocles 1
Houdini, Harry 3
Houston, Sam 1
Hyde, Edward 1
Hyer, Tom 1
Ismail, Yusuf 1
Jackson, Andrew 1
James, Jesse 1
Javert 1
Jeffries, Jim 1
Johnson, Martin 1
Jones, John Paul 1
Jove 2
Kamehameha 1
Khan, Genghis 2
Kidd, William 1
Lafayette, General 1
Lancelot 1
Laughing Cavalier 1
Laveran, Charles 1
Leander 3
Lee, Robert E. 1
Legree, Simon 1
Leonidas 2
Light Brigade 1
Lincoln, Abraham 1
Lister, Joseph 2
Marable, Fate 1
Masterson, Bat 1
Mercury 5
Merlin 1
Mesmer, Franz 1
Milo Of Croton 2
Minutemen 1
Mix, Tom 1
Montague, Romeo 1
Montezuma 1
Morgan, Henry 1
Mounties 1
Mulgrew, Jason 1
Murphy, Charles 1
Napoleon 1
Nation, Carrie 1
Neanderthal 2
Neptune 1
Nightingale, Florence 1
Noah 1
Nobel, Alfred 1
Nobody 1
North Wind 1
Nostradamus 2
O'Brien, David 1
Oakley, Annie 1
Og 1
Orpheus 1
Osceola 1
Paddock, Charley 1
Pasteur, Louis 1
Penelope 1
Perseus 1
Pheidippides 2
Pied Piper 1
Pinkerton, Allan 1
Plastic Man 1
Pocahontas 1
Porthos 3
Post, Wiley 1
Prometheus 1
Quixote, Don 1
Revere, Paul 1
Richard the LionHeart 1
Rin-Tin-Tin 2
Robespierre, Maximilien 1
Robin Hood 3
Roc 1
Rogers' Rangers 2
Röntgen, Wilhelm 1
Russell, Lillian 1
Rustum 1
Ryan, Paddy 1
Samson 3
Sandow, Eugen 1
Sayers, Tom 1
Schleyer, Johann 1
Serra, Junipero 1
Siegfried 1
Silver, Long John 2
Skunk, Jimmy 1
Socrates 1
Solomon 1
Stanley, Henry 1
Steinmetz, Charles 2
Stogie 1
Sullivan, John L. 2
Tecumseh 1
Tell, William 1
Thalfi 1
Thor 3
Thumb, Tom 1
Thurston, Howard 1
Tiglath IV 1
Tuck, Friar 1
Tut-ankh-amen 1
Twain, Mark 1
Ulysses 1
Uncas 1
Vercingetorix 1
Villa, Pancho 1
Villon, Francois 1
von Helmholtz, Hermann 1
Vulcan 1
Washington, George 3
Watson, John H 1
Webster, Daniel 2
Whittington, Richard 1
Xanthippe 1
Zbyzko, Stanislaus 1

NEXT--Les Miserables meets The Maltese Falcon, Egypt-style!!

From Kid Eternity #11 (1948)

No comments:

Post a Comment