Kid Eternity (New 52)
Created by Jeff Lemire and Cully Hamner
NAME + ALIASES:
Christopher Freeman
KNOWN RELATIVES:
Unnamed father (deceased)
FIRST APPEARANCE:
National Comics: Eternity #1 (Sept. 2012)
SEE ALSO:
Unlike the reinvented Ray, Eternity has many things in common with his
past incarnations. The New 52 Kid Eternity is never called by
that super-hero name, but he is still "Christopher
Freeman" (which was
a DC invention, not Quality). He also maintains
a special relationship with the dead, and meets a mysterious man called
Mr. Keeper...
From National Comics: Eternity #1. Art by Cully Hamner and Derec Donovan.
The story opens a year after Freeman has become "undead" at the young age of 26 (d.o.b. 10/11/84). He died after an argument with his father (a police detective), on the street. Both were the victims of a drive-by shooting, probably connected to his father's dealings. After the blackness, Christopher woke up and was pulled into the afterlife by the voice of his dead father. Chris failed to bring his father back with him.
Freeman's real job intersects nicely with his supernatural abilities, he works in the morgue of the local police department, under Captain Phillips. From there, he is well positioned to solve the murders before him. When it came to examining one Darby Quinn, Chris laid down on a gurney next to the corpse and made physical contact with it. This drew him into the realm of the dead, where he found Quinn's spirit, and escorted it back to Earth. There he also encountered Mr. Keeper, who failed to deny Chris access to Quinn.
Back on Earth, Quinn tried to give Freeman clues about his death, which led to his home. Clues led to one of his tenants, a girl named Sally. When he tracked her down, he learned that Quinn had tried to rape her and that she'd killed him in self defense. He convinced Sally to turn herself in and won favor with his boss, to boot, for solving the crime.
Afterwards, Freeman was again visited by Mr. Keeper who suggested that the two of them were alike, but that their "domains" were different, and Chris should be careful not to cross the line. Then he disappeared. (National Comics: Eternity #1)
Notes
In an interview at Comic Book Resources with Jeff Lemire, who created this version of Kid Eternity, the writer gave up some surprising tidbits concerning the nature of the New 52, saying:
"As far as I know, and I might be corrected on this, the "National Comics" titles are out of continuity because I know that there is a Madame Xanadu one and it has nothing to do with the New 52 Madame Xanadu. So no, I don't make any reference to any other DC Universe character. It is a self-contained, totally out-of-continuity take on the character. We just kept the original name and stuff."
Also, he'd originally wanted to include Eternity in his Justice League Dark title. This series feature many characters that had anchored Vertigo titles in the past.