one-shot character?

[dan bailey]

while reading a book on poltergeists this evening (yep, another hot saturday night in the bailey household!) & making my way through a discussion of the alleged power of psychokinesis -- "pk" -- i found myself flashing on what i presume was a one-shot character from a comic i read decades ago ... a youth (probably 11-12 years old) who discovered he had an advanced case of said power (often called "mind over matter") & decided to call himself "the pk kid." i have this vague memory of the kid wearing a light-colored crash-type helmet with a stylized "pk" on the front, & probably a cape, but no other semblance of a costume. either he couldn't control his powers, or went bad, or himself encountered a super-criminal & found himself in way over his head, or something, & got crosswise with whoever the comic's hero was -- superman, or the flash, or someone of that ilk (seems to me the comic was a dc title). we're probably talking circa 1970, though i wouldn't be surprised to find i'm a couple of years off either way.

just got through trying the gcd & then google, with no luck whatsoever.

anyone remember this character?

[Cherokee Jack]

This doesn't really fit your description, but it's who I thought of:

http://members.shaw.ca/legion_roll_call/reserve/reservists/kid_psycho/

[MWGallaher]

That sounds like Mind-Grabber Kid from JLA #70.
Mind-Grabber Kid (http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/silverage/MindGrabberKid-JLA70.JPG)
You got a few of the details wrong. Instead of a "PK" on his helmet, he had an "MG" on his t-shirt (Hey, why didn't Graffitti ever offer an official Mind-Grabber Kid t-shirt? I would certainly buy one! And I betcha that, uh...hm...Michael Grabois! Yeah, he'd buy one, too!).
But you remembered it pretty well, otherwise: cape, crash helmet, not much of a costume, DC, one-shot (pretty much; he's had a few cameos and he cropped up in last year's Seven Soldiers project).

[dan bailey]

right on the money, mwg -- that top panel is the one still vivid in my mind's eye after lo, these 37-odd years! infinite thanks!

looks like i'll have to edit my previously stated recollection of never having bought, except possibly for an 80-page giant or 2, a single issue of jla before the last couple of years ...

... except that i'd swear on a stack of sgt furys that till 5 minutes ago i'd never laid eyes on the cover of #70. why on earth i'd have bought it way back when, i have no idea -- it's not as if i had any particular interest in the creeper.

still, my recollection of the character is too strong to stem simply from a single reading over a tab (scoff if you must, but those things were good back before cyclamates were banned) & m&m's at the old marble-topped tables at people's drugstore.

maybe i borrowed (& read several times) a coverless copy from a grade-school friend to whom i occasionally loaned comics ..

[Aaron King]

Mind-Grabber Kid was recently featured in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer mini-series. He's grown up since his JLA appearance but has a sort of "child star" syndrome: he had that one brush with fame and hasn't really gotten over it.

[MWGallaher]

looks like i'll have to edit my previously stated recollection of never having bought, except possibly for an 80-page giant or 2, a single issue of jla before the last couple of years ...

maybe i borrowed (& read several times) a coverless copy from a grade-school friend to whom i occasionally loaned comics ..

I read this one again in a JLA Archive six or seven months ago. It's an extremely atypical JLA story, with so much focus on MGK and the Creeper, so it's understandable that you wouldn't remember this as a JLA issue (especially if you were reading a coverless copy).

[dan bailey]

good thing you came through so efficiently on my intital query, mwg, as scrolling to the end of a newsarama thread on the latest ish of dc's 52 just now (not sure why i was glancing at it, actually, since only last night did i commence reading the series, though i am picking it up every week ... read 1-5 before bed & brought the next 6 or so ishes to read at lunch today) i came across a reference to mind-grabber kid & a post with the same page you linked to.

if i'd seen that completely out of the blue, i probably would've suffered mental (if not physical) whiplash or something.

[sabongero]

If there was ever a one-shot wonder that I remember was back in the mid 1980s. It was a comic book called Sectaurs. I don't have the comics anymore unfortunately as my comic collection was lost a decade ago. UGH!

But I liked the symbiotic link between the characters and their insectoid rides.

Just thought I'd share this.

-Ken

"Carpe Diem"

[tk421atpost]

If there was ever a one-shot wonder that I remember was back in the mid 1980s. It was a comic book called Sectaurs. I don't have the comics anymore unfortunately as my comic collection was lost a decade ago. UGH!

But I liked the symbiotic link between the characters and their insectoid rides.

Just thought I'd share this.

-Ken

"Carpe Diem"

My friend and I had some of the toys that book was based on back in the day.

[Aaron King]

I have the first issue of Sectaurs. I also had the toys. The cool thing about the big bugs they rode is that their legs were actually a glove that you could slip over your hand. Then, with the giant insect beast mounted on the back of your hand, you could make is scramble up the walls... or across your little sister.

Man, this thread is drifting away from old Mind Grabber.