First Appearance: Red Raven Comics #1 (August 1940).
Golden Age Appearances: Red Raven Comics #1.
Modern Appearances: Avengers Forever #11-12, Marvel: The Lost Generation #12-1. (Sort of--see below.)
Years Active: 1980-? (See below.)

"Following the experiments of Col. Charles Lindbergh, a half century after the air hero had experimented with mechanical substitutes for human organs, Prof. Carmody is reaching completion of his life work" and is told by his assistant Jim that "the artifical heart you've perfected, Professor, has been keeping the dog's brain alive for five years," when Peg-Leg Martin and his gang, the agents of the "Emperor of Mongolia" (no, really) attack. Jim is knocked out, the Professor is shot, and Professor Carmody's daughter Mary is kidnaped ("The Emperor of Mongolia will like THIS slave!"). The dying Professor Carmody tells Jim, "they've killed my body but not my brain--you must operate on it, and put it into the artificial heart as I showed you." Jim, perhaps understandably reluctant, takes some persuading, but eventually gives in, and "after the operation Prof. Carmody becomes the ETERNAL BRAIN!"

He's now a brain in a jar, but "I hear thru this amplifier and speak thru this microphone. The radio does all the work...get that special radio set I built and fit its plugs into the sockets at my base, Jim." That done, "this little box is the telepathy receptor--with it I can project my thoughts, speech, hearing as well as see over wide spaces by means of radio waves."

Mary, meanwhile, has been brought to "the castle of Ulan Bator in Mongolia" and is presented to the gross, fat, leering "Emperor of Mongolia" (I just can't get over that one), who tries to force himself on Mary. Sexually, I mean. She starts to resist, and the Emperor threatens to kill her, when "suddenly the voice of the Eternal Brain booms in the throne room: `LEAVE MARY CARMODY ALONE!'" Jim, directed by Professor Carmody, leaves for Mongolia, taking the Professor's spaceship and "electric sword." He cuts his way through a "score of Mongol guards" but is struck down by a "paralyzing gas" gun wielded by Peg-Leg Martin. (Remember him?) Jim is about to be tortured by the guards when the Professor transmits his thoughts into the brains of the Mongols, who revolt against Peg-Leg's gang and attack them.

Jim is freed by a Mongolian and rescues Mary, a thought-image of the Eternal Brain accompanying him all the while. Mary is angry with Jim for performing the brain transplant, but the Professor tells her to "stop that nonsense" and to "help me smash the Crime Syndicate" that Peg-Leg and the Emperor are forming. The Mongols, controlled by the Eternal Brain, revolt against the Emperor, but he and Peg-Leg use the paralyzing gas gun and "demolition bombs" to wipe out the Mongols. They flee for "an oasis in the steppes of Turkestan" in a rocketship. The Professor tells Jim "I cannot influence the thoughts of Peg-Leg Martin and the Emperor because they're too dead set against me...you must intercept them and give battle--they must be destroyed!" After a brief air battle Jim shoots down the enemy ship, and then he and Mary return home, Mary still angry with Jim. (The Professor: "Mary, don't be mean.")

Note: This was the original Eternal Brain. The second version of him, "Professor Carmody," the one that appeared in Marvel: The Lost Generation, has his own entry in the Lost Generation page.