I’ve talked a lot about Christmas in TV, movies, and even in books. The one area I have apparently ignored are comic books. And that’s a huge oversight on my part. Comic books are great at Christmas time, with some really memorable stories out there. Christmas has been appearing in comic books almost since the start of the medium! Not only in single issues of ongoing series but also one shot specials, either featuring one character or anthology comics with stories involving several characters. Some of these specials are reprints, others brand new material.
Here are some of my favorites. And as usual, all DC since I am a DC fan. Of course 12 is a drop a in the bucket, consider this a sample.
Justice League of America #110
I am not a huge fan of early JLA comics but this story is pretty damn good. It starts when a man playing Santa Claus is murdered and the JLA searches for the culprit. A nice story with a bit of a cop out ending, but I still like it.
Teen Titans #13
This is a great example of the goofy silver age. The first incarnation of the group from all the way in the 60’s was..weird. It’s not enough that team is inspired by A Christmas Carol to defeat the villain but the writers force the analogy to the point of ridiculousness.
DC Comics Presents #65
This comic is much better than it deserves to be! It’s exactly what it suggests, Superman teams up with Santa Claus to defeat, who else?, Toyman. Of course it was all a dream…right?
Brace and the Bold #184
There are a lot of Batman Christmas stories out there, believe it or not. at least two of these, the other with Plastic Man, but for me this one is the superior issue. Bruce abandons his Batman identity when it’s revealed hsi father was a criminal. Of course, it all works out in the end.
This is the other one which is only Ok
Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special
Oh Keith Giffen, you’re so wacky! Yes DC has had a lot of Christmas special’s which were kind of anti-Christmas. DC had all kinds of offbeat specials featuring everyone Elvira to Harley Quinn to Orange Lantern Larfleeze. This one is especially cool because it features Lobo, who doesn’t like Lobo?
Adv of Superman #462
What a nice story. We find out one of the supporting characters in the book has been living at the Daily Planet. Which creates a new awareness of the homeless problem. The only problem with the issue is the story arc’s of the time kind of intrude on it.
Superman #64
Much like Santa, Superman gets millions of letters from all over the world from people asking for help. And on Christmas Eve, he reads them and tries to help who he can. This is a sweet issue and it’s a tradition which lasted, a little while anyway.
Superman and Christmas have a long history, I could have listed many more
The Outsiders #5
Another Christmas Carol spoof but unlike the Teen Titans issue while the story uses the Christmas Carol structure the characters are original and not just corny copies of the original books.
Flash #73
This is a nice little filler issue about Wally and Jay running around on Christmas Eve. The ending sets up a very big story arc, but that’s another story.
Green Lantern #36
It’s bad enough when you have to meet your girlfriends parents at Christmas, but it just gets worst when Dr.Light suddenly crashes things.
JLA #60
I wanted to put this on here as a more current example of these kind of stories. But man does reading this remind why I stopped reading comics. It’s just so..goofy. Plastic Man tries to convince a skeptical kid that Santa is a member of the JLA. Enough said.
Batman:Noel
Like I said with Superman, I could do a whole list on just Batman Christmas stories. A lot of then were really short stories in back up’s of regular issues. This one just came out in the last five years, and is a pretty strong adaptation of A Christmas Carol with Batman as Scrooge. Worth checking out.
There are plenty I left off, if I missed your favorite comment and let me know.
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