It’s that time of year and we’re celebrating, ‘cause it’s time for So You Want to Read Comics.  This is our weekly feature where we take a look at a single topic or genre, then give you two comic book recommendations, perfect for new readers, based on that topic or genre.  This week we’re looking at comic book holiday specials.

In case you haven’t noticed, December has a lot of different holidays that fall in its 31 days.  Of course, there are the ones that have risen to the top of public awareness like Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas, but also days like Bodhi Day and Zarathosht Dios (Dec. 8th and Dec. 26th respectively).  The long and short of it is that a good number of people, will be celebrating some sort of holiday during December, and that goes for the fictional characters found inside comic books as well.  In their earliest incarnations, the holiday special comic was typically Christmas based and religious in nature.  Interestingly enough, Stan Lee didn’t like the idea of special issues for holidays as he thought they would distract from the ongoing universe being created so it wasn’t until the late 1960s that Marvel characters were shown celebrating.  By the 1990s though, special holiday-themed issues had become normal occurrences in just about every major comic book publisher lineup.

Here are a couple of comics that are great if you just can’t get enough of that special holiday cheer.

THE BATMAN ADVENTURES HOLIDAY SPECIAL

Writer: Paul Dini
Artist: Bruce Timm
Publisher: DC Comics

In 1994, much of the creative team on Batman The Animated Series, came together to put together an anthology of stories showing The Caped Crusader and his allies taking on the many villains of Gotham City during the waning days of December. Some of these stories included Batgirl helping a pair of detectives (disguised as Santa and an elf) taking down Clayface at an ice rink, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy kidnapping Bruce Wayne to take them on a shopping spree, and The Joker making sure that no one is going to forget that New Year’s Eve.  Now, if you’re familiar with the follow-up to Batman the Animated Series, The New Adventures of Batman and Robin, these stories probably sound familiar. That’s because three years after this issue was published, they turned around and animated them, creating the fan-favorite episode Holiday Knights.  What really works well in this particular holiday special is that it manages to juggle the action of a Batman comic with comedy, drama, tenderness, and themes of family and friendship, without anything feeling cheesy or overly sentimental.  Being that this was done by the team responsible for the award-winning cartoon, it has the same sort of approachability that you’d find in one of those episodes.  Also, speaking personally, it has my favorite interaction between Batman and Commissioner Gordon ever.

Marvel Holiday 2011

Writer: Various Writers
Artist: Various Artists
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Christmas often gets the spotlight when it comes to holiday specials.  One of the things that Marvel comics has always championed some degree of diversity within their roster of characters.  In the Marvel Universe, multiple characters are canonically Jewish like Kitty Pryde, Ben Grimm (The Thing), and Moon Knight and who have stated that they celebrate Hanukkah.  This fact is on display in the last story of this collection of four holiday-themed tales, where Ben Grimm is sidelined by a crime in progress while on his way to a Hanukkah meal being put on by Kitty Pryde.  The other stories include one with Spider-Man showing some Christmas cheer to a cold-themed villain, Wolverine teaching a group of young mutants about hockey, and even Nick Fury getting in on the holiday act, in his own unique way.  One of the great things about the holidays is that it does give people an oftentimes much-needed excuse to get together and simply express some goodwill to each other and that seems to be the big theme in this particular anthology.  I will say that this issue does feature some characters that are probably not very well known, but having a ton of knowledge about them isn’t really important to the message of the story or how the events play out, so if this is your first comic, you’ll be fine.

What are your favorite holiday-themed comics?  What did you think of these recommendations? Let us know in the comments section below.

---

Dear Spoilerite,

At Major Spoilers, we strive to create original content that you find interesting and entertaining. Producing, writing, recording, editing, and researching requires significant resources. We pay writers, podcast hosts, and other staff members who work tirelessly to provide you with insights into the comic book, gaming, and pop culture industries. Help us keep MajorSpoilers.com strong. Become a Patron (and our superhero) today.