Teen Titans Go! 25 (2004)

The Teen Titans have come a long way since their first Christmas tale, the oft reprinted Teen Titans Swinging Christmas Carol in volume one of their self-titled book way back in 1967. Almost as long as the previous sentence was.

Updated, The Secret Santa are the Teen Titans as most know them now, a brightly colored cartoon act, but still enjoyable especially at this time of year.

The junior Justice League first tricks villain of the month Billy Numerous using his own greed before going home to exchange gifts. All in 20-plus pages complete with puzzles and riddles in DC’s own version of Mad marginals.

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Caught in a world he never made – and at Christmas time, too.

A morass, self-pitying Howard the Duck finds the true meaning of Christmas while trying to prove to a little girl Santa does indeed exist. All with some help from the jolly one himself and an elf.

That’s the simple run down, but with Howard it’s never as black and white as his magazine.

Howard had a brilliant run through his 33 regular issues, one annual, a Marvel Treasury Edition and even a slightly syndicated comic strip earning accolades under the mentor ship of Steve Gerber’s twisted take of late ‘70s America.

The satirical comic book came under new leadership when Gerber was relieved of duties due to creative issues and Bill Mantlo was installed for the nine-issue magazine run.

Mantlo handled the job as best he could, even casting Marvel’s mallard against the arctic background for this Christmas tale of civil war in the far north.

Not a standard Night Before Christmas by any means, but a unique look at the tail end of the 1970s, the Carter Administration, gas rationing and alternative fossil fuel resources.

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Bob Kanigher takes a run at Louis L’amour penning the lead story, backed by the capable team of Frank Thorn and Joe Kubert for the simply named “Christmas.”

Not a lot to say here other than Kanigher took the segregation and distrust of the old west to mirror similar emotions during the turbulent part of the early 1970s when bussing was still a topic even after Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program.

No real tears here, but enough fresh snow to wash away most of the blood of both the innocent and ignorant.