Christmas With the Super Heroes (1989)

The previous year Mark Waid brought us a collection of his favorite holiday stories. In 1989 he returned with a gift wrapped bundle of original tales featuring some of DC’s best known characters as depicted by some of comic book’s best known talent.

It’s hard to pick the best of the bunch, but for me it would probably be the Batman story, “And in the Depths,” written by Dave Gibbons and illustrated by Gray Morrow. For 10 pages readers traverse the life of Batman to the death of Robin.

Christmas With the Super Heroes (1989)

When I was growing up the old Batman stories were reprinted in various forms from the Batman Signet paperbacks to Limited Collector Editions and backup stories in the 100 pagers of the early to mid-1970s. I read ‘em all. Or, as many as I could get my hands on.

I get very nostalgic this time of year for those old tales before Frank Miller Dark Knighted Batman, back when the colors popped and the villains were as goofy as their criminal hijinks.

The second strongest of the lot is a team up with the Barry Allen and Hal Jordan Flash and Green Lantern, respectively, when the JLA’s first satellite headquarters orbited an exact 22,300 miles above Earth.

Flash and Green Lantern, who was a back up in Flash’s comic book for a while, prove Santa Claus does exist – in all of us.

Superman, Wonder Woman, Dead Man and Enemy Ace flesh out the Christmas issue with stories reminding readers the holidays are about giving.