Cheer up, Batman.

Artwork by The-Blackcat.

DC offered a varied selection of characters and situations for the 2010 Christmas special.

DCU Holiday Special (2010)

Featured characters include Anthro, Jonah Hex, Green Lantern, Superman, The Spectre and Legion of Super Heroes.

The stories stem from tolerance of holiday celebrations outside the standard Anglo-American, Judeo-Christian beliefs.

As a whole, the tales seem born as much from the transition DC was preparing for with Flashpoint that led to the New 52, while America was transitioning with a president still finding his footing.

The issue’s tagline read, “Six tales spanning, space, time and today’s top talent.” A little overreaching, but a worthwhile effort for $4.99. There have been better and there were worse.

Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams began their much acclaimed collaboration with the Green Lantern/Green Arrow Hard Traveling Heroes saga with issue 76.

When Lantern sides with the law Arrow derides his fellow hero for not considering justice in the equation. Arrow launches into a searing soliloquy causing Lantern to question his actions.

As Arrow stands on his soapbox, he honors the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., by reminding all listening, “On the streets of Memphis a good black man died…” referring to the Noble Peace Prize awardee for his efforts in Civil Rights. The image of King and Robert Kennedy are engraved in the background of the panel during the statement.

The comic book began an 11-issue run over the next year in which Lantern, Hal Jorden and Arrow, Oliver Queen cross America confronting the issues of the day.

Despite a twinge of humbugishness at the outset, Youtube personality ComicDrake delivers a spirited and cheerful review of DC’s Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special (2011) one-shot.

Geoff Johns has forgotten more about comic book history and its characters than most people will ever know as is evident in “Be Good for Goodness Sake.”

Johns dips deep into Santa’s sack for this tale worthy of wrapping for under the Tanenbaum traveling back to the Golden Age. It culminates with a seasonal slugfest and, later, softened with spiked eggnog. Reminiscing leads to a rebirth and an end for a self-imposed exile.

Super Friends (2008) 22

Santa isn’t the only one who gets letters for Christmas.

A wheelchair bound little girl is visited by the Super Friends for Christmas Eve and learns handicaps are mainly those of the mind.

“All I Want for Christmas” is a touching story, but the best wishes given for those suffering hard times in 2009 really hit home for me. That year was hard on my son and me, but with the help of good friends and family the end of the first decade of the new millennium dawned bright as the curtain rang down on the year.

Let this be well wishes to everyone, especially my cousins and their children who lost a dear one the beginning of December. It may not get easier, but it does get better.

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.