Marvel Holiday Special 2011

Marvel dusted off previously released material offered through Comixology in digital format for the 2011 Christmas Special offering a mixed bag of holiday cheer.

Spider-Man stars in “Cold Hearted Christmas.” Family is missed the most when gone from the holidays. Justice and compassion do work in unison, though.

“Logan’s Lost Lesson” is pretty much what the title suggests. Wolverine doffs his work clothes to teach hockey and a lesson to the naughty at Xavier’s School for Gifted Students.

“Ol’ Saint Nick” is Nick Fury handing out a Christmas pummeling to the agents of Hydra while on an important mission to show a man his future.

“Chinese Food for Christmas” has a meeting of the non-Gentiles of the Marvel Universe. Together they prove there’s more than one way to celebrate Christmas.

Marvel’s holiday card, circa 2010.

Artwork by Michael Cho.

Clearly the intention of Jack “The King” Kirby – as evidenced by this 1976 Hanukkah card sketch and reportedly confirmed by Kirby during the 90s – Ben Grimm’s Jewish heritage was finally formalized as comics canon with 2002’s Fantastic Four (1998) #56.

Happy Hanukkah, everyone.

Ben Grimm is the star of this Christmas tale as he takes leave of Marvel’s first family for a holiday outing to haunt his former neighborhood to help an old friend.

Dr. Doom appears long enough to justify his spot on the cover and Stan Lee dusts off an old soap box and trims it in Christmas colors as 1991 passes to history.

Not really a Christmas issue beyond the opening pages showing Ben Grimm attempting to hide presents for his nephew Franklin.

An argument could be made that the story does involve miracles such as the Inhumans launching Attailan to the moon where they take up residence and Quicksliver and Crystal’s child being born a human as their mutant and Attailan blood cancel the other out.

But, those are normal events in the Marvel Universe.

Marvel Two-In-One 8

Marvel Two-In-One is a great title.

This is the second Marvel team up book, featuring the other ol’ blue eyes, Ben Grimm the ever lovin’ Thing. Each month Ben was teamed with a flavor of the month, normally one of Marvel’s lesser-known characters from Brother Voodoo to the Impossible Man to Quasar.

As I said, Marvel Two-In-One was a great title; just not it’s two holiday offerings.

The first homage to the happiest of holidays came early on in issue eight guest starring Ghost Rider.

This recreation of immaculate-conception for power purposes is best bought for the cover.

Marvel Two-In-One 74

Issue 74 offers a promising beginning as the FF and Ben’s longtime girlfriend, Alicia Masters, finish their holiday shopping and ready for the annual Christmas party at the Baxter Building with friends. If the story had just been about the party, it would’ve been more interesting. This could’ve been a very touching Christmas story with Marvel’s first family and friends, but in the mid-1970s readers wanted action.

Again, buy this one for the cover and first few pages.

If you wanna read a good Marvel Two-In-One story, try issues 46, 60, 96 or annual seven. They may not be Christmas stories, but they pack more clobber.