The Santa Project : Christmas Comics

I thought I'd dabble a little bit into the four color legends for this Christmas piece, as comic books were a big part of my youth, and still a part of my adulthood.  I'll start with a 1979 Holiday Issue of Batman, my personal fave as a kid, and probably still is.  Obviously the Superman movie was on the edge of being released at the time, as evidenced by various segments of advertising throughout Batman #309.  Remember folks, this was before the Marvel MCU.  A huge big-budgeted superstar laden superhero movie was on the horizon.  And to this day, the Christopher Reeve-led Superman remains one of my favorite comic book films of all time.

 It's amazing how much comic book storytelling has changed throughout the years by comparing these two books.   In this issue of Batman, a young woman has just been mugged, with the crime observed by a beastly monster of a man who apparently had been turned into the massive wordless giant known as The Blockbuster by some local hospital experimentation.  He bears a strong resemblance to Clive Yorkin, the nightmare fuel responsible for the death of Iris West, wife of the Flash.  That's a story for another day however. 

Addendum:  Much like having to get Twas the Night Before Christmas from Bloo, I had to get Raylan's permission to read this issue of Batman.

 

Anyhoo, Blockbuster decides to take his anger out on the thugs (deservedly so, turds that they are) before following our young victim home on this rather sullen Gotham City Christmas Eve.  Our female protagonist has decided the mugging was the last straw and heads home to commit suicide via sleeping pills, but not before calling the GCPD to say good bye to anyone who will listen.  Bats follows the traced call to save the woman, but not before Blockbuster gets there first with the same intentions.  His confused mind's hatred of the hospital stands in the way of complete rescue as he battles Batman to keep the girl away from what he sees as another potential abuser.  

What is not exactly a great piece of comic storytelling, especially for a holiday issue, makes an interesting turn by incorporating a further Frankenstein angle, using a touch of the novel's original ending instead of villagers with torches.  All in all, a nostalgic piece that feels good to read around the holidays. 

Now. 

The Punisher. 

2006 brought us a one-shot called The Punisher Xmas.  And the feeling created by this book is not the same.  It's a story as dark as its hard-to-follow pages.

It's Christmas Eve and Frank Castle has decided to put his naughty and nice (literally) list to work.  Upon realizing most of the main gangster types who he plans to eliminate  have huge families that will be arriving for the holidays, Frank does away with making them his targets.  Too many innocents.  So he goes after a lone wolf local thug responsible for using a child as a human shield the night before. 

This is some dark shit, kids.

Especially when the local thug has some ties to the kid's mom.  Indeed, Frank Castle leaves a mess wherever he goes, regardless of what he feels are good intentions, and Christmas is no different.  The Punisher is no hero, as the path of destruction he started in the pages of Spider-Man 40 plus years ago has widened and been darkened with a lot of blood.  Different levels of age demographics from your basic monthly, to Marvel Knights, to the very mature Marvel MAX have cemented the violent insanity into his DNA.  There's just enough at the end of The Punisher Xmas, however, to make you realize The Punisher is actually a human being. 

Just enough. 

If you're going to read both of these, I recommend leading with The Punisher and finishing with the Caped Crusader’s happy ending. For your own well being. 

Happy Holidays.