Harley Holiday: Interlude: At the piano Superman is playing and Flash is singing with more and more of his Rogues (aka bad guys). Harley slides on up to Ivy and comments on it being a little odd that they are all singing together. Ivy smiles and Harley quickly figures out that Ivy spiked the eggnog with one of her potions. I am for sure a fan of Ivy using her powers for a part naughty and part nice trick.
A Flash Christmas: Barry is visiting his childhood foster mom. As he is leaving one of her new fosters, named Malcolm expresses concern that Santa might not be able to find him in his new home. Barry in his always kind way tells Malcolm that when he was a foster kid, he worried the same thing, but in Central City Santa has helpers so there is no need to worry. Cut to the Rouges (Captain Cold, Heatwave, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master and The Trickster) robbing a bank. Flash arrives to stop them, but Cold tells Flash there are 12 packages (bombs) all over town that will go off shortly if Flash doesn't stop them. The Flash runs off and our villains are loading up to leave, but when they open the truck, Flash has already filled it with the packages and somehow taken the engine out of the truck (overkill I think). Cold sprays the ground to trip up Flash, who is almost hit by another truck. The truck crashes and many gifts topple out. The driver is upset because the gifts are mostly for orphans. Cold can't let these kids have a ruined Christmas, so he agrees to stop fighting, so the Flash can deliver the gifts. Flash gets to it and we jump Malcolm waking up to sound. He goes down stairs to find Flash leaving a gift under the Christmas tree.
New Super-Man in: Day of Returning: In Shanghai, China, Super-Man, Wonder-Woman and Bat-Man are talking about Dongzhi (the Chinese Winter Solstice). Many people will visit the cemeteries because it is a time of returning to their families. They stumble upon a villain named Red Orchid (who is very much like Poison Ivy) destroying stuff with plants, because she wants the city to return to nature. They subdue her very quickly and suggest that maybe she should try just returning to being a normal human. In the last panel all four are enjoying some tang yuan (sweet rice balls with black sesame filling) as a nice gesture before they have to take Red Orchid to jail.
Harley Holiday: Interlude: On stage Canary and Zatana are still singing the 12 days of Christmas. Zatana is pulling literal milk maids from her hat and they are super confused. Harley comes up on stage wearing antler candles that are meant to be the merger of growing up being both Catholic and Jewish. Harley accidentally starts a tree on fire so Canary has to put it out with some milk that she grabs from one of the milk maids.
Batwoman in: Light in the Dark: Kate is in a diner buying some cherry pie. She is feeling down because she used to do this with her father, who would retell the story of Hanukkah while they ate. As she is going to leave a man who claims he can read her mind, calls her Batwoman and asks for her help. Before the man can explain, two other guys show up, and the weird guy yells, "Tell Zenith that Tributary says hello," and everything goes black. Kate finds herself outside and watches as the two bad men pull Tributary into a car. Turns out the bad guys had used an EMP to take out a chunk of electricity in the city, but lucky for Kate Gotham is a bit old school and still has payphones. She calls up her old pall Kit (basically Batwoman's version of Oracle). Kate repeats the thing the weird guy said and Kit is surprised because Zenith is her online name and Tributary is her friend.
Next we see the two guys beating up on Tributary while Kit explains that Trib had blown the whistle on his company, Tyman Industries. The company was pretending to be an engineering company but were really arms dealers. The two guys are trying to force Trib to take it all down and erase all proof of the company's existence. Kit sends Batwoman to wear the men are holding Trib and she of course kicks everyone's butt. As she is saving Trib, he tells her that owes him, but all she wants is a piece of pie. Later at the diner, Trib admits he planned all of this so he could get all the info he needed on Tyman and he gives a jump drive to Kate, trusting she will get the info to the right people. Kit joins and has brought a menorah (the lights are still out). They are chatting and enjoying each other's company as the lights kick back on. Kit asks for Kate to share the story of the Maccabees and they all get to share some pie.
Harley Holiday: Interlude: Harley is sitting in a den reading out loud A Christmas Carol. Raven sneaks up behind Harley to scare her, but Harley knocks her out with the book she was reading from. Beast Boy pops in looking for Raven and Harley quickly scoots out giving the book to Beast Boy. He looks at it confused then tosses it behind him. It of course hits the slowly waking up Raven in the head knocking her out again.
Titans in: What a Year for a New Year: Roy Harper is lamenting making it through Christmas without having to work, but New Years Eve is being ruined by some crazies on a crime spree in New York. All the Titans are trying to converge on the duo in hopes of stopping them before all the New Year's festivities spill onto more streets. Omen is rerouting traffic and dealing with some drunk party people. Roy tells us the girl's name is Honey and I think the driver's name is Daddy (it is unclear). They get away again and we learn the team is short their Flash so they just can't seem to catch up with the speeding car.
The team regroups and finds themselves frustrated. Omen and Nightwing take their frustration out on Roy because he is mad that they won't catch the bad guys before midnight. Roy explains that he was just upset about all the tough times they had this year and was looking forward to a new chapter. Omen apologizes, commenting that her buttons had just been pushed and she didn't mean to take it out on Roy. This gives Nightwing an idea, if you can't beat them then join them. Omen is able to astral project up to Daddy and challenges him to a race, calling him chicken (you know, normal baiting stuff). Roy hops into the driver's seat of a "borrowed" car and now the race is on. The ball is dropping and the bad guys are winning the race as we count down from ten. Donna and Garth step in front of the car and are able to flip in and toss it into the river. Hunny gets out but Daddy is in the drink. Hunny goes to shoot but she is taken down by Roy. Later in Time Square the group is happy to be together and even if it is a little late, it is still the perfect time to start a new chapter. Night then realizes he is late for something else.
Batgirl and Nightwing in: I Don't Want to be Late: Nightwing tells the Titans he has a thing, they all know he means Batgirl. Over in Gotham Batgirl is a little busy fighting what looks to be roller derby robots. She is running behind too but hopes to make it to the bridge before morning. Nightwing is climbing up one side while Batgirl is climbing up the other side and they are both about to apologize for being late, but then just shrug (I mean they are indeed both always late). They get to enjoy the last of the New Year's fireworks from their favorite Gotham bridge.
Green Lanterns in: The Epiphany: It January 6th in the home of Jessica Cruz. Jess, her sister Sarah, and Simon are making a cake to celebrate Three Kings Day. They are of course interrupted by some unauthorized alien presences. In the desert we see three aliens (who are looking pretty kingly) riding up to issue a judgment on Earth. Failure will mean doom while success will yield opportunities. There are three trials to complete. A trial of suffering, a trial of sincerity, and a trial of integrity. Simon tries to just fight the guys but they shut him down easily and make it so they cannot call for backup. They have to submit to the trials willingly and without interference. The lanterns agree and are immediately sent back to right before they get their rings. Jess is trapped by fear in her own home and Simon is locked up at Gitmo. They are both given recaps of all the suffering they have endured because of their rings and asked if they were given another chance, would they still put them on? They both say that they would and have passed the first trial.
Next they are told that only one of them can be the true emissary of Earth and that they must decide which of them is the true Green Lantern. Jess automatically assumes that Simon will want the title, but instead he tells them that they cannot be pit against each other. This was all that was needed to pass the second trial. The third trial is a fight to the death against the champion of these three aliens. Simon jumps into action and gets defeated almost immediately. They offer Jessica a chance to walk away and while the Earth will suffer, her and Simon will get to live. She is afraid and sure that she will lose, but Jess stands up and readies herself to fight the champion. They congratulate her on completing the third trail and offer Earth the gift of another day before disappearing. Hal contacts Simon and Jess asking what is up and telling them that there was no unauthorized alien activity and to enjoy the rest of their holiday. Back home Sarah has left but she did make some tamales and the Rosca de Reyes (the King's ring). Simon and Jess share a nice moment of friendship and trust. Simon also bites into the cake and finds the prize (a little baby figure, Jesus I assume) that Jessica calls hope.
Harley Holiday: Conclusion: Canary and Zatana have finally finished their song and Harley declares this the end of the big Holiday special. Everyone is sharing all the many holiday declarations.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this comic a lot. I enjoyed that not everything was about Christmas and that most of the "lessons" were about finding family and friendship. For real we had Hanukkah and some Pagan Solstice partying. I know DC tends to have a bit of a reputation for being dark and covering some hard topics, but I think it is okay to just have some fun and happy stories every now and then. There were a lot of silly jokes that I might not have be able to describe, so I will once again say that if you are not totally over the holidays you should give this comic a read.
There are not a lot of covers to choose from and there are many great lines in this issue so I think I will just share what story I liked best. This is not an easy choice because I weirdly loved the Batman and Detective Chimp story and Damian getting Jon the gift he wanted, but the winner for me is the Wonder Woman and Constantine story. I think having a solstice story with witches and ghosts in a holiday special is just so fun and different that I had to love it. Would love to hear what any of you thought or what story is your favorite.
Happy New Year! See you all in January.
Previous Posts: DC Rebirth Holiday Special #1, Part 1
Next Post: All-Star Batman Vol. 1: My Own Worst Enemy
Note: All images belong to DC™
Comments
Post a Comment