Holiday Pellet Review!

Good

Silent Knight: (Jay Faerber/Peter Nguyen) A nice, ‘silent’ issue about Batman stopping a criminal wearing a santa suit. It kinda reminds me of the Black and White story from a while back. I gotta admit that I am not a huge fan of this Nguyen like I am with Dustin….But it gets the job done.

The Flash Before Christmas: (Amy Wolfram/Daniel Leister) I love the idea of this and I think Wolfram executed perfectly. Even for a guy like Flash (Wally that is) Christmas is still one hell of a time for him. Of course I don’t see Raven getting a spelling book…..but whatever. Leister pencils are okay for the most part, but some of the faces do look a bit wonky at times.

Party Gift: (Ralph Soll/Rodney Buchemi) Two things about this. 1) I was shocked to see Buchemi on art duties but I was gald either way, he is a great artist. 2) The highlight of this story is what Bizarro says at the end. I won’t spoil it but it just had me laughing.

Reason for the Season: (Fred Van Lente/Nick Dragotta) Best story of the whole issue. Not just because it’s Lente doing a DC character, but he genuinely wrote a great X-Mas story. Plus he writes a great Martin Manhunter. Shame he’s dead cause I would like to see Lente try the character in an ongoing. Maybe it’s not worth for the $5.99 price tag, but it’s a hella of a good story.

A Peace on Earth: (Billy Tucci) If anything else, this makes me want to find the trade of Sgt. Rock Tucci did a while back. This is absolutely gorgeous looking, best story in terms of art. I don’t know if this would actually happen in WWII (it did happen in WWI which actually we’ll talk about in a second) but still a nice, heartwarming story.

Stille Nacht: (Seamus Keven Fahey, Sean Famey/Howard Chaykin) This is the good Chaykin art and this story looked really good. I don’t know how these Famey guys are, but they did a nice little twist on the ‘Christmas Truce’ during WWI. Not doing the obvious story so it has extra points for that.

Home for Christmas: (Steve Horton/Afua Richardson) Apart from the coloring, I did enjoy this story. Maybe my bias for Marvel is showing, but it was another quick little page.

A Night Before Christmas Story: (David Tischman/Adam Archer) Cute little story with Red Tornato trying to get some people at the mall to have some heart for the holidays. As a man who works at the mall let me just say: He’s got no chance.

Seeing the Light: (Rob Levin/Brian Ching) You don’t see a lot of stuff with Ragman, but unlike B’wana Beast I did enjoy this. A nice mix of a historical message with what Ragman is trying to accomplish in Gotham. He isn’t Batman, but he’s a pretty interesting superhero.

Bad

Man of Snow: (Arie Kaplan/Nick Runge) It’s not too bad of a story, but it’s nothing really special. I dont know if Kaplan (and maybe more of Runge) knew how to depict Cystic Fibrosis. I don’t know if that is a sentence I will ever repeat again so we’ll end it at that.

The Beast Boy Who Hated Christmas: (Sterling Gates/Jonboy Meyers) This isn’t a bad idea, but I don’t really find this to be that heartwarming. Beast Boy is just a jerk and we really don’t see any sense that he’s upset about his personal life until the end. Plus the art by Meyers isn’t that good, too stiff and not enough motion. Everyone also seems to be very bright and shiny.

Angel and the Ape: (Andrew Pepoy) Kinda reminds me of an Archie short. It’s a nice, quick little joke but still….kinda pointless in the grand scheme of things. Maybe ‘indifferent’ is more accurate then ‘bad’.

The Hunt for Christmas: (Beau Smith/Gary Kwapise) You don’t see much of anything involving B’wana Beast lately……For good reason.

Unbearable Loss: (Scott Kolins) It pains me to say this but I didn’t enjoy this all that much. The story was just too depressing for me, even when it tried to have a ‘heartwarming’ ending. Art by Kolins is always a plus, but I just don’t like him as much as a writer.

Naughty or Nice: (J. Torres/Hubert Khan Michael) Another one of those ‘indifferent’ stories then bad. Nothing exciting but nothing groundbreaking here.

Auld Lang Syne: (Shannon Eric Denton/Nick J. Naolitano) Pretty much copy and paste what I said up above. Other then the Wednesday Comics strip, I haven’t read a good take on Adam Strange in awhile.

I see more good then bad with this holiday pellet special. However, I still found this to be just an ‘okay’ Holiday special from DC. There are some great stories in here but it’s mixed in with some pretty medicore one’s. Maybe there isn’t a truly ‘horrible’ story in this, but don’t be suprised if you flip a couple of stories because of boredom.