This year DC decided it’s a good idea to give Batman and Harley Quinn a big ol’ Christmas special! Well, okay, other characters showed up too but we all know who DC mostly focuses on (though I have been seeing them focus a bit more on Wonder Woman recently but she isn’t in this book much) and... it’s surprisingly good.
What’s it about?
It’s a collection of DC stories focusing on various December holidays. Pretty much a festive DC anthology.
Pros:
All the art was pretty good, I don’t recall any bad art at least and definitely recall some stories having amazing art so good job, artists!
A lot of superhero excitement throughout!
I’m just gonna go over the stories I liked now. The first story in this collection focuses on Batman and Superman, it’s a fun story. I definitely enjoyed that one.
For The Dog Who Has Everything is a great story about Superman and Superboy getting a present for Krypto ‘cause he’s a good boy! I obviously liked that one because DOG!
The Night We Saved Christmas is a good one. Of course a story about a private detective/chimp teaming up with Batman is gonna be pretty cool.
A Flash Christmas Carol is great! I’m not a huge Flash fan... thinking about it, I’ve never read a Flash comic in my life. This story is great and makes me think I should try some Flash comics. I don’t want to give spoilers but it’s one of the best parts of this book.
The Batwoman story is good.
The Titans story is really cool and exciting! Another major highlight from this book that I unfortunately can’t talk much about without giving spoilers.
There’s a sweet little story about Nightwing and Batgirl that was quite fun and cute in it’s romantic way. I really liked it.
This book includes the first DC Rebirth Batman Annual and includes a story called Good Boy which at first I hated because it opens with some sad stuff about dead dogs (what kind of f***ed up person puts dead dogs in a book, especially a Christmas one) but gets better with happy dog stuff so I ended up sorta liking it because of the happy dog stuff.
Another Batman story (exactly what this book needed) that I liked was The Insecurity Diversion. Not much to say except it’s good.
I was pleasantly surprised by how good the Harley Quinn story at the end is. I’ll admit I’m not really a fan of the character. I wouldn’t say I absolutely hate her or that I refuse to read any of her comics but pretty much everything I’ve seen her in she’s been a not nearly as funny or aggressive but hyper-sexualized version of Deadpool with no superpowers (though I would love to see a writer try to do a more twisted action/horror take on the character sometime) and that is pretty much what she is here but she is still entertaining in this fun story and it makes for a crazy, amusing and surprisingly NSFW addition to this book (not that explicit content makes things better IMO, I’m just happy to see DC not censor the story as much as the big 2 usually censor non-Vertigo or MAX stories).
Cons:
Not to be a Scrooge but I did have some problems, one being how predictable this entire book is. Did I not see a few minor things coming? Sure. But even though I enjoy them and there are some exceptions most Christmas stories and DC comics stories are predictable so with this being both... yeah, expect it to be predictable.
We got the Wonder Woman/Constantine Christmas crossover that pretty much nobody asked for, that’s obviously going to be great or a freakin’ train wreck, though it’s not entirely, it’s closer to being said train wreck. It’s super cheesy, a waste of 2 pretty good characters, sadly uninteresting IMO and has a very silly ending.
There’s a story about that New Superman character (the one that doesn’t even get a name, is just the New Superman) is very forgettable.
The Green Lantern story is a cheesy disappointment.
Batman’s Silent Night story is very mediocre (another disappointment since I’m usually a big fan of Scott Snyder’s work).
The Batman/Harley Quinn Not So Silent Night story is one that I can’t say I particularly like. Mainly because Harley is portrayed as this fun, great person spreading cheer... if you forget she’s a mass-murderer. I honestly think it’s f***ed up that DC keeps trying to act like she’s a superhero when it’s very clear she isn’t, last I checked superheroes don’t go on psychotic rampages and blow up children.
There’s another disappointing Batman story.
Overall:
Despite a few disappointing stories and being predictable, it’s mostly fun and has a lot of really good stories with good art. I mostly liked it and would recommend it for DC fans looking for something festive.
4/5