Christmas Comic Books

Are you in the Christmas spirit yet? I know I am. That doesn't mean I'll get any cool presents though. For my birthday I got a gift card to a movie theater that doesn't exist in the city I live in. So I'm not expecting much. Food is always nice! I enjoy giving gifts more anyway. Nothing beats seeing someone appreciate the thought I put into a present. So here you go. My present to you. Some books that are not only good, but might also give you some Christmas spirit.

Fables #56
Writer: Bill Willingham / Artist: Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha
Fables Vol. 9: Sons of Empire (Trade Paperback, TPB)

If you've never read an issue of Fables, you are really doing yourself a disservice. There is no more creative book imaginable and nothing more relatable than the characters in the world of this multiple award-winning series. "How can a comic book relate to everyone?" you ask. Well, you poor unfortunate soul, have you ever heard of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Cinderella? The Big Bad Wolf? Hansel and Gretel? You know you have!!! Fables has all of them. Basically, all your favorite childhood fairytale characters are real and live in different worlds connected to ours by portholes. Until one day, a very bad group called the Adversary came around and conquered all their worlds. Fleeing for their lives they found a safe haven on our world many centuries ago. If you're interested in a more comprehensive summary of their exodus, please click here. It's an excerpt from the first chapter of the Fables novel and I promise it is a very fun and relatively short read.

In a world full of your favorite characters of lore, of course you would find Santa Claus among them. Fables #56 starts off with Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk) traveling to the North Pole to steal Santa's Christmas list of all the kids who are naughty or nice. From his earliest days, when he sold his cow for magic beans, Jack has been trying all sorts of get-rich-quick schemes and with Santa's Christmas List in his possession he planned on selling names to governments to give them the head's-up on who would eventually turn out to be bad people. Santa wasn't having that though and came after him with a fireplace poker.

In another story, the Big Bad Wolf's and Snow White's kids (they're married, oh and he can assume human form through magic) stay up past their bedtime to see Santa Claus. There's a catch to seeing him though. If you catch him you get no presents, but you can ask him any question and he has to give you the answer. Forgetting what he wanted to ask in all the excitement, one of the children just had to know what we all would really like to know. "How do you visit every house in one night?" Santa, or "Chris" as he's called, gives an answer that's both amusing and makes more sense than any explanation I've heard before. And thus, I choose to go with the Fables one.

After the amusement and childlike wonderment of the first two chapters, the last one gives us a real doozy of a story. Santa Claus makes a visit to the Frog Prince, called Flycatcher, and gives him a very important gift. Flycatcher has a very tragic tale in the Fables universe. He still carries the curse of turning into a frog, but only when he gets nervous. When the Adversary took over his kingdom, they surprised him, forcing him to turn into a frog. After that, Flycatcher could do nothing but watch as the terrible soldiers murdered his family in front of him. In the present day, Santa Claus finds him in frog form again and uses very powerful magic to allow him to see his wife one more time. If you're a girl, you'll cry. Girly-men, make sure no one is around when you read this. Dudes, high five the next person you see after finishing this awesome story.

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Winter Soldier: Winter Kills (one-shot)
Writer: Ed Brubaker / Artist: Lee Weeks
Civil War: Captain America (TPB), Captain America Omnibus (Hardcover, HC)

Oh. Your tastes gravitate towards the dark and gritty? Then you need to follow the down and beaten Winter Soldier as he celebrates his first Christmas in over 50 years. Here's a man feeling like he doesn't deserve to be happy or even belong in this world because of some of his past actions while brainwashed by the Soviets. OK. You win. That DOES sound crazy. The concept of the story may be far-fetched, but the heart of it is easy to empathize with. You've all felt sorry for yourselves at some point in your lives and needed a little pick-me-up. Well this book is here for you.

A great back and forth time shift is used as the structure of Winter Kills. Christmas is a time to look back at the good and bad that's happened in your life for the Winter Soldier. Any fan of the character knows there's plenty of bad, so thankfully writer, Ed Brubaker, gives us some glimpses into the happier times of his past. Seeing his playfulness in the flashbacks is a nice contrast to the somber Winter Soldier. Also, Namor (the King of Atlantis) is always a scene stealer and is as awesome as ever bragging about trying to steal another man's woman.

The present day scenes involve Winter Soldier teaming up with a rookie group of superheroes. Here, we get to see how hardcore this dude is as he not only whoops the heroes to teach them a lesson, but also helps them take out the bad guys they weren't ready to handle. Afterwards, he gets a Christmas gift of sorts that not only warms our hearts, but ignites his lump of coal too (figuratively speaking, because he would have literally exploded otherwise, not to mention that it's impossible to live with a lump of coal for a heart).

After all the hoopla and just when you thought Winter Soldier's one and only good day had come to end, he gets to hang out with our boy Namor again. Their banter is absolutely hilarious and the arrogance of Namor is probably one of my favorite things to read in the history of comic books. Not even his infinite pomposity could deny his expression of honor to have fought alongside the Winter Soldier and his friends countless years ago though, as he tells the Winter Soldier the story of one his fallen friends: one last Christmas gift.

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Runaways Vol.2 #9-12
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan / Artist: Adrian Alphona
Runaways Vol. 5: Escape to New York (TPB), Runaways Deluxe Edition Vol. 2 (HC)

I might be cheating a little bit with this one because nowhere is "Christmas" actually written in the pages of these books. However, it does take place in the Big Apple during the winter and nothing says "Christmas" like snow in New York city. And quite frankly, this series is too good not to suggest reading.

Like a Tarantino or Scorsese film, the dialogue in Runaways is the main draw. Thanks to Brian K. Vaughan's ability to accurately portray the voice of modern teens and tell a joke without sounding forced or cheesy, the book is more fun to actually read than to read about what's going on in it. That's not to say there isn't a lot happening though. The group in Runaways consists of a bunch of kids who realize their parents are super villains and run away from home to keep from becoming like them, something probably every kid experienced. They've also got various powers that help them in their quest to do everything the opposite way their parents would have, a la - become heroes.

With the Runaways being heroes and all, the book centers around a friend asking for help. He's been framed for assaulting his partner and needs the Runaways to try and clear his name while he's fleeing from all the comic book superheroes you already know and love. Yes! That makes this book even more fun to read because there are appearances by icons such as Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. In fact, Wolverine is involved in one of my favorite moments in comic book history. He gets beat up by one of the girls in the Runaways. An 11 year-old mutant with super strength who used to have a huge crush on him. If that doesn't tickle your fancy, then you don't love fun. At all.

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Hopefully you'll take this all under consideration. It doesn't matter who you are or what your tastes are. You will like all three of these books. Guaranteed. The third heading of each book, the one under the writer and artist, shows you the title of the graphic novel form. Those can be found in any book store, so go out and read them. Make sure you leave some comments letting me know if my post enticed you in any way to read them. Also, follow me on Twitter, @SoKoJohn, for more of my random thoughts.

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