Comicon Advent Calendar Day 7: Have Yourself A ‘Merry X-Men’

When you think of Christmases past, it’s usually specific moments in specific years that capture your thoughts the most. Welcome to Day 7 of Comicon.com’s holiday advent calendar, talking about a very specific moment in Marvel Comics history- 2018’s Merry X-Men Holiday Special.

This special is a holiday classic that I read every year. It’s an advent calendar of sorts all on its own- a thirty page special full of single page vignettes for each day of December (more or less). Outside of a framing story from Chad Bowers, Chris Sims, Marco Failla, and Israel Silva, each page is from a different creative team, featuring a different character (or characters). And for better or worse, it’s VERY much of its moment.

Now, at this particular instant in Marvel Comics history, the X-Men were at a bit of a low point. It was the tail end of the RessurXIon era, just after Inhumans Vs X-Men and Extermination but before X-Men Disassembled and Dead Man Logan sent readers on the path to Krakoa. (Technically it was concurrent to X-Men Disassembled but X-Men fans love their continuity, and this obviously took place just before that storyline.)

After an incredibly eventful year, the X-Men slow down to celebrate Christmas. While the wider team celebrates the winter holidays, one X-Man is missing. A mysterious figure has kidnapped Jubilee and her son Shogo, and now they need to survive a killer shopping mall until the team rescues them. But Jubilee is Wolverine’s daughter and the ultimate mallrat. This is gonna be a piece of cake.

This special is full of great vignettes, some fantastic art, and given the format, a few stinkers. It’s also VERY much of its time. For example, Jean Grey is still freshly returned from the dead, while Cyclops is nowhere to be seen (despite the final page reveal of his return from the dead in Extermination). Hot Claws Wolverine is prominent in one story, while Old Man Logan is the Wolverine with the team itself.

There are highlights all throughout the special. The “framing story” (if you can call it that) is a perfect little mix of superheroics and holiday hijinks. The stories from Kelly Thompson and David Lopez (starring Rogue and Gambit), Chip Zdarsky (with Logan and Nightcrawler), Leah Williams and Marcio Takara (featuring the Braddock family) and the silent Glob Herman page from Ed Brisson and Pere Perez are my personal favorites. Meanwhile the low points come from Chris Claremont and Terry Dodson (with Kitty Pryde and Claremont’s usual inability to let go of his obsolete plans for characters) and Charlemagne Tha God and Alitha Martinez (featuring an incredibly out of character Storm), though both feature truly great art.

However, if you want a superhero story to get you in the holiday spirit, I can’t recommend this enough. Outside of those two examples above, each page is at least good (maybe a bit forgettable at worst), and the art is consistently great. It always puts me in the holiday spirit, and isn’t that all we need anyways?

You can find the special on Comixology, Marvel Unlimited and a physical copy is probably pretty easy to find in your local comic store.