Review: DC Rebirth Holiday Special

Quick Summary

Pros: The characters are wonderfully written and all feel full of both life and holiday cheer. Nearly every one of the stories are great and tell charming holiday tales that are entertaining while also giving a classic holiday message.

Cons: A few of the short stories feel a little bit “tacked on” and inauthentic.

Overall: This issue will make you feel like a kid watching holiday specials on TV again. It captures the magic and joy present this time of year wonderfully and delivers story after story of fun. It also does a great job in diversifying the season and showing aspects outside of just Christmas.

 

Review

For this particular review, we’ll be switching up how our reviews are usually structure in order to accommodate the unique nature of this comic.

Overall, this story was a wonderful dedication to regular DC Comics readers and casual comic book enthusiasts alike. It read like a TV Christmas special and felt even more authentic, specifically parts of it felt a lot like the old Justice League animated series Holiday Special, which is a very good thing. Although there is still come action and adventure within these pages, the real treat is the warm vibes and holiday cheer it attempts to send its readers.

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A Very Harley Holiday

Paul Dini is back and he is bringing classic Harley Quinn with him. This overarching story was great to read and manages to make this collection of short stories feel like a true Holiday Special. It is funny, witty, and add some holiday magic into the simple act of introducing each of the subsequent stories.

The best part of this all is that it just felt authentic. Harley Quinn isn’t the insane, overly sexualized, ball of randomness that she is in many comics. Rather she is funny in the silly and punny way that she was in Batman the Animated Series. This then extends over to the rest of the characters who all manage to maintain their unique voice in a issue jam packed with possibilities for them to be miscast. It honestly feels like the characters themselves are having a great time and this, in turn, works its way to the reader; I don’t think I’ve smiled this much while reading a comic in a long time.

The Last Minute

Seeing the “World’s Finest” and the “Super Sons” all together is always a treat, but seeing them on Christmas is even more than that. A purely positive story between all of these characters is usually hard to find as there is almost always some sort of rivalry/animosity coming for someone (usually Damian). Tim Seeley does a great job here to show how much these characters care about each other and how much they bring to each other’s lives. I always enjoy non-traditional superhero stories, specifically ones where crime fighting is not the focus, so this story really worked for me.

For the Dog Who has Everything

The best part of having pre-Flashpoint Superman in this timeline is the connections that get to be made between the two universes. Although short, this story delivers in references to some lesser appreciated portions of Superman’s world, including showing his some of his various old suits and highlighting Krypto. Overall, this is a cute little story about a boy and his dog that fans of dogs, Krypto, or just the Superman mythos will love.

The Night we Saved Christmas

This may have been the highlight of this Holiday Special. Detective Chimp is back and stars in a film noir style case alongside the Caped Crusader. This story manages to play a classic feeling detective story in a fun and cheerful way, while still retaining all of the core elements. In just reading it you can almost hear the classic jazzy music playing in the background as it goes through all the motions to make an old timey mystery. From the “dead body” and smoking gun on the first page to the gift giving at the end, this story is a winner for anyone who enjoys the classic noir feel.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

This story was a fun read and a definite tone switch from the previous few stories. It incorporated a little bit of darkness and action that was not present in the earlier stories but also focused less on delivering any real message. It also really sidelined Wonder Woman in the story as she felt generic enough to have literally been any other superhero. In summary, it was an enjoyable read, however it could have been a random story in some other issue of a comic rather than a Holiday Special treat.

A Flash Christmas Carol

This story takes heavily from the Justice League animated series as, once again, the Flash is delivering presents to an orphanage and, once again, his rogues end up helping him because they feel the holiday spirit. However, just because it has been done before does not mean that it isn’t any good. This was a heartwarming story of charity and holiday spirit that fits in perfectly here. There must just be something in a “Christmas Truce” that appeals to the human condition as stories about it are highly regarded in both works of fiction like this and in nonfiction like what happened during WWI. This is what drives this story, making it great surprise if you have not seen the animated series episode and a wonderfully done homage if you have.

Day of Returning

It was great to see our “New Super-man” make an appearance in a larger DC work like this, hopefully this means we will see more from him in the future. Mostly this story was pretty standard and saw the good guys show the bad guys some hospitality because of the season. Honestly I wish this was something we could see more of even outside of the holidays. This was a one page story so besides this, there is not too much that can be said about it.

Light and Dark

Batwoman’s story did not soar nearly as high as many other stories in this issue. It mostly just felt like a short tale that was cut from some other Batwoman story that then had a Hanukkah message tacked onto it. Basically, this story is alright and is even touching at points, it just does not fit in with this collection as it does not feel like an organic holiday story. It feels like someone realized Batwoman is one of DC’s only Jewish characters and manufactured a generic story around that premise.

What a Year for a New Year

This story, although more full of action and adventure than the others, manages to still work in a wonderful theme and a great team building story to boot. Although the conflict in this story is pretty generic, Roy manages to deliver the heart as he opens up with his addiction struggles. This leads to a classic “realizing the true meaning of the season” moment between the Titans, which actually got me even more excited to see more of them.

I Don’t Want to be Late

This very short issue was one thing and one thing only, shipping fodder for anyone who likes to see Dick and Barbara together. Meaning if you like that, then you are going to love this. However, as long as you do not hate the two of them as a couple then this is still a charming and romantic New Year’s Eve story.

The Epiphany

This one falls into the same realm that the Batwoman story fell into; it feels more like an individual Green Lanterns story than a Holiday Special. It makes a vague connection to Three Kings Day but this only seems to be a jumping off point to tell a story about these Lanterns overcoming their personal struggles. While this is something that is normally great to see, it falls a little flat here. Part of this comes from the fact that this story has the content to be a full issue, yet it is crammed into a couple of pages, meaning what is here feels very rushed and has pretty awful pacing. The other part comes from this just not fitting in as well with the rest of the collection. Overall, I feel like I would have enjoyed this a lot more had it been a regular issue rather than something extra that was cut down and given a holiday finish.

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Continuity

Coming Soon