{"id":7436,"date":"2021-12-23T23:43:46","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7436"},"modified":"2021-12-23T23:43:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:43:46","slug":"mighty-marvel-holiday-special-happy-holidays-mr-howlett-infinity-comic-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7436","title":{"rendered":"Mighty Marvel Holiday Special – Happy Holidays, Mr Howlett Infinity Comic #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>MIGHTY MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL – HAPPY HOLIDAYS, MR HOWLETT INFINITY COMIC #1<\/strong>
\nby Ryan North, Nathan Stockman & Chris O’Halloran<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, that’s the title. Don’t look at me.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hey, it’s an X-book. And it’s probably meant to be canon, too. Not that anything’s ever likely to turn on whether this is canon or not, admittedly, but if it matters, it probably is.<\/p>\n

So it’s a few years back – the costumes say early to mid 90s – and the X-Men are holding a party for the general public as some sort of public relations event. Which isn’t really the sort of thing they did back then, but sure, they probably should have. Professor X is there in his hover wheelchair, and he’s not openly associated with the X-Men at this point, but he\u00a0is<\/em> publicly known as a mutant rights activist so… again, sure. Okay. And Nightcrawler and Shadowcat are there too, but fine, they’re visiting. I mean, it doesn’t\u00a0quite<\/em> fit, but it’s not a big problem.<\/p>\n

And the schtick is that everyone is having fun at this thing except for Wolverine, who doesn’t like joining in with fun things. Since this is a Ryan North comic, it’s not quite as basic as saying that Wolverine is a grinch. He just doesn’t particularly want to be part of this, he doesn’t really see what his unique skillset of razor sharp blades can contribute to the world of children’s entertainment, and he’d prefer not to be there. (“I’m not grumpy. I’m… I’m brusque. And content in solitude. There’s a difference.”)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So about half the book is Jubilee trying to cheer up Wolverine and get him to join in, and Wolverine doing his thing until she finally gives up. At which point he realises that he’s maybe overdone it a bit.<\/p>\n

But wait! Wolverine is the good guy, so of course he’s going to do good things at Christmas. So, after the annoying party is over, he meets up for his annual stint at the soup kitchen alongside Mystique, because they’re both grumpy old cynics but this is their shared way of doing something nice.\u00a0And… yes, there’s a part of me that wonders how many annual traditions Wolverine can fit in, because they’re starting to mount up. Is he still seeing those elephants? I do hope so.<\/p>\n

On one level, this is just what you expect from a Christmas Infinity Comic<\/em>. It’s a straightforward little story about how a popular character really does like Christmas in his own way despite it all. To be fair, though, it’s a pretty well executed version of that story. North gets the angle that Wolverine has a persona that he’s reluctant to drop even around his friends, and doesn’t hammer it too hard. The idea that he and Mystique have enough weird parallels as characters who’ve been around forever – and they do have a shared history going back a century or so in continuity – sort of works too, and it’s not really hammered either. Stockman’s art is straightforward, and I’ve seen more inventive uses of the vertical scrolling format, but it’s perfectly fine for the job.<\/p>\n

So there’s a bit going on beneath the surface if you’re looking for it. The characters feel right, which is probably why it gets away with the annual meeting with Mystique thing. But mainly it’s a comic that hits the brief and does what it needs to.<\/p>\n

It’s basically what it sounds like, but done better than you’re probably expecting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIGHTY MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL – HAPPY HOLIDAYS, MR HOWLETT INFINITY COMIC #1 by Ryan North, Nathan Stockman & Chris O’Halloran Yes, that’s the title. Don’t look at me. Hey, it’s an X-book. And it’s probably meant to be canon, too. Not that anything’s ever likely to turn on whether this is canon or not, admittedly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7438,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7436\/revisions\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}