Merry Christmas!

In honor of the occasion, I will be reviewing this little comic-book, which was published in December 1995 by Image Comics, featuring various Rob Liefeld characters. The lead character, seen on the cover, is GLORY, Liefeld’s Wonder Woman analog. She’s a warrior princess from Amazonia, the Isle of Paradise (seriously).

The issue opens with a 5-page story, drawn by Liefeld and written by Eric Stephenson, in which Glory is home on Christmas, when a being calling himself The Ancient appears, floating before her in the sky, to warn her of some great “undertaking” which she is about to face. He can’t tell her what it is, or when it will happen, but that she should be ready for it. And then he disappears, and Glory vows that she will face whatever it is, and alludes to Jesus Christ who was born on this day.

Yeah, I don’t really know what the point of that story was (presumably it lead into some upcoming storyline in Glory’s main series) or what it really had to do with Christmas. But the art looked nice.

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS is a 4-page story starring BLOODPOOL. Written by Eric Stephenson and drawn by Todd Nauck, the team are sitting in their home playing a board game, and get into a debate about the true meaning of Christmas and what it is for. This is a pretty nice little story, and continues to make me miss these characters, and regret that they haven’t been used more.

Next Robert Napton writes and J. Morrigan draws an 8-page story featuring KNIGHTMARE, who is a former Mafia assassin who, after his wife and son were murdered, now uses a special suit of armor to go after the Mafia. So he’s sort of like a mix of The Punisher and Iron Man. In this story it’s Christmas, and after stopping a small-time robbery, Knightmare reflects back on the last Christmas that he spent with his wife and son. It’s a very melancholy tale, which fits the tone of that character.

And the final story is also written by Robert Napton, and drawn by Brian Denham. It’s 8-pages and features Youngblood member RIPTIDE, who has the power to create and control water (it looks cooler than it sounds). She’s been sent to Antarctica, to check on a distress signal sent by a team of U.S. Government scientists who have doing top secret research there. Soon she finds herself facing a pack of primitive wolf-like creatures. This suspenseful action story also manages to slip in a message about Christmas at the end. Very well-done.

This special also includes a couple of pin-up art pieces. There’s a Youngblood pin-up (with Badrock dressed as Santa Clause) by Roger Cruz, and a female character named Gunner, drawn by Calvin Irving.

Overall, it’s a pretty nice Christmas comic-book. Currently unavailable digitally, but you can buy a copy via MYCOMICSHOP.COM