Marvel Holiday Special was an anthology comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring several of its characters in Christmas or holiday-themed stories.
The first Marvel Holiday Special from 1991 is notable for establishing that Santa Claus exists as a mutant character within the Marvel Universe. [1] [2] Santa has since made several appearances in other Marvel titles. [3] Other notable stories include a story by Kurt Busiek in the 1994 issue which filled out the details of a solicited but never-published story from the 1960s X-Men series in which Iceman and Beast fought Metoxo and the Lava Men, closing a continuity gap that fans had wondered about for 25 years. [4]
The Marvel Holiday Special has featured several stories that focus on Jewish characters like The Thing and Shadowcat celebrating Hannukah, as well as other Jewish characters whose religion isn't often clearly depicted in stories. [5] [6] Notably, Thing creator Stan Lee, which is Jewish, wrote his first story in which Thing discussed his Jewish faith in the 2009 Marvel Holiday Special, 48 years after Thing made his comics debut. [7] [5]
Marvel Holiday Special was first published in 1991, with additional specials followed annually until 1996, with the 1995 special being a trade paperback reprinting earlier holiday stories. The title was revived in 2004 and published annually until 2007. [8] Additionally, a trade paperback collecting several holiday stories was published under the name Marvel Holiday Special in 2004. From 2008 to 2010, Marvel published a Digital Holiday Special only on its Marvel Unlimited service. In 2011, Marvel once again published a Marvel Holiday Special. In 2021 and 2022, Marvel published a series of holiday-themed "Infinity Comics" on its Marvel Unlimited Service. [9] [10]
Year | A story | B story | C story | D story | E story | F story | G story | H story | I Story |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1991 | X-Men Scott Lobdell and Dave Cockrum Collected in X-Men: X-Tinction Agenda Omnibus | Fantastic Four Walter Simonson and Art Adams Collected in Marvel Universe by Arthur Adams Omnibus and Fantastic Four Epic Collection Vol 21 | Punisher Steven Grant and Klaus Janson | Thor Tom DeFalco and Sal Buscema | Captain America Len Kaminski and Ron Lim | Ghost Rider Howard Mackie and John Hebert
| Captain Ultra Scott Lobdell and Dennis Jensen | Spider-Man Danny Fingeroth and Ron Garney | |
1992 | Wolverine Larry Hama and Michael Golden
| New Warriors Fabian Nicieza and Darick Robertson
| Spider-Man Stan Lee, Richard Howell, and Steve Lightle | Punisher Carl Potts and Rick Levins | Doc Samson/Hulk Peter David, John Hebert Collected in Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus Vol 2 and Hulk Epic Collection Vol 19 | Thanos Jim Starlin and Ron Lim Collected in Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos (1993 printing) | Iron Man Sholly Fish and Tom Morgan Collected in Iron Man Epic Collection Vol 17 | Daredevil Ann Nocenti and Tom Grindberg Collected in Daredevil Epic Collection Vol 16 | |
1993 | Spider-Man Steven Grant and Pat Broderick | Nick Fury Howard Chaykin | Marvel Bullpen Barry Dutter and Marie Severin | Captain Ultra Scott Lobdell and Dennis Jensen | Ghost Rider Ann Nocenti and Tom Grindberg | Hulk Peter David and Ron Lim
| |||
1994 | X-Men Kurt Busiek and James Fry | Captain America John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake | Thing/FF Gregory Wright and Mike Manley | Silver Surfer JM DeMattias, Mindy Newell, and Rick Leonardi | Spider-Man Karl Bollers and Gray Morrow | X-Men Karl Bollers and Sal Buscema | |||
1995 | Spider-Man Danny Fingeroth and Ron Garney Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1991 | X-Men Scott Lobdell and Dave Cockrum Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1991 | Spider-Man Reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #314 | Wolverine Larry Hama and Michael Golden Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1992 | Spider-Man Steven Grant and Pat Broderick Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1993 | Hulk Peter David and Ron Lim Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1993 | Spider-Man Karl Bollers and Gray Morrow Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1994 | Punisher Carl Potts and Rick Levins Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1992 | Spider-Man Stan Lee, Richard Howell, and Steve Lightle Reprinted from Marvel Holiday Special 1992 |
1996 | Spider-Man Mark Waid and Pat Olliffe | Shadowcat (Excalibur) Evan Skolnick and Josh Hood
| Silver Surfer George Perez, Stan Lee, and Rick Leonardi | Rawhide Kid Karl Kesel and Patrick Zircher | Wolverine/X-Men Tom DeFalco and Josh Hood | ||||
2004 | JJ Jameson/ Spider-Man Tom DeFalco and Takeshi Miyazawa | X-Men Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Roger Cruz | Franklin Richards/FF Robert Aguirre-Sacasa and Duncan Rouleau | ||||||
2005 | Fantastic Four Shaenon Garrity and Roger Langridge | New Avengers Jeff Parker and Reilly Brown | Fantastic Four Mike Carey and Mike Perkins | ||||||
2006 | AIM/Hulk Andrew Farrago, Shaenon Gerrity and Ron Lim | Fin Fang Foom/Dr. Strange Scott Gray and Roger Langridge | Fantastic Four Mike Carey and Mike Perkins | Santa Claus Jeff Christiansen | |||||
2007 | Spider-Man/ Wolverine Andrew Farrago, Shaenon Gerrity and Lou Kang | Loners CB Cebulski and Alin Urusov | Fantastic Four Mike Carey and Nelson | Reprint of Marvel Age #25 (2nd Story) | |||||
2008 Digital Holiday Special | X-Men Jim McCann and Todd Nauck | Skrull Ryan Penagos and Juan Doe | Werewolf by Night Ben Morse and Stephanie Buscema | Illuminati Brian Reed and Val Semekis | |||||
2009 Digital Holiday Special | Black Cat, Hellcat, Firestar, Photon Abby Densen and Sara Pichelli | Deadpool Fred Van Lente and Sanford Greene
| Fantastic Four Stan Lee and Nick Dragotta
| ||||||
2009 Holiday Spectacular | Illuminati Reprint of the D story from the 2008 Digital Holiday Special | X-Men Reprint of the A story from the 2008 Digital Holiday Special | Skrull Reprint of the B story from the 2008 Digital Holiday Special | Werewolf by Night Reprint of the C story from the 2008 Digital Holiday Special | Hulk Doug Roberts and Jack Kirby | Deadpool Jess Harold and Reilly Brown | Wolverine Reprint of the A story from the 1992 Marvel Holiday Special | X-Men Reprint of the A story from the 1994 Marvel Holiday Special | Reprints of Uncanny X-Men #365; Amazing Spider-Man #166; E story from Franklin Richards: Happy Franksgiving #1 |
2010 Digital Holiday Special #1 | Dr. Doom/ Fantastic Four Victor Carungi and Chris Uminga | ||||||||
2010 Digital Holiday Special #2 | Thor Joelle Sellner and Mike Henderson | ||||||||
2010 Digital Holiday Special #3 | Hulk Randall P. Girdner and Manolo Carot | ||||||||
2011 | Spider-Man Miljenko Horvatic and Andrew Trabbold | Wolverine and the X-Men Kurtis J. Wiebe and Patrick Scherberger | Nick Fury Aaron Shaps and Sebastian Piriz | Thing, Shadowcat (X-Men) Jamie Rich and Paco Diaz | |||||
2018 Season's Beating | Deadpool Jason Latour and Greg Hinkle | Spider-Man Jason Latour and Chris Brunner | Squirrel Girl and Dr. Doom Jason Latour and Marco Del Pennino | West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye and Kid Omega) Jason Latour and Veronica Fish |
Marvel Comics has also published a number of holiday-themed one-shots starring Marvel Comics characters and other licensed characters. These include:
Holiday specials featuring licensed characters include:
Digital-only holiday specials include:
Marvel characters have also celebrated the holidays in regular issues of their ongoing series. Some notable holiday-themed issues of ongoing Marvel Comics series include:
Marvel Comics has also published two anthology one-shots celebrating Valentine's Day:
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, commonly known as Secret Wars, is a 12-issue American comic book crossover limited series published from May 1984 to April 1985 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Jim Shooter, with art by Mike Zeck and Bob Layton. It was tied in with a similarly-named toy line from Mattel and a role-playing game of the same name from TSR, Inc.
What If, sometimes stylized as What If…?, is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics whose stories explore how the Marvel Universe might have unfolded if key moments in its history had not occurred as they did in mainstream continuity. Since What If debuted in 1977, the comics have been published in 14 series as well as occasional stand-alone issues. In 2024, Marvel announced that What If…? would expand to include alternate explorations of continuity within other non-Marvel Universe properties owned by their parent company The Walt Disney Company from its fifteenth volume onwards, beginning with Aliens: What If…?, based on the Alien franchise.
Arcade is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in 1978's Marvel Team-Up #65, the creation of writer Chris Claremont and writer/artist John Byrne. The character is a combination of an evil genius and a hitman who carries out his assassinations via various elaborate traps, often referred to as Murderworld.
Chris Bachalo is a Canadian comic book illustrator known for his quirky, cartoon-like style. He became well known for stints on DC Comics' Shade, the Changing Man and Neil Gaiman's two Death series. Chris has also illustrated several of Marvel Comics' X-Men-related series, including Generation X, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Ultimate X-Men. Beginning in April 2000 Chris illustrated his creator-owned series Steampunk.
William "Whilce" Portacio is a Filipino American comic book writer and artist noted for his work on such titles as The Punisher, X-Factor, Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Wetworks and Spawn. Portacio was also one of the seven co-founders of Image Comics, though he did not become a full-partner in the company, and is therefore not a member of its board of directors.
Gurihiru, also credited as Illustrator Unit Gurihiru and Gurihiru Studios, is a Japanese illustration team, consisting of Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano. Both originating from Sapporo, Japan, they are currently based in Saitama, mainly working as artists for American comics.
Ronald Lim is an American comic book artist living in Sacramento, California. He is best known for his work for Marvel Comics on their various "cosmic" titles, most particularly the Silver Surfer series.
Dan Slott is an American comic book writer, known for his work on Marvel Comics books such as The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, The Superior Spider-Man, Tony Stark: Iron Man, The Mighty Avengers, and Fantastic Four. His work for DC Comics includes the books Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and Batman Adventures.
Juggernaut is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in X-Men #12 as an adversary of the eponymous superhero team. Since then, he has come into conflict with other heroes, primarily Spider-Man and the Hulk.
Mark Brooks is an American comic book artist. For his cover art, he was awarded the Inkpot Award in 2014.
Gwenpool is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A girl from the real world transported to the Marvel Universe, Marvel initially produced two stories featuring Gwenpool as a character, created by Christopher Hastings, Heather Antos and Jordan D. White: first appearing a backup story in Howard the Duck, and a one-shot Gwenpool Holiday Special, illustrated by Gurihiru. Following the publication of the one-shot, an ongoing series titled The Unbelievable Gwenpool by the same creative team was announced, primarily illustrated by Gurihiru, which started in April 2016 and concluded in April 2018. The Unbelievable Gwenpool #0, collecting Gwen's appearances from Howard the Duck and the first Gwenpool Holiday Special, was later released, as well as the limited series Gwenpool Strikes Back. In West Coast Avengers, Gwen is depicted as the owner of Jeff the Baby Land Shark, appearing alongside him in the spin-off series It's Jeff from its second season onwards. The nemesis of the supervillain MODOK, Gwen faces off against him in The Unbelievable Gwenpool, West Coast Avengers, and MODOK: Head Games.
Kris Anka is an American comics artist and inker, best known for his work with Marvel Comics on X-Men, Runaways, Captain Marvel, and his 2014 re-design of Spider-Woman. In 2016, Anka illustrated the new Star-Lord ongoing series, which was written by Chip Zdarsky. He was also lead character designer on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Fresh Start is a 2018 relaunch of comic book publications by Marvel Comics, following Marvel Legacy.
"Venomverse" is a 2017 comic book story arc, starring Venom. It was written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Iban Coello.
Jeff the Land Shark is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Kelly Thompson and artist Daniele di Nicuolo, the character first appeared in West Coast Avengers vol. 3 #6, but was not named and formally introduced until issue #7. Jeff was originally the pet landshark of the superhero Gwenpool but has since had other caretakers such as Deadpool, Elsa Bloodstone and Kate Bishop.
"Fall of X" is a 2023 relaunch of the X-Men line of American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is the sequel to the "Destiny of X" publishing initiative, and is the final initiative in the Krakoan Age of the X-Men. The phase started with the third annual Hellfire Gala and culminated in the dual interconnected miniseries Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X. The phase's final issue, X-Men #35 was released in June 2024. It is followed by line relaunch titled X-Men: From the Ashes.