Moonstone’s Holiday Super Spectacular #1

December 1, 2007

Moonstone’s Holiday Super Spectacular #1 (Moonstone Comics)
By Mike Bullock, Silvestre Szilagyi, Dave Ulanski, Kirk Jarvinen, Martin Powell, Tom Floyd, Joe Gentile, Zeu, Mac Rauch, Ken Wolak, Michael Stribling

‘Tis the season for Christmas specials! I love how so many publishers put out “grab bag” issues with various characters this time of year, and Moonstone is no exception. This special contains five tales of their top heroes, and all of them are pretty good. The Phantom stars in “Silent Knight,” in which he acts as a special escort through dangerous territroy for a convoy carrying the most precious cargo at all. Kolchak, the night stalker, winds up having to solve an elf-murder case (with some truly hysterical in-jokes for anyone familiar with the original Kolchak). The Spider faces Mr. Snow on a violent Christmas night. Sherlock Holmes has to find a missing man, and Buckaroo Banzai spends his Christmas fighting off nothing less than an alien invasion! The Spider story was the only one that didn’t quite work for me, although that may be because I’m less familiar with him than the rest of the characters. The Phantom story, but regular series writer Mike Bullock, is the standout, and the other three are a lot of fun too. This is about as eclectic a mix of charcters as one could ask for this season, with a bizarre mix of superheroes, mystery, science fiction, horror and comedy that somehow makes a perfect blend. This is the kind of Christmas special I like.

Rating: 8/10