Super-Star Holiday Special
DC Special Series #21
Cover Date: Spring 1980
On Sale Date: December 6, 1979
Editor: Len Wein
Cover by José Luis García-López
The horror hosts are gathered for in the House of Secrets, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive and they (surprise) get into an argument about how can tell the best Christmas story: The Witches Three (from The Witching Hour) tell a story of a family saved from a shipwreck in the fog by the light of a star. Cain, caretaker of the House of Mystery, spins the next yarn where a greedy pawnbroker makes a deal with a mysterious stranger for all the goods in his shop for a diamond. The diamond turns into a lump of coal and the stranger is revealed to be Santa Claus. Finally, Destiny steps up to tell a shaggy dog story about a rocket pilot chasing a strange star in the future, only to break the time barrier as his own ship burns up...
"The Longest Night"
Written by Robert Kanigher; Art by Dick Ayers & Romeo Tanghal
Next, we go to December 1941 to see if maybe Christmas is easy in Easy Company for Sgt. Rock and his boys. Turns out "no." Easy is on its way to the Italian town of Santa Maria. When their compass is destroyed by a German, they have to rely on an unusually bright star to guide them. They meet a group of pilgrims with candles led by a nun on the way of to the Shrine of Saint Maria. Rock realizes:
They meet a kid who is living in the bombed-out city who doesn't believe in miracles. Long story short, by the end of the story the kid does. Though it takes Easy Company killing a number of Germans and Rock blowing out the shrine's statute of Santa Maria first.
They meet a kid who is living in the bombed-out city who doesn't believe in miracles. Long story short, by the end of the story the kid does. Though it takes Easy Company killing a number of Germans and Rock blowing out the shrine's statute of Santa Maria first.
"Star Light, Star Bright... Farthest Star I See Tonight"
Written by Paul Levitz; Art by José Luis García-López & Dick Giordano
Even after being shown various celebrations, Superboy still isn't satisfied, so the Legion heads out in space to find the Christmas star to mollify him. As you would expect by now, a phantom star leads them to a planet where aliens are in dire need of rescue. After do-gooding, they still have time for a little cheer:
1 comment:
Thanks for doing this. It's a remarkably unified issue despite all the clashing genre conventions (collections like this are a great look at how far superhero comics stretch to fit the legacy publishing) . . . everything about points of light glittering in the coldest and darkest nights. Even Cain's diamond in the coal can be read as a light source that may not be valuable but at least it's free fuel, a great gift.
But you know I'm all about Superboy's incredibly obnoxious bad mood. While I get the feeling he did this pretty often (not knowing everything about the 2970s gave him a rare and welcome chance to try on character "bits" like grumpy old man or even chauvinistic doofus without going back to the Clark shtick) this one always felt more authentically petulant, him acting out for once out of some internal anxiety.
If I were Eliot Maggin I would argue that anxiety stems from his relatively fragile sense of himself at that age as a strange visitor from a distant planet much like the baby who "fell" into the manger in the Bible story. Imagine him searching every angstrom of the night sky for his home star but it isn't there twinkling any more, just a dark spot burned in. He collects the pieces that aren't radioactive and deadly. It's a private thing, impossible to share with the people back home. But the image of why one messianic figure's star twinkles and the other one's doesn't . . . well, that image leaves him unsettled.
And the Legion has all the telescopes so he can work off the funk helping other civilizations avoid the fate of Krypton. No more failed stars. Do what you can. Stay busy. That's the objective truth of the Christmas story: whether you can help or not, you can at least twinkle.
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