Make something. Anything. Just create.
12 Days of Fiction
I had an idea. An idea that would make the perfect gift for people this holiday season. Story. Creation. Narrative. All for free.
So I contacted some people I know who I thought might make a good fit. People who have a creative streak and have something to say. People from different backgrounds and different ways of expressing themselves.
Each day for 12 days, new material will be released. It's our gift to you. Happy Holidays. Celebrate story.
Christmas with the Super Heroes
by Will Pfeifer
It’s simple math: I love comic books, and I love Christmas, so I’ve got a special place in my nerdish heart for the Christmas comic books of my youth. Some of my earliest comic book memories involve sitting down with a colossal “Christmas with the Super Heroes” treasury edition and reading about how men and women with the powers of gods celebrated the holidays just like you and me — especially if you happened to be a character in a certain Dickens novel.
Batman and Superman, crime be damned apparently, were always taking presents to lonely lighthouse keepers or flying rich kids to slums to teach them how the other half lived. In the older stories, Santa — the genuine article — showed up frequently, usually needing some super-powered help in saving (what else?) Christmas. As the stories in the collections got more modern, they also got more believable — at least in comic book terms. Batman spent the whole night singing carols during a miraculously crime-free Christmas Eve, Spider-Man shared a present meant for Aunt May with Sandman, and, in the most ambitious (egregious?) Dickens-inspired tale, the Teen Titans re-enacted the whole story, ghosts and all, to warm the heart of cruel “Mr. Scrounge” and buy a groovy new wheelchair for “Tiny Tom.” (I swear I’m not making this up.)
So here, to bring a little warmth to this chilly season, are some of my favorite comic book Christmas moments. And because there’s no cheaper shot than being overly cynical about innocent entertainment aimed (at least partly) at children, these are scenes I genuinely enjoy, no irony intended. Here’s hoping you like ‘em too — and hey, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Batman and Robin put the Batplane to good use (complete with runners and a tree) on Christmas morning.
Captain Marvel gets carried away with his Christmas shopping -- but manages to not be a jerk about it.
Matt Murdock remains just sane enough to respect the concept of Santa Claus.
Spider-Man and the Human Torch give Sandman a break -- and a gift for his mom -- on Christmas Eve.
Batman spends the night singing carols with Gotham’s finest -- and realizes crime took the night off.
Santa calls for Superman’s help (using a great vintage
microphone with a lightning bolt logo).
Wonder Girl looks, well, wonderful, in her swinging ‘60s Santa costume.
A cynical, gun-toting homeowner is surprised to see who the intruder is in the very atypically optimistic House of
Mystery story “Night Prowler.”
Will Pfeifer has been writing comics professionally for the past decade and a half, and non-professionally for about three decades prior to that. He’s currently writing TEEN TITANS for DC, where in the past he’s written CATWOMAN, AQUAMAN, FINALS, CAPTAIN ATOM, THE SPECTRE, AMAZONS ATTACK, H.E.R.O and assorted other series. A former newspaperman, he now spends his days working in marketing, like every other former newspaperman on the planet. In his spare time, he watches too many movies, buys too many books and reads too many comics. He also works hard to warp the mind of his daughter, Allison, by showing her movies made long, long before she was born. You can follow him on Twitter @willpfeifer.