(I originally read these comics in late December 2016)
I'm surprised it took so long for Marvel to start putting out an annual 'holiday' special. Up till then, their Christmas stories had been but sporadic offerings in their regular mags, with three 'Holiday Grab-Bag' Treasury Editions in the '70s, though those were mostly reprint. There are informative text pieces detailing the history of these offerings in the first two specials.
The 1991 special features Yuletide tales with the X-Men, Fantastic Four, the Punisher, Thor, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Captain Ultra (?) and Spider-Man. Walt Simonson's Fantastic Four tale is the best, with Franklin Richards encountering a certain chain-rattling, Dickensian spectre, and it has the benefit of Art Adams art... adams.
After Art Adams' cover, Michael Golden's vividly-coloured art is the highlight of the 1992 special. That's allied to a wordless Larry Hama 'story' (and I use the word in its loosest sense) that would seem to want to say something about the equal vividness of children's imagination, but really says nothing. There's a comedic Doc Samson tale from Peter David in which he tries to tell the story of Hannukkah to a classroom of kids but has to think on his feet to retain their interest. The New Warriors, Punisher, Thanos, Iron Man and Spidey stories just fill up pages, but Ann Nocenti's Daredevil story at least tries something different as it's narrated by a toy lamb just purchased by Matt Murdock as a gift. I'd say it's better than it sounds, but it ain't.
The Christmas 1993 issue (labelled '1994') has Nocenti and Tom Grindberg reunite for a Ghost Rider tale which seems to suggest inducing a heart attack in your elderly mother is justifiable if she's an unremitting nag. (I might try it.) There are more lousy tales with Spidey and Captain Ultra (seriously, who the fuck is this guy?), but the Nick Fury and Hulk stories are worth reading. Ultimately, art overshadows story in Howard Chaykin's stylish effort, and the Hulk confronting a would-be suicide with some tough love is better read within the context of Peter David's contemporaneous run (here, for example).
The actual 1994 special leads with an X-Men story by Kurt Busiek and James Fry, a combination that might have worked on Elvira (see here) but which seems ill-suited this time. That said, it's marginally the best story of a weak selection featuring Captain America, the Thing, the Silver Surfer and the X-Men (again) in an illustrated take on 'The Night Before Christmas'. The Thing story just reads oddly now, a decade or more after Ben Grimm was established as a Jew, as he tries to educate a cynical, little Jewish girl as to the true meaning of Christmas.
After a year's hiatus, the 1996 special kicks off with a fairly amusing tale by Mark Waid and Pat Olliffe where Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson are forced to spend Christmas evening together. Back-ups include stories with the Silver Surfer, the Rawhide Kid and the X-Men, but it's the Kitty Pryde tale, mawkish though it is, that gets the runner-up prize.
The Howard the Duck Holiday Special by Larry Hama and Pasqual Ferry is pretty... fowl. In it, Howard, his human lady Beverly and an army of department store Santas are rounded up into a makeshift army to foil a hostile takeover of Santa's workshop by HYDRA. Ferry's "art" is typical, eye-searing '90s crap and Hama's script is supposed to be funny - I think.
Stories from the Marvel Holiday Special 1992 are collected in:
Softcover:
The Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos (US, First Edition)
The Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos (UK, First Edition)
(No current Amazon links)
The Hulk story from the Marvel Holiday Special 1993 is collected in:
Softcover:
