New Year’s Evil #1
DC Comics
Writers: Philip Kennedy Johnson, Vita Ayala, Christos N. Cage, Dan Watters, Kurt Busiek, Gabriel Hardman, Corinna Bechko, Kenny Porter, Ram V
Artists: Ramon Villalobos, Cian Tormey, Sumit Kumar, Gabriel Hardman, Karl Mostert, Dale Eaglesham, Aneke, Elena Casagrande, Alessandro Vitti, Jonathan Sibal, Anthony Spay, Jim Cheung
Happy new year readers! I know it’s not even Christmas yet but I may as well say it in advance. Merry Christmas too for that matter. Everyone knows the joys and sorrows of the holidays. Spending too much on gifts, getting to see the faces of those you give them to. Now DC has released its yearly holiday special, told from the super-villain point of view. Here’s my view on whether it captures that holiday feel and if it’s worth it or not. It’s a mixed bag.
This 80-page special features a number of shorts from numerous artists and writers focused on the Christmas/New year period. In theory, it’s a great idea for getting new readers into comics. Sadly, this holiday focus gets ignored in some of these stories. After reading through the ten stories featured I’d say that only 4 or 5 of them have anything to do with New year with 3 revolving around Christmas. The rest are just regular short stories. That’s not to say they’re bad of course. There’s some fantastic work within these pages but it can be a tad disappointing when you buy a holiday-themed book.
As I mentioned there are some really well-written stories in this. The stand-outs are the Ares, Harley Quinn, Black Adam, and Chronos stories. The Ares story is only loosely connected to the holidays but it’s very touching. The Wonder Woman rogues’ gallery is one of the most underrated in comics so this is the kind of high-quality story that could be used to get a new reader interested in Ares as a character.
Adam and Harley both focused on the idea of bringing holiday cheer to others with the Adam story, in particular, is incredibly sweet. I genuinely loved that short. Chronos focuses on the idea of the super-villain trying to change his past. In this case by trying to convince his father to give a sought-after toy to his younger self on Christmas. Like most of the stories in this special, it’s not afraid to show its dark side but it’s far more realistic in this regard.
Calendar man, Toyman, Prankster, Poison ivy, Sinestro and The Joker round out the villains featured in the collection and this is what I mean about this being a mixed bag as far as holiday specials go. The calendar man short doesn’t really feel like a holiday story. It’s about him attempting to undermine the work of a psychiatrist at Arkham who’s trying to cure villains of their compulsions. It’s a decent short but it feels like it could’ve been part of any other collection or issue released throughout the year. Sinestro is part of a fantastic story but again it doesn’t feel that related to the holidays. It feels like an extra from his Year of the villain one-shot released earlier this year.
The Toyman, Prankster and Ivy shorts use the idea of the holidays far more. Ivy focuses on New years resolutions, Prankster is throwing an end of year surprise for his workers and Toyman is trying to get kids to choose old-fashioned toys over electronic goods for Christmas. Then we have the Joker who stars in a serviceable story about an imitator committing crimes in Gotham. They’re decent and they have solid artwork, this whole special does actually but they’re kind of forgettable.
Speaking of the artwork, while it is good I found the cover art to be misleading. We see Joker, Sinestro, Cheetah, Harley Quinn, Bane, Black manta, Brainiac, Gorilla Grodd, Reverse Flash and the Batman who laughs on the cover. Someone looking at this art without knowledge of the contents would think these characters where featured in this book. It might even be what sells them on the book. Other than Quinn, Sinestro, and Joker none of these characters even appear as cameos. I think it’s a deceptive sales tactic, especially considering the casual fans who are most likely to buy a book like this.
Overall this New year/Christmas special is worth a read for the stronger shorts I’d mentioned. The artwork is good throughout and there aren’t any bad stories in the book. Even the Joker short, which was the weakest in my view would be worth reading to a casual audience. If you’re looking for a stocking-filler for a family member or even just a nice comic book that doesn’t rely on canon then New year’s evil is a good choice.
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This is a hard book to rate given the number of creators working on it but it's a decent book. The art is of good quality in each short and the writing does the job, even if some of the stories are cliched. It's worth reading.
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