Marvel Holiday Special
Charles Soule, Langdon Foss, Megan Wilson, Margaret Stohl, Juan Gedeon, Gerry Dugan, Danilo D. Beyruth, Christopher Hasting, Gurihru and more
Marvel $5.99
While I’ve stated plenty of times that I do not paying more than $4 for a comic book, occasionally there’s an exception. Gwenpool, a character who’s presence has jacked up the cost of Howard the Duck to $5, is not one of those reasons. HOWEVER, if she happens to be in a book that also give me a follow up to the excellent Deadpool Vs Hawkeye mini series, it certainly does work in the character’s favorite. It also helps that I’m a sucker for Holiday Specials, especially ones involving a bunch of my favorite Marvel characters.
The Gwenpool Marvel Holiday Special gives the readers 4 different stories, and all of them are excellent. There’s a 20 page She-Hulk story by Charles Soule and Langdon Foss that puts a nice little bow on that creative’s team run on the recently concluded series, and serves as as the center of the story. It’s not a must read for anyone who’s not previously a fan of the series, but if you enjoyed Soule and company’s run on the book, you’ll love this 
story. Joining that story is a Ms Marvel story by Maraget Stohl and Juan Gedeon, which I think is the first time Kamala has been written in a solo story by someone other than co-creator G Willow Wilson!
The Ms Marvel story is also a hoot; Juan Gedeon‘s art isn’t the most eye popping, but he manages to capture all the proper emotions beats, making it more than serviceable. Stohl’s dialogue is terrific, leading a fun little story that casts Ms. Marvel as a Scrooge of sorts. Overall I’m a fan of the story, and glad to see the creative team do the character justice. From there it’s the 10 pages story I was most excited for, which reunites Hawkeyes Clint and Kate with their pal Deadpool. While reading the aforementioned mini series definitely makes the story more enjoyable, it’s not necessary. Much like Ms Marvel, it’s another fun holiday themed story, with that special brand of wacky only a character like Deadpool can bring. It’s also incredibly heart-warming, as Gerry Duggan blends emotions and humor quite while, while Danilo S. Beyruth absolutely kills it on the visuals. It’s obviously my favorite part of the book.
As for the Gwenpool story, it’s a tad tricky to get into. I sure as hell love the creative team involved, but not having read the 2 chapters in Howard the Duck take make the story 
crafted by Christopher Hasting and Gurihru a tad confusing. It also have very little to do with the holidays, so I’m not entirely sure why it was added to begin with, abd suspect that Marvel is just hoping that Gwenpool can carry a book much like how Spider-Gwen has. But it’s still a neat story than ends on an incredibly cute note.
The weird little Gwenpool misstep aside, the Marvel Holiday Special is a fun little anthology that offers the reader a lot for 50 pages of content. Granted I am super bias towards this book for the Hawkeye related content, I still found the rest of the book enjoyable, and encourage you to pick it up if you already aren’t for Hawk or Gwen-related reasons.
