Superboy Holiday Special ’09

DC Universe Holiday Special ’09 (Superboy)
“Party Gift”
Writer – Ralph Soll
Pencils – Rodney Buchemi
Inks – Greg Adams
Colors – Pete Pantazis
Letters – Jared K. Fletcher
Editors – Adam Schlagman & Eddie Berganza

Who’s ready for a Superboy story… that doesn’t feature Superboy?!


—

We open… somewhere.  I thought for a moment it was Arkham Asylum, but it actually just looks like a Holiday Gathering of many of DC’s villains.  Shockingly, there’s no Joker appearance!  They seem to shoe-horn him into anything, so his absence here is quite weird!  Anyhoo, baddies are singing carols, sipping eggnog, and kissing under the mistletoe… while the Penguin is congratulated on putting together such a great shindig.  Ozzie comes clean, stating that he had nothing to do with it!  He’s just a guest here like everyone else.

Like a game of telephone, the villains go down the line trying to deduce who their party host is… and none of ’em are coppin’ to it!  The baddies start to freak out a bit, realizing they very well might’ve just stepped into a trap!

But alas, it’s not.  Finally the party-planner pops in… and it’s Match!  You know Match, right?  Would it be easier if we just called him Bizarro-Superboy?  Probably… but, he’s “Match”.  Anyhoo… Match shows up, and reveals that he put this party together to try and instill in his fellow villains that they can learn to live better lives… and, with the new year comes new opportunities to turn over a new leaf.  I… I’m not sure if this is backwards Bizarro-speak… and from the looks of it, none of the other villains have a clue either!

—

Well, this was something… I’m not sure quite what, but… it was definitely “something”.


Gotta admit, it’s been a long time since I read a story with “Match” in it.  Can’t remember exactly what his gimmick was.  Did he do the backwards Bizarro-speak?  If so, I mean… he just told the villains to keep villaining here, right?  I dunno.  Seems like a weird non-story to include in this package.  At least if this story included the Joker (as tired as I am of stories written simply so we can say, “hey look, it’s the Joker!”), I could rationalize it being here.  This though… was just weird and pointless.


Least it looked nice!


Tomorrow: N’oel N’oel, the Martians did sing!