![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingrockwell posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyWe continue through the holiday times with a look at a few lonely Christmases, including an odd case of Lois and Clark each in separate stories, both working to defuse suicide attempts.
We begin with another from '89s Christmas With the Super-Heroes #2 (1989), "Ex-Machina", written and pencilled by Paul Chadwick and inked by John Nyber. About two and two-thirds of very hard to cut pages out of eight.
We open on a man desperate and cold, his car broken down on the side of the road, as one more car speeds by while he futilely attempts to flag it down. The narration speaks of being bitten by many flies. The first few are annoying, but as they grow in number, you become frantic after five, then desperate and crazy after fifteen, until after thirty you're so consumed by pain and rage you'll do anything.
The man climbs back in his car and takes stock of his situation.
Clark warms the man with his heat vision before slowly thawing it out engine. Indicating the gun and the note, he asks the man if he wants to talk about it.
The man had promised not to discuss why they were splitting. Clark pries no further on that one.
Clark convinces him to give his daughter a call. The man says he'll do it not because Clark saved his life, but because he made him warm.
Clark takes the suicide note and writes some directions on the other side to some "friends" of his where the man can get a good Christmas dinner.
Heh, trouble in space. Well, I guess he's not lying, technically.
He tells the man to take exit 20, and crushes the gun. They wish each other a merry Christmas before parting ways.
It's a quiet and sweet story, this is really one of my favorites here. It loses a lot here, so I'd definitely recommend tracking down Christmas With the Super-Heroes #2 to see the whole thing. CWtSH 2 was special in that, unlike the mot holiday specials from the time, it was all original material, where the others (save DC Special Series #21) were all reprints of earlier stories.
Anyway, lemme wipe my eyes a second so we can move on. This one, "The Benefaction of Peace", written by Barry Jameson and with art by Graham Nolan and Josef Robinson, is from DCU Holiday Bash #1 (1997). About four and a third out of thirteen pages.
It's a jumper on the top of the Daily Planet this time. He's a little hesitant at the edge as the drops the blanket he's been holding around his shoulders. He's about to let go as a "Merry Christmas" from behind pulls his attention back.
She begins to tell a story of Clark's first year in Metropolis, and how he dealt with it before he'd made many friends.
He goes on to stop a burglary, but one of the crooks gets away. A local resident throwing out some used gift wrap runs into him and knocks him out with the lid to her garbage can, but goes back inside before Clark notices.
It all comes to a head at a charity ball for a local homeless shelter. The shelter's director, Milton Varney, formerly homeless himself, is being passed on the proceeds to deliver when one of the guests, who lost all his assets in market speculation, gets on stage with a gun. When Clark shows, the man reveals that he's strapped himself to a bomb. Suddenly, Milton leaps out and keeps the gunman from releasing the kill-switch so Clark can take him out safely.
Heh, okay. I'm glad Lois kind've acknowledge there that she's been too busy talking about how awesome her husband is and that George needed a chance to talk himself, even if she's already hogged all the page-time.
So, we come to our last story, "Alone for the Holidays" by Chuck Dixon, with art by Gordon Purcell and Danny Miki, from DCU Holiday Bash #3 (1999). It's only four pages, so I have to butcher it with just one and a third (could not, unfortunately, fit in the "stalking Steph" bit, sorry).
Yeah, definitely loses something there. But happy Batfamily! those were the days
Tomorrow: We've seen him learn about Hanukkah, now Kyle has to learn the true meaning of Christmas with the help of his buddy Connor, who doesn't even celebrate it! Also, his other buddy Wally has to learn a similar lesson when trying to find a gift for his wife!
We begin with another from '89s Christmas With the Super-Heroes #2 (1989), "Ex-Machina", written and pencilled by Paul Chadwick and inked by John Nyber. About two and two-thirds of very hard to cut pages out of eight.
We open on a man desperate and cold, his car broken down on the side of the road, as one more car speeds by while he futilely attempts to flag it down. The narration speaks of being bitten by many flies. The first few are annoying, but as they grow in number, you become frantic after five, then desperate and crazy after fifteen, until after thirty you're so consumed by pain and rage you'll do anything.
The man climbs back in his car and takes stock of his situation.
Clark warms the man with his heat vision before slowly thawing it out engine. Indicating the gun and the note, he asks the man if he wants to talk about it.
The man had promised not to discuss why they were splitting. Clark pries no further on that one.
Clark convinces him to give his daughter a call. The man says he'll do it not because Clark saved his life, but because he made him warm.
Clark takes the suicide note and writes some directions on the other side to some "friends" of his where the man can get a good Christmas dinner.
Heh, trouble in space. Well, I guess he's not lying, technically.
He tells the man to take exit 20, and crushes the gun. They wish each other a merry Christmas before parting ways.
It's a quiet and sweet story, this is really one of my favorites here. It loses a lot here, so I'd definitely recommend tracking down Christmas With the Super-Heroes #2 to see the whole thing. CWtSH 2 was special in that, unlike the mot holiday specials from the time, it was all original material, where the others (save DC Special Series #21) were all reprints of earlier stories.
Anyway, lemme wipe my eyes a second so we can move on. This one, "The Benefaction of Peace", written by Barry Jameson and with art by Graham Nolan and Josef Robinson, is from DCU Holiday Bash #1 (1997). About four and a third out of thirteen pages.
It's a jumper on the top of the Daily Planet this time. He's a little hesitant at the edge as the drops the blanket he's been holding around his shoulders. He's about to let go as a "Merry Christmas" from behind pulls his attention back.
She begins to tell a story of Clark's first year in Metropolis, and how he dealt with it before he'd made many friends.
He goes on to stop a burglary, but one of the crooks gets away. A local resident throwing out some used gift wrap runs into him and knocks him out with the lid to her garbage can, but goes back inside before Clark notices.
It all comes to a head at a charity ball for a local homeless shelter. The shelter's director, Milton Varney, formerly homeless himself, is being passed on the proceeds to deliver when one of the guests, who lost all his assets in market speculation, gets on stage with a gun. When Clark shows, the man reveals that he's strapped himself to a bomb. Suddenly, Milton leaps out and keeps the gunman from releasing the kill-switch so Clark can take him out safely.
Heh, okay. I'm glad Lois kind've acknowledge there that she's been too busy talking about how awesome her husband is and that George needed a chance to talk himself, even if she's already hogged all the page-time.
So, we come to our last story, "Alone for the Holidays" by Chuck Dixon, with art by Gordon Purcell and Danny Miki, from DCU Holiday Bash #3 (1999). It's only four pages, so I have to butcher it with just one and a third (could not, unfortunately, fit in the "stalking Steph" bit, sorry).
Yeah, definitely loses something there. But happy Batfamily! those were the days
Tomorrow: We've seen him learn about Hanukkah, now Kyle has to learn the true meaning of Christmas with the help of his buddy Connor, who doesn't even celebrate it! Also, his other buddy Wally has to learn a similar lesson when trying to find a gift for his wife!
