A fun anthology that is a must-read for all X-Fans. The talent collected here is exceptional! Read Full Review

This is one that X-Men fans will enjoy and that can probably be revisited in future holiday seasons as well. Read Full Review

THE MERRY X-MEN HOLIDAY SPECIAL #1 is a wonderful excursion into one month in the lives of the X-Men. It combines the spirit of the holidays, a message, tears and laughs all in one package that nearly everyone should enjoy. Read Full Review

Many mutants (some good, some bad) means many stories (some good, some bad). Read Full Review

Despite a few shining moments of real heart or hilarity, this experiment in world building and characterization falls mostly flat. It's interesting to see which characters or stories these writers and artists gravitate towards but in the end there's just no room to develop anything remotely intriguing. Read Full Review

I guess for this one, I can go through each story... seems a little unnecessary, but so are most of these anthologies! "Mele Kalikimaka!" is alright. It's cute, sure. "Never Again" seems very out of place. Why bring up Genosha now? And this doesn't feel like a holiday story at all. "#Hotclaws For Hanukkah" is funny enough. "Dreaming of a Wade Christmas" is clever. "I Hate Christmas" is appropriately dark for the holidays. Credit given for being a downer. "Jingle All the Wait A Minute..." is a continuation of "Mele Kalikimaka!" and it's still alright. "The Chiche Who Stole Christmas" is just a cliffnotes Gambit story, without any heart. "White Elephant" is fine, the punchline actually kind of works with what Sina Grace is doing with Iceman, so there's that. "The Impossible Enemy" is another downer, but that's appropriate for Magneto, I guess. "Christmas Jeer"... Man, Charlamagne Tha God is petty. Using a one page story to make himself feel better about his pettiness. Also, mentioning yourself in a story you're writing is never a good sign. "Deck the Malls", a continuation of "Jingle All the Wait A Minute...", and it continues to be alright. There's a fun moment with Jubilee trying to keep her kid from seeing the evil santa hero robots... "The Giving Season" is actually really funny. Best story so far. "Christmas Cat-Astrophe!" is cute. Cats suck. "The Gift That Keeps On Giving" is heartfelt and nice. "Home for the Holidays" is alright. Probably not as funny as Al Ewing thought. Feels bad, man. "The Naughty List" is fun. I dig it. "Baby Steps" is actually kind of nice, because you know no one was going to show this reunion post-Hunt for Wolverine in any other title. "Deck the Halls" is funny but also sad. Glob is great, though. "Secret Santa" proves that someone is reading X-23. "All I Want for Christmas is You", a continuation of "Deck the Malls" is ridiculous, but y'know, comics. "The Longest Night" is actually pretty heartfelt. "Blue Christmas" wins the downer prize. That's really sad, man. "...And to all a Good Nightcrawler" shows that Nightcrawler is a dick. That really didn't come together like intended. "The Gift of the Madri" is great, it probably beats "The Giving Season". And finally, "Walking in a Winter Murderland", the finale to the Jubilee story, and it's pretty good. Arcade is a chump villain, and like all chump villains, he's fun to watch get defeated. All and all, this wasn't a horrible anthology. It was alright and an easy reading. The standouts were definitely "The Giving Season, "The Gift That Keeps On Giving", "The Longest Night", "Blue Christmas" and "The Gift of the Madri". The worst stories were "The Chiche That Stole Christmas" and "Christmas Jeer". more

Some of these were so cute, and then others were atrocious, it was such a mixed bag. I’m bumping the score up by a half point because of the good stories, but so sad that one of the lamest was the longest.