Christmas Flashback: Unusual choices of Wolverine, Blade, Punisher celebrated holiday in 2006

A roundup of holiday tales in 2006 featured some perhaps unexpected holiday-story stars in Wolverine, Blade and Punisher, among others.

Comics companies release specials in time for holidays
By Matthew Price
Staff Writer
Published Friday, December 22, 2006

The two largest comics companies are in the holiday spirit this year, with several specials focusing on the Christmas season.

Marvel Comics leads off with three perhaps unlikely holiday stars: Wolverine, Blade and the Punisher.

In “Wolverine” No. 49, a double-size Christmas special titled “Better to Give,” Logan is among the holiday shoppers at a mid-Manhattan department store on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, the store has been seized by a suicide cult in elf outfits. Wolverine has to save the holiday shoppers, as well as a kidnapped heiress, in time for Christmas.

Meanwhile, Blade, the vampire hunter, is lying low in Bethlehem, Pa., for the holiday.

“Issue No. 4 is definitely a Christmas issue,” writer Mark Guggenheim told www.comicbook resources.com. “I’m a big fan of comic books and TV shows that do Christmas stories, so I jumped at the chance to do one in ‘Blade.’ Issue No. 4 is also the first issue of this run where Blade’s opponent isn’t a vampire. I felt the time was right to mix things up. It appears that Blade’s antagonist is Santa Claus, but not all is necessarily as it seems.”