And now, in a celebration of the spirit of the holidays, we take you to the Spider-Man Christmas Spectacular, and one Peter Parker, enjoying himself at Ben Grimm's annual Hanukkah party at the Fantastic Four's home in the Baxter Building.
However, Peter's seasonal celebration is interrupted by a call from his Aunt May, who has booked a Christmas cruise, leaving Spider-Man on his own for the holiday season. (This is sadly on brand, Peter is one of those people who would have no luck at all if it weren't for bad luck.)
The next morning, he's awakened by a phone call - it's an invitation to a Christmas party at the Impossible City, the Avengers' orbital headquarters, where he is swamped with holiday invitations as he mingles with the guests: Iron Man invites him to go skiing, the Vision suggests that he could spend the holiday break with him, Wanda, their son and his boyfriend, Thor wants him to come to Asgard for the Holy Day*, Hellcat is having a rager, Doctor Strange encourages him to come to the Dream Dimension, and so on. Overwhelmed with invitations, he thanks everyone and makes his exit.
Christmas Eve finds him on a Hell's Kitchen rooftop with Daredevil, preparing to sneak into an refugee center with a bag of gifts for homeless children.
At this point, Peter has become a bit suspicious of all the attention, and ask Daredevil if he's one of his charity cases, to which Daredevil replies that maybe he's the one who didn't want to be alone on Christmas Eve, and that Spider-Man is the one being merciful.
Surprisingly, Christmas Day starts with Peter arriving at the New Orleans airport. He's greeted by Wolverine, who drives them to a house in the bayou, where the X-Men are celebrating Christmas together. They're welcomed by Rogue and Nightcrawler, and when Peter thanks Rogue for the invitation, she says that "...when Logan told us you were going to be all alone on Christmas, you know we couldn't have that." Peter turns to Logan and begins to ask "How did...?" but Logan dodges the question.
Gumbo is eaten, ugly sweaters are judged, gifts are exchanged, pie is eaten, and then the group moves outside for a game of baseball. Isolated in the outfield, Peter finally pins Logan down as to how he knew that Peter was on his own.
As Peter talks to Logan, one of the younger X-Men interrupts with Peter's ringing cell phone. It's Aunt May - her cruise has been cancelled due to mechanical problems, and she's back in New York. Peter immediately drops everything, and begs for someone to fly, teleport or throw him back to Manhattan.
As it turns out, Gambit has a friend with a plane who owes him a favour, and Peter is able to spend the rest of Christmas Day with Aunt May, and then the New Year on her rescheduled cruise a week later.
It's a charming little story, without a punch being thrown, and it points out the degree to which the superhero community is exactly that - a community, in which there are friendships and feuds, where people date, hang out, spend holidays together**, and which rallies together when one of their own is in need of a little seasonal love and support.
As should we all. Merry Christmas, everyone! The very best of the season to all, and to all, a good night.
- Sid
* One feels that there should be some kind of religious conflict of interest here, but Thor simply says that he doesn't pass up any noble holidays, and it's left at that.***
** I assume that Hollywood works in a similar fashion.
*** As it turns out, Jesus has a canonical existence in the Marvel Comics Universe - which makes sense, given that the Ghost Rider's origin story is that he made a deal with the Devil, and there's a character named Daimon Hellstrom who is the son of Satan. Logically, if you include Hell and Satan in your worldview, then Heaven and God must also be part of the picture.
