X-Mas Past with the X-Men

Word Balloons #1191: How Marvel's merry mutants have spent their holiday

December marks the beginning of the holiday season, so for this week’s column, I’m going to look at a few times that Christmas was a real “X-Mas” celebration with the X-Men. 

This was a frequent occurrence in X-Men comics, especially in the 1980s. Most of these comics would have gone on sale around the Christmas holiday in the year before the cover date. 

Uncanny X-Men #98

Very early in the all-new, all-different X-Men saga from Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, the team celebrates Christmas. It’s a white Christmas in New York, as snow falls as the X-Men visit the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. 

Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Banshee, and Moira MacTaggert gather in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The X-Men split up to enjoy the holiday cheer (except for Wolverine, who is a bit of a grinch), but the Sentinels attack, causing the X-Men to jump into action. The events of this issue kick off a multi-part storyline that leads to the birth of the Phoenix, a transformed Marvel Girl with enhanced powers. (Because it’s the X-Men, it’s slightly more complicated than that, of course.)  

This comic has an April 1976 cover date. 

Marvels Epilogue 

The “Marvels” team of Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross teamed up again in 2019 for the series’ 25th anniversary to craft the “Marvels Epilogue,” set during the events of “Uncanny X-Men” #98. Photographer Phil Sheldon takes his children to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, when Sentinels attack. As “Marvels” chronicled the beginnings of Marvels in the Golden Age and into the Silver Age, the epilogue chronicles the emergence of X-Men and other heroes, beginning a new age of comics. (For continuity buffs, this story takes place sometime during the events of issues #2 and #3 of the “Marvels” sequel, “Eye of the Camera,” which featured Busiek but not Ross.) This new 16-page story is the headliner of the 36-page comic, which also features an interview with Busiek and Ross, a sketchbook, and behind-the-scenes material. I find this to be a more upbeat and compelling ending than the original “Marvels” and a fine addition to that classic work.  

Uncanny X-Men #143 (Cover date March 1981) 

The issue was written by Chris Claremont, with art by John Byrne and Terry Austin. 

The title is "Demon.”

The final issue of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s epic run on “Uncanny X-Men” comes to a close in this holiday issue, set on Christmas Eve. Byrne would depart after this issue, being replaced as of issue #145 by Dave Cockrum, whom Byrne had previously replaced.  

It’s during Hanukkah at the time of the issue, and the Jewish Kitty Pryde is alone at the mansion. 

As the rest of the X-Men are off celebrating Christmas, Kitty finds herself facing off against a N'Garai demon, apparently a straggler or remnant of sorts from an earlier battle.  During the battle, the Danger Room and the Blackbird are destroyed, but Kitty proves herself an X-Man to reckon with.   If the comic feels awfully familiar to the recently released at the time “Alien,” that’s less coincidence than homage.   

These are just a few of the times Marvel has had a merry “X”-Mas – keep an eye on the back issue bins for these and other holiday classics! 

Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.