Marvel Two-In-One #8 (1975): Christmas Issue

Marvel didn’t do a lot of Christmas issues, but you can count on Steve Gerber to start an issue with Ghost Rider meeting three wisemen on camels in the desert, on Christmas Eve.

ghost rider gerber

Ghost Rider follows them, and then enlists Ben Grimm’s aid by masquerading as an angel.

Uh.  He’s a guy with a flaming skull head on a motorcycle.  Does that sound like Gideon’s trumpet to anyone?  He’s able to ease his flame, though, so that the trio can become the 3 wisemen.

They meet “the creator” who claims to be the father of a child born in a manger.  Turns out, he’s just the Miracle Man (what an appropriate villain!), and Thing punches him out.

Marvel simply doesn’t make books like this anymore.  You can say that as a culture we’ve moved on, but we lost some of our sense of fun and innocence along the way, and made comics seem “adult.”  That was initially on purpose–because creators wanted to be taken seriously and write seriously, while corporate owners wanted to make movies.  But it’s backfired.  Kids don’t read comics any more.  And without them, the market is aging and the audience is disappearing.

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