Some thoughts about New Year's Evil #1

How do the villains of the DCU celebrate the Holidays?

Across the world, several criminals and people who live between good and evil try to spent their time the best they can before the end of the year, no matter who they can hurt.

A new special arrives that reminds me that this year about to be over and DC knows how to exploit to create a few interesting stories focusing on the Holidays.

The first one belongs to the Joker written Gabriel Hardman and Corrina Bechko about a Joker imitator who clearly doesn't make the Clown Prince of Crime too happy, it touches a few fun aspects about the villain including his egocentrism and love for chaos, not too impressive but a good read still. Hardman handles the pencils himself and is pretty solid with a gritty style that is appropriate.

The following tale is written by Kenny Porter about the Toyman who is tired of kids stopping playing with toys since they're too busy with their phones which is a fun concept in and of itself, the fact that he uses characters from the 90s like Kyle Rayner and Electric Superman to represent his action figure themes makes sense since that's when such toys were the most popular and the ending even provides a sort of heartwarming resolution for the villain. Ramon Villalobos handles the art and is pretty good with an expressive style reminiscent of Frank Quitely's.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson delivers a segment about Sinestro who has inspired a whole race in his own good and bad ways, touching his morally grey characterization, the writer manages to nail the portrayal. Sumit Kumar's artwork is vibrant and able to depict the cosmic scenes nicely.

Then sadly arrives a story written by Jim Kreig about Poison Ivy which is not much of a story as much as about trying to make a statement (because those work so well). Ivy has decided to help some people before the end of the year and there's one in particular who she immediately calls "Incel". For those who don't know "Incels" are supposedly men who are unable to find girlfriends for being either too ugly or too awkward but they're actually sexist since they only see women as objects. The first problem here is that she calls the guy like that without even knowing him and so, it makes no sense for her to make such assumption, second and most importantly: PEOPLE DON'T USE THAT WORD IN REAL LIFE! It's just an obscure term that particular groups like to use both to describe themselves (which is dumb) or to insult (which is also dumb). And the story concludes with the guy actually turning out to be pretty sexist once Ivy forces him to be himself (because of course he does) and Ivy brutally murdering him (because of course she does). This is pretty much worthless and the only saving point is Aneke's pretty art.

Dan Watters offers a story about a fight between Ares and Wonder Woman which turns out to be much more complex about the scenario and characters thankfully. Alessando Vitti handles the art and I'm glad to see him again since I haven't seen his expressive work since Red Lanterns.

The following tale is dedicated to Black Adam by Ram V which is about trying to find a wizard who has a strange resemblance to Santa Claus to give gifts to the kids of Kahndaq. Just like the Sinestro story, it manages to be compelling and perfectly appropriate for a morally grey character like Black Adam. Anthony Spay is on art duties and his work does a decent job at following the script.

Christos Gage returns to DC Comics to write a story about the Calendar Man and how dangerous he can be as a villain while paying a bit of respect to Batman as well. It's well written and has interesting moments. Karl Mostert's pencils are pretty expressive and detailed.

There's actually a tale about an obscure villain like Chronos written by Dave Wielgosz and even more surprising is that one of the most complex and engaging segments of the bunch concerning how Chronos tries to change his own past to make someone close to him love him but sometimes the past can't be changed. Cian Tormey's artstyle follows the story perfectly with a lot of detail.

And if a story about the Toyman is not enough, there's also a story about the Prankster written by Kurt Busiek who is allowed to have some fun with the concept and his love for Superman. Dale Eaglesham's art is pretty expressive as usual.

Finally Vita Ayala offers a segment between Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya where the former tries to make the latter happy after breaking up with her girlfriend, is short and sweet. Elena Casagrande's artwork is beautiful too.

Overall, a pretty solid one-shot aside from a really awful story. Good work.