Amac Productions

Flash dashes through the snow, except… he doesn’t.

Ironically, Flash doesn’t appear until the very end of this special holiday comic book. Instead, we’re treated to Wally West and Jay Garrick.

They’re spending time together until Wally is just far too anxious to sit still anymore. The two speedsters don their costumes and race around the city looking for something to do.

A bunch of good deeds here and there, turn into a life changing event for one woman.

After nearly being run down by a car, Maria goes into labor. Not only that, but husband Joey is working his final hours at a department store he’s been fired from.

I just need to stop the summary for a moment to question who fires someone and then makes them finish their shift. Who stays as well? Like hey, if you’re letting me go, I’m going now. I’m not doing you any favors.

Anyway, Jay rushes her to the hospital, and after a bit of searching he finds Joey who has had a change of heart. Although, his partners don’t really care. However, Wally manages to defeat the bad guys and send Joey off to meet with his wife and newborn baby.

The story wraps up as Wally opens his gift from his girlfriend, Linda Park, when the doorbell rings.

On the other side is none other than Barry Allen himself as the ‘One Perfect Gift.’

Where Barry returns from or why really isn’t the point of the heartfelt story.

Stories have a huge impact on us whether we realize it or not.

Take Joey here. He was Santa for the department store, and he heard a story from a little boy who was upset because his father went to prison. This story causes him to change his mind.

After all, the holiday season is when we face a lot of struggles. Suicides rise and so many other crimes too. People are stressed beyond all reason as the holiday rush and craze sets in.

I think we all need a reminder to do better during the holidays. Far too often we allow ourselves to become the worst versions of ourselves. We yell at retail workers, we argue, yell at our kids, let stress get in the way of the holiday cheer, and so much more.

Sometimes, we lose sight of the person we are when we’re not under a mountain of stress.

I think this story is a good reminder of that.

Maybe we don’t all plan to rob the place that fired us. But we’ve probably all done things we regret during the holidays. My mom and her sister stopped speaking on Christmas Eve. A fight neither of them can remember how it got started all these years later, but it broke their relationship until this year. 18 years.

My other aunt came over with Covid and got my Nana sick. She passed in January.

Things happen.

Everything is heightened during the holidays. We spend money. We see family we don’t normally. We have deadlines that feel downright impossible.

However, what matters most is being there for our families.

That other father in the story lost sight of his family. Lost sight of the pain he would cause his son by being absent on Christmas because he’s in jail.

Joey saw that. He saw what he would be doing to his wife and newborn baby. Maybe the money would help right now. But in the long term, it’s not worth it.

Everything seems harder or worse during the holidays. But getting through them and making it to the other side without losing yourself or your family is the most important thing. It’s the people you love and want to spend the holidays with that matter.

Not the money, nor the gifts.

It’s the little things.

Like Wally and Jay helping people out in their free time. Dedicating their family time to doing something good and reminding others what the holidays are really about.

For that, they’re rewarded.

Barry Allen returns to them at the end. In doing the right thing, the world rewards them.

While it’s not always that simple, it’s nice to dream that it is. Read a world where if you do enough good, good things will happen to you in kind. Isn’t that what comics and fairytales are for?

You know the ending. The good guys win. Evil is defeated and everyone lives happily ever after.

Sometimes we need those stories to help us through the difficult times when everything feels impossibly hard.

These kind of comics or stories are my favorites. A simple story about doing the right thing. It’s not too late to change your mind and do the right thing. Even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard.

It’s important to help your fellow man.

And sometimes, life is as simple as the good guy winning.

What are your favorite holiday hero stories?

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