An Outsiders Christmas Carol

The Outsiders have been celebrating Christmas for a few years, and Charles Dickens' classic tale has been around for a few years longer....

....so, it only makes sense to mash them together!  

Outsiders 

Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo brought us "A Christmas Carol - 1985" in Outsiders #5 (March, 1986), with the Scrooge like character being Eben Mudge, a man who was forced into being a mob account 40 years ago for Tommy Sinclair, after losing his partner at Christmas time.

The Outsiders try a Christmas Carol operation on him to try to get him to turn state's evidence, with Katana putting a samurai potion in his coffee to make him suggestible.  Mudge is then visited by the ghost of his old partner (Geo-Force), who tells him of the three ghosts who will come next.  

Halo arrives as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Metamorpho as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Black Lightning as the Ghost of Christmas Future.  Mudge not only gives up the evidence to telepathic Looker (who needed the trip down memory lane to probe his mind), but also convinced the man to reconcile with his estranged family.

As a back up tale by Mike W. Barr and Trevor Von Eeden, Black Lightning and Katana help save a department store from thieves who kidnapped the store's Santa's son!

Adventures Of The Outsiders

Now, a year later in Adventures Of The Outsiders #43 (March, 1987), this tale was reprinted for the newsstand (The Outsiders followed in the footsteps of the New Teen Titans and the Legion of Super-Heroes having a Baxter series direct to comic shops, then a year later, reprinted the tales for newsstand distribution).

This experiment didn't last long (only 8 issues in The Outsiders case), but did give us this Kevin Maquire/Bruce Patterson variant cover of Jim Aparo's original cover.   The Outsiders had had a few previous Christmas tales, one meeting with Phantom Stranger, the other with Superman, and A Christmas Carol was also used by the Teen Titans as well!