She-Hulk throws a holiday party and invites the entire Marvel U! Deadpool teams up with both Hawkeyes – Kate and Clint – to…stop a pickpocket?! Ms. Marvel takes on her most dangerous threat yet: the holiday blues! And then there’s the reason for the season(al special): GWENPOOL!

Gwenpool Special #1? Really, this is She-Hulk Special if anything in this rather odd one-shot that spins out of Howard the Duck #1 which featured the popular Gwenpool. Well, if you’re here for Gwenpool, you might be disappointed, especially since she doesn’t show up until about page 40.

These types of one-shots are interesting in that they can be good, but they tend to be really bad, and this absolutely falls in the latter. The fact that it has Gwenpool in the title, but lacks her within, screams to me cash-in and while the comic is about 60 pages (with ads), it’s $5.99 you don’t need to spend.

Featuring a group of writers and artists, the quality bounces all around as one would expect as the comic is made up of a bunch of short stories that are supposed to connect, but that never quite works out in what feels like a natural way. Some is entertaining, but most of it’s not.

The art too is all over the place with different styles and different qualities. Some works, some doesn’t, a lot of it is really bad.

As a whole, the comic feels a lot like a cash grab, especially with the fact that Gwenpool whose name is in the title is within so few of the pages. This is a comic that as a kid, I’d totally have bought only to walk away disappointed. I struggled to read it all. Don’t fall for the title, this is a comic to absolutely skip this week.

Story: Gerry Duggan, Charles Soule, Christopher Hastings, Margaret Stohl
Art: Danilo Beyruth, Langdon Foss, Gurihiru, Juan Gedeon
Story: 4 Art: 4 Overall: 4 Recommendation: Pass

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review