Unbagging Marvel Winter Break Special
Marvel Winter Break Special
#1C
Ivan Talavera Variant
| Release: | Dec 24, 2025 |
| Cover: | Feb 2026 |
Creators
| Writer | Tony Fleecs, Tim Seeley |
| Artist | Tim Seeley, Rickie Yagawa, Justin Mason, Federico Vicentini, Juann Cabal, Stacey Lee, Rachael Stott, Annie Wu, W. Scott Forbes, Nick Bradshaw, Marcus To, Whilce Portacio, Kaare Andrews, Joe Quinones, Stefano Caselli, Ken Lashley, Elena Casagrande |
| Cover Artist | Iván Talavera |
| Colorist | Annie Wu, Kaare Andrews, Edgar Delgado, Stacey Lee, Rachael Stott, Nolan Woodard, Joe Quinones, Rachelle Rosenberg, Chris Sotomayor |
| Letterer | Joe Caramagna |
| Editor | Wil Moss |
| Editor in Chief | C.B. Cebulski |
We owe you an apology.
In a case of “never judge a book by its cover,” I passed this one by when I saw it at the comic shop on Christmas Eve.
I picked it up and glanced at it – but not inside of it – and then put it back down because I didn’t care for the cover, or any of the other covers I saw on the shelf, and because I didn’t look inside, it didn’t actually register with me that this was the latest installment in the modern line up of swimsuit specials.
Later, when I got home, I saw a couple of the pin-ups from it online as well as this variant cover, which would have led me to take more interest in the book if I’d seen it.
Still, on my New Year’s Eve trip to the comic shop, I did *ahem* resolve to pick up a copy, and fortunately I found a copy with this cover that I hadn’t seen the week before.
In any case, I have it now, and it’s the subject of the first Unbagging of 2026.
Like the special from the summer, this one eschews the magazine parody format of the past and instead has a standard narrative as the framing device for the swimsuit pictures.
Indeed, this issue is a direct sequel to the previous special.
The inciting event is Roxxon CEO Dario Agger apologizing for the release of the AI-generated swimsuit special that served as the inciting event for the previous special.
As part of that apology, Roxxon has decided to fix climate change through the use of a device called the Climifier, which will restore the climate of any region to its original state.
Seems like a good deal if it can work, but unfortunately, the plan is to use it to transform the tropical environment of the Savage Land, nestled in a hidden valley in Antarctica, to the same climate as the continent surrounding it.
This would be devastating to the people and prehistoric animals who live there, and it elicits a hearty “Hell no!” from Rogue, who once spent time living in the Savage land, as any X-fan who is attracted to women remembers well. (As does Gambit, when Rogue mentions it as they fly to the Savage Land.)
Indeed, remembering that served as the basis for a recent mini-series which focused on some untold tales of Rogue’s time there, as is pointed out in a pretty decent gag about the retcon.
And of course, the very first swimsuit special also took place in the Savage Land.
In any case, to protect her one-time home, Rogue enlists the aid of the rest of the superhero community.
This time, however, she comes prepared with outfits that are more suitable to the environment – if not to the libidos of the readers – than what she wore in those days.
Unfortunately(?), before the heroes can finish getting changed, a wild velociraptor appears and rips the costumes to shreds.
But the heroes proceed to get on with the task at hand: finding and destroying the Climifier and documenting what Roxxon is up to with the help of Gwendolyn “Gwenpool” Poole who’s there to photograph the action.
However, it isn’t long before they run into some resistance from some of the native villains who are willing to destroy their home in exchange for the money and resources Roxxon has to offer.
The heroes are struggling in the cold, but fortunately, Gwen brought along her pet land shark, Jeff, who can easily take out the baddies, and a bunch of warm sweaters.
Eventually, they find the Climifier, but before they can destroy it, they have to face off against Agger himself, who is no ordinary CEO.
With Agger defeated and the Climifier destroyed, the tropical heat of the jungle returns, and the heroes need to strip out of their bulky clothes, though given how sweaty and grimy they are, that’s not as sexy as it sounds.
However, this is a swimsuit special, so here’s a sampling of some of the pin-ups sprinkled throughout the story.
While the previous installment had more and better covers to choose from, I liked the story of this one more, though my preference for the magazine parody of old remains.
I also got a chuckle out of the title of the letter page.
The art from Nick Bradshaw for the main story suits the humorous tone, though, again, the main event is the pin-ups, which, as with the last one, do not reach the same level of sheer horniness as the pin-ups of the past, but are all well done.
Some of the other pin-up subjects include Ghost Rider, the three male members of the Fantastic Four – though I suppose it’s possible that the Invisible Woman is also there – Elektra, and Tigra by co-writer Tim Seeley.
One thing that’s been interesting to me in these modern specials is that while some of the newer characters do appear, the majority of the pin-ups focus on characters who were just as likely to be featured back in the ’90s.
It’s a fun little throwback that aligns more with modern sensibilities, and it is something that Marvel apparently plans to continue in the new year, so I guess we’ll have to see what comes next.
Born and raised in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Jon Maki developed an enduring love for comics at an early age.
