Unknown Soldier #237

Joe Kubert's cover for this March 1980 DC war title delivers a wonderfully grim holiday twist: the bandage-faced Unknown Soldier reaches up to crown a small Christmas tree with a star, surrounded by fellow soldiers and wrapped gifts in the snow — while a line of armed, hooded figures looms ominously in the wintry forest behind them. That tagline, "Have a Deadly Little Christmas…," says everything about the tone Bob Haney and artist Dick Ayers bring to "No God in St. Just!" — a story title that hints at something far darker than holiday cheer. It's the kind of wartime irony DC's war books did so well, and this issue wears it with genuine style.