We continue our Spider-Man Christmas with 1996's "A Christmas Story" from Sensational Spider-Man #24 by Todds DeZago and Nauck and inker Andrew Hennessey...

I thought it'd be fun to do back-to-back DeZago stories!

Man, you know how stories in long-running comic book series sometimes have a timeless feeling to them and sometimes they don't? This is definitely one of those latter stories. It is not just because it is tied so directly to a then-current plot point where Spider-Man had a million dollar bounty on his head courtesy of Norman Osborn. No, it is that this whole comic revolves around Spider-Man's deep drive to get the perfect Christmas present...for....Billy Walters?!?! Come on, Spider-fans, who in the world remembers Billy Walters?

He was a Daily Bugle intern who became a freelance reporter and worked with Peter. Peter at first disliked him but soon grew to like the guy and then their friendship became strained and then DeZago wrote him out of the book right before Sensational Spider-Man ended with the Mackie/Byrne reboot. Anyhow, this is at the point in their relationship where Peter really liked the guy and felt like a jerk when he didn't get Billy a present, so he spends the whole issue trying to figure out the perfect gift for Billy, which he figures out in the end (Billy is a big Spider-Man fan)...

This isn't a bad comic, but it is just funny when you reflect on how some new supporting characters stick around and others, well, don't.