It's our yearly Comics Should Be Good Advent Calendar! Every day until Christmas Eve, you can click on the current day's Advent Calendar post and it will show the Advent Calendar with the door for that given day opened and you can see what the "treat" for that day will be! You can click here to see the previous Advent Calendar entries. This year, the theme is a Totally Tubular 80s Christmas! Each day will be a Christmas comic book story from the 1980s, possibly ones that have a specific 1980s bent to it (depends on whether I can come up with 24 of them).

The drawing for this year's Advent Calendar, of Miami Vice Santa Claus giving out 80s presents, like a Rubik's Cube and a Sony Walkman, to four superheroes with the most-80s costumes around, is by Nick Perks.

Each day, a door on the calendar will be opened (once opened, the door will feature a panel from the featured story)...

Here's the story for Day 14, Christmas 1988's "The Tree" from D.P.7 #30 by Mark Gruenwald, Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi.

D.P.7 was the only New Universe title to last the entire run of the New Universe (from 1986 to 1989) with a single writer, as the book's creator, Mark Gruenwald, stuck with the title while all of the other New Universe creators left (some before their given title even launched). Paul Ryan also stayed on the book for the entire run. Heck, even after it ended in early 1989, Ryan and Gruenwald simply moved on to another series, Quasar, which eventually revisited D.P.7 later in that series run (with Quasar traveling to different dimensions).

The title refers to "Displaced Paranormals." Originally, there were seven normal humans who suddenly gained paranormal abilities and decided to stick together to protect themselves when they broke out of a clinic for paranormals and became outlaws.

Over the years, the cast changed and characters came and went and by the end of the run, a handful of them were living together in New York City. In #30, Stephanie (Glitter) and Jenny (Chrome, a character who was brought over to D.P.7 from another, canceled New Universe title) are getting a Christmas tree along with Stephanie's three kids when they are assaulted. The women are handling themselves fairly well, but when one of Stephanie's kids gets threatened, they are in luck when a real life superhero shows up! Another paranormal calling himself Captain Metropolis shows up, costume and all, and saves the day.

The idea of using their powers for good intrigues Jenny...

The book was very much a soap opera at the time, with Stephanie deciding she wanted to go back to her hometown of Wisconsin, which upsets Dave Landers (Mastadon), the team's strong guy, who is in love with her. However, one of their other paranormal friends, Miriam (Sponge) was in love with Dave, so she's thrilled that Stephanie might be leaving.

Anyhow, we also see that the city's gangs have been joined by some evil paranormals, who Gruenwald cleverly named after famous rock songs...

Anyhow, the heroes and Stephanie's kids go to Rockefeller Center to see the big Christmas tree when the tree is stolen by the bad guys!

It's a plot to just lure Captain Metropolis into a trap. The other paranormals help Captain Metropolis save the tree.

Dave then dresses as Santa Claus for the kids, but when Stephanie kisses him, Miram is none too thrilled...

D.P.7 was a nice, kindhearted soap opera series. It's such a tragedy that we've lost both Gruenwald AND Ryan in the years since.

DOES ANYTHING IN THIS COMIC SCREAM 'TOTALLY TUBULAR 80s'?

The New Universe, in and of itself, screams the 80s, so there ya go. There are also some fashions in the issue that are very 80s, but really, just the New Universe as a whole.