Despite the so-called "Big Two" going toe-to-toe every Christmas season with their respective holiday specials, this year marks another win for DC as they beat Marvel in the Halloween department with the release of "DC Universe: Halloween Special 2009."

Now, Marvel probably has its reasons for not releasing a true Halloween special (only, with supernatural-themed books like "Ghost Rider," "Doctor Voodoo" and others, they totally don't seem to) but they're probably not good enough to ward off trick-or-treaters who want to egg the House of Ideas for complacency.

To my knowledge, Marvel hasn't had a full-on Halloween special in recent memory the way DC has (annual short-story anthologies from multiple creative teams and starring spooky characters), which seems like a super missed opportunity.This summer's "Spider-Man: The Short Halloween" written by Saturday Night Live cast members Bill Hader and Seth Meyers boasted a really fun Halloween story, featuring quality content and in a way that more or less proves the true potential for an annual DC-style Halloween book from Marvel.

According to sales numbers from the Beat, "SMTSH" actually did pretty well at retail to boot, meaning Marvel probably shouldn't deny its fans a spook-tacular treat next year.

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