The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special was the second Marvel Special Presentation. It was released a month after Werewolf by Night.

Major Spoilers Follow

The plot of the special saw Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) go to Earth to get Kevin Bacon and bring him back to Knowhere as a Christmas gift for Star-Lord (Chris Pratt). The special also featured Nebula (Karen Gillan), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel), and Kraglin (Sean Gunn). It also introduced Cosmo the dog (Maria Bakalova). Yondu (Michael Rooker) appeared in a few animated sequences.

This served as the finale of Phase 4 following Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I enjoyed The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special a lot when it premiered. I liked it just as much the second time around. It is a fun special and is a great Christmas special. Mantis and Drax got to shine in this. Kevin Bacon was very enjoyable playing himself. This is a fairly stand alone special but still fits within the bigger MCU. The events of Kevin Bacon being kidnapped by Mantis and Drax is referenced in a newspaper in the end credit scene of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The special also revealed that the Guardians bought Knowhere from the Collector (Benicio Del Toro) which officially revealed that The Collector is still alive. It was speculated that Thanos (Josh Brolin) had killed The Collector when he got the Reality Stone. It had the introduction of Cosmo who was part of the team in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is a great addition to the MCU and is a fun finale for Phae 4. It really is pure joy, which is very important since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had a much darker story. This was the second Special Presentation, and I am curious if there will be anymore Marvel Special Presentations or if this will be the end of that. Time will tell what Marvel does next.