Batman/Santa Claus: Silent Knight #1 – Jeff Parker; Writer; Michele Bandini, Artist; Alex Sinclair, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The Christmas special is a time-honored tradition—DC will have its own holiday anthology in a few weeks—but over the last few years, there’s been a swing in how some holiday icons are portrayed. Between David Harbour’s Violent Night and the Klaus series from Boom, a lot of media has been showing Santa Claus not as a kindly fat man bringing gifts but as a Yuletide warrior. An immortal magic man from the north who defies the laws of physics? Sounds like a DC character, and he’s about to make his debut for a team-up with Batman. Jeff Parker, best known for some of the more out-there and old-school DC comics in recent memory, kicks things off with a prequel in which some primordial Norse vampires prey on a group of carolers, bringing the attention of Batman, Robin, and Zatanna. But when the monsters prove to be more vicious than expected, Kris Kringle comes calling.
This Santa—although he doesn’t call himself that and doesn’t seem interested in Christmas at the moment—is a proud Norse warrior with an interesting backstory as a monster hunter. That is, until he befriended an odd monster named Krampus who seemed harmless but had a taste for scaring kids. Kris would carve little toys to give the kids Krampus scared, and it became an unlikely partnership—until things went horribly wrong. The fact that Krampus is the main villain here isn’t a surprise, but the new character design is fantastic. The thing about this comic is, it sounds like a joke comic but it’s really not—at all. There’s a serious threat that takes Batman out of his comfort zone, and Santa is another warrior from a different sector of heroism to partner with. It takes the absurdity of the concept for granted and instead gives us an action-packed winter thrill ride that fits perfectly in the DCU.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
