Santa in Christmas Comic Books
Santa appears in more comic books that you might expect. With a new Batman and Santa team-up arriving soon, here is a quick look at some Santa appearances in Christmas comic books.
Christmas is arriving with reruns of Christmas movies and more Mariah Carey than anyone can handle. The tradition of Christmas comic books flickers into life like the lights on a Christmas tree. This year, DC is doing its best to introduce Santa as a comic book hero with a four-part cross over Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight.
Santa appears to have been working on his upper body strength in the off-season and he’s picked up a machete (bold choice). He’s going to team-up with Batman and solve a brutal crime being committed in Gotham. While it might seem like an unusual situation (not the crime in Gotham, we wouldn’t expect anything less), Santa teaming up with comic book characters has a long history.
In the Golden Age of comics, Christmas specials were common and Wonder Woman delivering presents and Superman chatting with Santa were as familiar as Christmas trees and over-eating. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer even has his own comic book (strongly supported by a cast of Christmas characters).
While the tradition of Christmas in comic books has changed over the last seven decades, Santa has made some interesting, action-packed appearances. Here are a few.
In JLA #60, Plastic Man tells a story about Santa’s gift giving operation falling apart because of the demon Neron. In addition to making Santa bankrupt, Neron corrupts gift giving at Christmas by making each gift carry a terrible cost. Santa travels to Hell and Neron kidnaps Santa.
When a demonic gingerbread man tells the Justice League what has happened, they rush to rescue Santa only to get turn into coal. Santa steps up, battles possess elves and faces off against Neron.
The Howard the Duck Christmas Special features a hostile takeover of Santa’s operation by Hydra bean counters. Howard has to put together an attack squad to attack the North Pole. Santa is in conflicted as he wants to follow the rules but can’t see children disappointed. A little help from Howard and he backs on track to save Christmas.
In Lobo’s Paramilitary Christmas Special, the intergalactic bounty hunter gets an assignment from the Easter Bunny to take out Santa. Except this is a very different version of Santa. Lobo goes after Kris ‘Crusher’ Kringle. Interesting enough, Crusher is swole and selects machetes as his weapon of choice when he goes into single combat with Lobo.
The big difference with Crusher is his annual gift giving is a front for his tyrannical business that involves keeping his workforce underfed to keep them fierce.
Captain Marvel is hoping to spend Christmas at the hospital bed of a friend when she gets restrained and kidnapped by Toxie Doxie. With some horrific scientific experiments in mind, Toxie is going to extract Captain Marvel’s power and use a mall Santa to test her experiments. If anyone needs a Christmas miracle and a little helping hand from Santa, it’s Captain Marvel as she is confined in inhibitor cuffs.
If Santa isn’t appearing directly, he certainly has a direct presence in Christmas comic books.
In Hellboy Christmas Special, Santa doesn’t make a direct appearance, but a dying woman mistakes Hellboy for Santa. An easy mistake to make. They both really rock the colour red. Hellboy does deliver a present (to the dying woman’s daughter who was lost in an underworld of monsters) and does perform a Christmas miracle. So maybe the comparison isn’t so unusual.
Hitman #22 features a disgruntled nuclear power plant worker who is knocked into a vat of chemicals and gets super powers. Except the ability to dissolve a person by touching them doesn’t exactly play well as a hero. Taking a Santa suit, he goes on a rampage through Gotham and needs to be stopped by Hitman.
We can definitely expect some violence in Gotham in the Batman and Santa team-up. But we’ll have to wait until December 5th and the first part of the four-part series to find out exactly what type of Santa we have this year.