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Every Christmas, Santa Claus manages to squeeze into his crimson, crushed velvet livery and deliver gifts to each good boy and girl around the world. How does jolly old Saint Nick pull off such a preposterous task, year after year? The answer, like most things in life, lies in comic books.
From earning a lifetime induction into the Justice League of America to being considered one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, Santa Claus has proven to be an incredibly powerful entity in comics, especially during the holiday season. Not only can his advent in these stories bring good tidings of great joy, but it can also invite a winter wonderland of violence that would make John McClain blush (Now Kris Kringle has a machine gun, ho-ho-ho).
This yuletide expedition will look at some of the most significant and memorable Santa Claus moments in comic books for the big merry man in red. So, set out some fresh Christmas cookies with milk and bring an open mind because these festive fables are not all sugar plums and candy canes.
DC Comics Appearances
Although Santa Claus appeared in comic strip collections like Rainbow #98 as early as 1915, DC Comics was the first comic book publisher to bring the seasonal symbol into their universe. In 1938, Superman exploded onto the scene out of the pages of Action Comics #1. It was inevitable that he would soon cross paths with the traditional American holiday hero, Santa.
Santa’s First Comic Book Adventure
In 1940 DC Comics published Superman’s Christmas Adventure #1, written by Jerry Seigel and with art by Jack Burnley. The issue begins with Superman showing a spoiled rich boy; there are those who are truly unfortunate, especially at Christmas (this pays off later). In the meantime, two villains who hate the holiday, Doctor Grouch and Mister Meaney, kidnap Lois Lane and even gas Santa’s reindeer, making it impossible for Saint Nick to deliver the Yuletide gifts.
Impossible, that is, until Superman steps in as a Rudolph, of sorts. Kal-El, with his gift of flight, helps to guide Santa’s sleigh tonight. Later, Santa even forgives the villains, giving them gifts, and they decide Christmas and Santa Claus are both great! And that coddled child from the beginning? The issue ends with him on his way (with his butler, of course) to distribute gifts to those less fortunate than himself. You’ve got to love the perfect, unambiguous endings of the 1940s.
Introducing The Newest Member Of The JLA…Santa Claus?
In JLA #60 (2002), written by Mark Waid and drawn by Cliff Rathburn, Plastic Man is tasked with convincing two young skeptics that Santa Claus is indeed real. He assures them that he is; he’s even a member of the JLA! Unconvinced, good old Plastic Man decides to tell them the tale of when Mr. Claus helped the JLA defeat Neron, a fallen angel of Hell who, of course, had given out mean-spirited gifts to the children of the world.
Trapped by the villain in a giant plastic toy container, Santa melts his way out with Superman-like heat vision and then proceeds to beat the tinsel out of the bad guys. Maybe the JLA should bring in the jolly red giant to help more often.
Lobo Versus Crusher Kringle
Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special #1 (1992) is one of the most absurd and violent entries in Santa’s comic book history. Writers Keith Giffen and Alan Grant spin a story of Lobo meeting a drunken Easter Bunny in a seedy bar about a hit job. It turns out; the Easter Bunny is vindictive because of how Santa overshadows all the other holiday icons. The Main Man is more than happy to take the gig. So he jumps on his “Space Hog” to head for the North Pole.
After slaughtering a workshop of pop-gun wielding elves, Lobo finally gets to Kris “Crusher” Kringle (who, naturally, is accompanied by his massive gorilla, Kong). The fight is brutal and bloody. In the end, Santa loses his head, literally, as Lobo decapitates him for the finishing blow. For good measure, Lobo drags the mutant reindeer, Rudolph, out back and puts him down. He goes on to rain gifts of H-bombs down around the world using Santa’s sleigh. Maybe avoid reading this one to the kiddos on Christmas Eve.
Santa Always Gets His Man
Darkseid is one of the most powerful beings in all of DC Comics. Yet, as seen in Ty Templeton’s story in DCU Holiday Bash #2 (1998), every December 25, Santa Claus manages to penetrate the supervillain’s fortress on the desolate planet of Apokolips with relative ease.
Jolly old Santa goes through all this trouble just to deliver the one thing that the evil Darkseid deserves: a lump of coal. No matter how prepared the big bad is, Saint Nick always gets DC’s naughtiest villain his due gift of shame.
Marvel Comics Appearances
Although Santa Claus first appeared in a short Stan Lee story in Marvel (then Atlas) Comics back in Strange Tales #34 (1955), his presence and power in the Marvel Universe would only increase as the years went on.
The Most Powerful Mutant Ever Detected Is…Santa Claus?
In Marvel’s Holiday Special #1 (1991), written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by Dave Cockrum, the X-Men are alerted that the most powerful mutant ever detected has been located in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. When they arrive, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are there looking for the same thing. They start to fight because, comics. But they are interrupted when the Brotherhood are transmuted into tiny plastic toys by none other than Santa Claus.
When the X-Men realize that he is the powerful mutant they were looking for, Santa decides he doesn’t care to deal with their comic book drama. He flicks his nose, and the X-Men are teleported away and their memories wiped of the event. That is pure power right there. Cap and Iron Man sure could’ve used those talents in Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019). Come to think of it; I need to see a Mjolnir wielding Santa Claus.
Hitler Kidnaps Santa
There is no other way to title this entry. Fred Hembeck wrote and drew this issue in which Captain America tells a story about a Christmas adventure back in 1943 when Hitler did the unthinkable in order to crush the United State’s morale: he kidnapped Santa Claus.
Admittedly, this was a pretty good idea considering how much we love Christmas in the U.S. Except that in this Hitler’s world, FDR had Captain America, Bucky, and the Howling Commandoes to send over to rescue old Saint Nick. Sorry, der Fuhrer, no happy holidays for you.
I Am Santa Doom!
In Scott Lobdell and John Byrne’s What The-?! #10 (1991), it’s Christmas Eve in Latveria, and Doctor Doom is brooding in his lair when one of his cartoonish traps (a bear trap the size of a smart car) goes off. The intruder is none other than Santa Claus. He turns out to be injured to the point of not being able to deliver the obligatory holiday gifts. Kringle asks Doom to do the right thing and fill in, but the villain required something in return to do it. Santa promises to give him something his heart desires if he completes the night of chimney diving and present placing. Santa Doom is born!
The crimson-clad Doom runs into the Fantastic Four, who assume that he is up to no good. They fight until a little girl at a children’s hospital near the commotion asks why the heroes are beating on Santa (mistaking the disguised Doom for him). To make her and many of the other children in the hospital happy and to give them a merry Christmas, Doom lives up to the red hat and sash and acts as though he is indeed Saint Nick.
When the real Santa has recovered, he offers Doom a wish that his heart desires, but he quickly responds that he already received an important gift. I dare you not to tear up when you see the last panel of Doctor Doom smiling and snuggling a teddy bear given to him by that little girl from the hospital.
Ghost Rider Is Santa Claus?
This isn’t technically an actual appearance of Santa Claus in comic books, but it’s still one of the best tales about the spirit of Santa. Or should I say the Spirit of Vengeance? Written by Howard Mackie and drawn by John Hebert, the story “The Ghost of Christmas Present” in Marvel Holiday Special #1 (1991) has Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, fill the big black boots of Saint Nick.
Some criminals kidnap a young blind boy on Christmas Eve, but he manages to slip away to a cemetery where he begins to pray to Santa Claus for help. When the bad guys show up, they mock him for believing in Santa and even slap him to the ground. Enter Ghost Rider, who knocks the holly jolly hell out of them. Hearing his trademark chains and feeling his thick black boots, the boy believes Ghost Rider to be the one and only Santa! The Rider takes the boy on a fiery motorcycle ride through the sky, who thinks he’s spending Christmas Eve on Santa’s flying sleigh. The Spirit of Vengeance and the spirit of Christmas were one and the same that night.
Other Comic Book Publishers
Santa Claus’s history in comic books is more storied in the DC and Marvel universes, but he has appeared plenty in other publisher’s content as well. There are too many to mention, but one stands out more than the others.
Santa Claus: Year One
Boom! Studios‘ Klaus by Grant Morrison and Dan Mora tells a medieval origin story of the Christmas legend through the character of Klaus. After seeing a nearby town where evil has enslaved the people into working the coal mines and banning children from having or playing with toys, he is possessed by the good spirits of nature. He fashions toys for the children and delivers them throughout the town. Eventually, Klaus even frees the people from enslavement after being granted the powers of immortality, among others, by the good-natured spirits.
Oh, and he defeats a demon that feasts on children. Very festive, right? Ever since that first year of taking back the town and giving gifts to the kids, Klaus has taken to the sky in his sleigh pulled by eight great wolves to continue delivering presents to those that need a little spark at the end of a dark year.
Gone But Never Forgotten
As the year ends, so too do the magical tales of Santa Claus that have been spread joyously throughout our society the past month and a half. Nevertheless, tales of Saint Nick’s jolly ways will return just as strong as next year’s winds down.
It would do us all some good to consider that Santa is still watching over us all year long, judging if we are naughty or nice. We can try to fight it and keep up our evil ways, like Darkseid, forever doomed to a lump of Christmas coal, or we can embrace the true spirit of Christmas to be good and kind-hearted all year long, reaping the rewards of peace and joy.