TRANS-SCRIBE: Batman / Santa Claus: Silent Knight #4

Thursday, 4 January 2024

Batman / Santa Claus: Silent Knight #4 - Comic Review

Christmas might be over now, but there's still time to talk about the final issue of Batman / Santa Claus: Silent Knight. This weekly festive mini-series was a genuine delight to read, and was, in my opinion, better than most of the one-shot anthologies that DC puts out around the holiday season.

This issue picks up where the last one left off, with Superman possessed by an evil entity that was controlling Krampus, and being forced to fight the assembled heroes. Meanwhile, Damian is being held captive by Krampus, who's struggling between his natural desire to just frighten him and let him go, and the evil voice in his head telling him to kill the boy wonder.

This is perhaps the most action packed of the four issues that manages to strike a nice balance between the festive characters and the DC heroes who've come along to help. Most of the characters get a moment to shine and do something, and it feels like those that were picked to come and join in this adventure were picked for a reason (other than the Bat Family just tagging along). It's been a genuine delight to see people like Jaimie Reyes and Miss Martian in the book.

And that kind of fun is the general feeling when reading this issue. Damian is trapped with Krampus, and knows that he needs to stall for time and to play along with the scenario that Krampus is expecting, so starts crying and pretending to be scared, calling for his dad. It's ridiculous to see, and it's really funny in the moment, but it still fits Damian as a character because he's acting tactically. It's like the moment when Superman first enters the book, looking angry with glowing red eyes, but he's just upset that Bruce never told him that he knew Santa was real. It's silly, but it fits.

This is the kind of thing that works for Christmas, books that border on the absurd that you can't really get away with at any other time of the year. And this series has done that so well. Bringing Santa into the DC universe as an ancient god who's an amazing warrior that inspired the legend, and also worked with/possibly helped train Batman shouldn't work, but Jeff Parker manages to bring it all together, to the point where I'm hoping Santa stories like this become a semi-regular thing. Give us a new adventure every couple of years with different characters.

The art on the issue, by Stephen Segovia, and Danny Kim, with Alex Sinclair doing colours, looks great, and every creature and new character designed for the series is fantastic. I love the look that Santa has, and the Krampus is near enough to what it traditionally used for the character whilst still feeling unique in itself. The fight scenes are all dynamic and filled with a ton of energy, and it was great to see this team tackle some characters that I really love but that don't often get the spotlight.

Overall, this was a fun end to a really unexpectedly great series that proved to be the perfect way to lead into the holiday season.