In this review of Batman — Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1, Santa returns to help Damian and Zatanna after members of the Justice League go missing.
Batman — Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1 main cover by Bernard Chang
BATMAN — SANTA CLAUS: SILENT KNIGHT RETURNS #1
Written by JEFF PARKER
Art by LUKAS KETNER
Main Cover by BERNARD CHANG
Variant covers by DAN MORA, KEVIN WADA, ERICA HENDERSON, DAN HIPP
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: November 27, 2024
Summary:
Batman — Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1 begins in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt, where a ghostly suit of armor terrorizes workers by mummifying them. Green Lantern struggles to contain the knight and calls the Justice League for help. Zatanna, video chatting with fellow Constantine, is interrupted by Damian Wayne (Robin), who seeks her assistance against the armor.
He tells her how Superman, uncharacteristically furious, confronted the knight but is struck down instantly. Nubia attempted to fight but has a vision of monsters in Themyscira when their swords clash. As Justice League members failed against the knight, Batman studied it, sending Robin and Thunderheart for help. Thunderheart was caught in the creature’s trap but managed to push Robin to safety before vanishing into smoke.
Robin tells Zatanna all this next to a Christmas tree, Santa’s wiretap. Santa Claus suddenly appears offering assistance after overhearing their conversation. He tells them he thinks it’s a monster who escaped last year. The city erupts into chaos, and Robin and Santa intervene while Zatanna researches a mysterious symbol Robin saw on the knight’s armor.
Back with the League, they save Thunderheart but find themselves in an impassible fog prison. They confront a Titan-like creature accusing them of trespassing. Though they defeat it, Batman warns that the knight is draining their life and power—and has built a castle using human lives.
Review:
Batman — Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1 was…okay. I will say, the writing in the first story last year was not amazing. It has lots of awkward conversations, dad-joke one liners, and some poor characterization. However, the story itself was charming, the art was fun, and it was an interesting take on the relationship between two beings I grew up with – St. Nicklas and Krampus.
So far, this is not that. It is a new writer, so maybe it’s unfair to compare, but so far no one is delightful, except for Constantine who has a one panel cameo fighting off goblin spiders while Zatanna is drinking absinth. The new big bad has no personality and is just killing people to increase the value of his foggy real estate. He doesn’t even talk.
I’m not familiar with most of the Leaguers, but Batman, Superman, and Damian seem a little out of character. Superman loses his temper quickly and resorts to violence, Damian emotionally flip flops between loving his cocoa and worrying about the situation (he also didn’t know what a quill was called which, eh), and Batman is just observing instead of planning or doing something.
Santa comes in at the end of Batman — Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1 just to deliver some exposition and then immediately takes Batman’s place while making Zatanna do a book report.
While I do hope to see fun interaction between Bat-Santa and Robin next issue, I don’t have high hopes for this story. It is only the first issue, so I guess “story set up” should be expected, and it will have five issues to tell the story, but I was pretty sad and how little Santa there was, and how mean and boring the villain was. Nothing yet has pulled my interest or has me that invested.
The art in Batman — Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1 was fine, lost of color and action, though sometimes the characters are posed a little awkwardly, for instance when Mera comes out of the fog with Thunderheart her head looks strangely disconnected from her body.
It’s obvious a lost of the artist’s love and attention went to Santa, who looks pretty bad ass and huggable.
Final Thoughts
Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1 shows potential, but its debut issue lacks the spark and fun interactions that made last year’s story memorable. With four issues left, there’s room for improvement, especially in exploring the relationship between Robin and Santa. Here’s hoping future installments deliver more engaging character dynamics and a more compelling villain.
If you would like to buy a copy of this title, and help support The Batman Universe at the same time, consider purchasing this book at Amazon or Things From Another World.
