Batman / Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #2 main cover by Bernard Chang
Batman — Santa Clause: Silent Knight Returns #2
Writer: Jeff Parker
Art: Lukas Ketner and Michele Bandini
Colors: Marcelo Maiolo
Cover: Bernard Chang
Variant Covers: Stephen Bliss, Sanford Greene
Release Date: December 4, 2024
This review contains spoilers
Batman — Santa Clause: Silent Knight Returns #2 begins with the Nitrous Gods taking over Gotham City in Batman’s absence, burning streets and marching in monster trucks. Santa Claus intervenes, defeating their leader, Tickle Monster, and magically putting the gang to sleep. Zatanna reveals the first recorded symbol of “The Knight,” dating back to Arthurian England, and secures an invitation to a Solstice Party where she hopes to uncover more information.
Meanwhile, the Justice League finds themselves in an unknown, freezing location near a castle. Unable to communicate in or out, they are attacked by monsters serving “The Silent Knight.” Korgus, one of the creatures, reveals some of the Knight’s origin—he built an vicious army and was finally quartered and banished when sorcerers severed his realm from the human world. The Knight has now returned, stronger than before, thanks to Superman unintentionally freeing his forces.
At Wintergate Manor in Georgetown, Zatanna, Santa (disguised as Batman), and Robin attend Baron Winters’ Solstice Party. They find Jason Blood, who recounts the Knight’s story. Once a man named Brian of Kent, a Arthurian knight who fell under a curse, Brian ignored Merlin’s warnings and entered the Hollow Kingdom, gaining cursed armor that drained other’s life forces to grow his power. Before the Knights of the Round Table could attack, a group of magi severed his kingdom, but now it threatens to return.
Felix Faust reluctantly summons the Knight after Santa bribes him with Krampus’ presence. The Knight, immediately drawn to Damian, attacks. Santa briefly restrains him, but the Knight escapes and drains Jason Blood’s life force.
Review:
Let’s start with things I liked in Batman — Santa Clause: Silent Knight Returns #2. The art is really fun. The colors are bright, the action is great, and the characters are well done, some being very animated without going too heavy into caricatures. I really like the way that glowing effects are colored. It gives it a warm, Christmassy feel that flows throughout the book. 
I also though the demon fire cat was cool, but that is a very biased opinion. I really hope defeating the Knight will make this guy a little glowing kitty cat.
On my first read-through I was really bored reading the history of The Knight, and while I still think it was a little long winded, and it came from two different sources which made it seem even longer, but it was actually a little interesting.
I also liked seeing Krampus, as his redemption story in the last run was the heart of the story. It was sad that it was very short lived and played more as a gag, but it was still nice seeing him.
Felix Faust being able to call the Knight into their presence and everyone almost immediately losing control was very exciting and Jason’s unknown fate at the end of the story increased the stakes of the story. In fact, most of the background and secondary characters were fun. Some served a purpose and left, and some added a bit of personality and fun to the action, which was entertaining to read.
I don’t have as much to say about the negatives this time around. I liked this much better than the first issue, and I liked it better the second time I read it. Other than the background info going on a bit long, the thing that irked me the most was the lack of screen time (panel space?) that Santa and Robin got. The one thing that got me hyped for this story was that Damian and Santa would be working together, and so far there hasn’t been too much. After going off together, Santa deus ex machina’ed the baddies almost immediately and that was the end of their adventures as a duo.
It was also weird that Batman has been gone for 10 minutes , none of the Batfamily takes over patrol, and the baddies take chaos to the streets. Seems like that should have taken longer to set it as some stories have Batman be gone for months and no one notices. But whatever.
In conclusion, I’m liking Batman — Santa Clause: Silent Knight Returns #2 more than #1, but it isn’t delivering what I was expecting, which is a little disappointing. The art is fun and the story keeps ending on interesting notes, which keeps me wanting to read the next issue.
