Santa is canon in the Marvel and DC comic universes — here’s proof

Each December, heroes and heroines across the superhero world are pulled into unusually seasonal experiences that draw upon their powers of goodwill and cheer as a lot as their tremendous energy. It’s solely a matter of pages earlier than Jolly Outdated Saint Nick himself, Santa Claus, seems and reminds everybody to assume good ideas if they need a cheerful morning on Dec. 25.

You don’t need to know fairly what number of yuletide tales I’ve in my comedian assortment — and but regardless of their overwhelming quantity, there are these on the market who’re of the opinion that such tales don’t really depend. Folks firmly consider, of their two-sizes-too-small hearts, that any story through which Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or whoever groups up with Father Christmas isn’t really canon. To these folks, there’s only one factor to say in response: humbug!

Santa is canon. And I can show it.

Santa’s Huge Two comics profession really obtained began at DC, means again in 1940’s Superman’s Christmas Journey. The one-shot groups the Man of Metal and the Man With The Huge White Beard towards the splendidly named Dr. Grouch and Mr. Meaney, two previous males for whom Ebeneezer Scrooge was clearly a private inspiration. Christmas Journey — written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, with artwork from Jack Burnley — manages to create a framework {that a} vital variety of later tales would observe, even when they might lack the fantastically purple prose that Siegel gives the fortunate reader.

“Yuletide! Interval of gaiety and good will amongst males! It appears hardly potential that anybody may very well be so imply as to sabotage such a beloved occasion, however Dr. Grouch, gloomy killjoy, plans to do exactly that.” And that’s simply half of the primary caption.

Throughout the following 80 years, Santa has proven up in quite a lot of totally different DC comics, together with titles as numerous as Sgt. Rock and The Spectre. He teamed with Superman once more in DC Comics Presents (the story is, splendidly, titled “‘Twas the Fright Earlier than Christmas!”). He was given a grim and gritty Nineteen Eighties makeover in 1985’s Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer (pictured). Maybe most excitingly of all, he appeared in 1991’s Lobo’s Paramilitary Christmas Particular, the place he fought off the eponymous Primary Man himself after the latter was employed to assassinate Santa by a jealous Easter Bunny (it was all executed with an seasonally beneficiant lack of restraint on the a part of Keith Giffen, Alan Grant and Simon Bisley).

Maybe the comedian that almost all clearly confirms Santa’s canonicity within the DCU within the trendy period is 2001’s JLA #60, “Merry Christmas, Justice League — Now Die!.” The guide was DC’s greatest superhero title of the time, placing it squarely in what was thought-about “actual” for the DCU. Nearly all of the difficulty is made up of a narrative Plastic Man tells a child a few fictional team-up between Santa and the JLA, however the coda options the precise Santa chuckling at what he’s simply seen seals the deal: Santa is definitively actual within the DCU.

In the case of the Marvel Universe, the argument is even simpler to make. Missing a large reboot of its prolonged historical past, each story Marvel’s ever printed that includes Kris Kringle is a part of Marvel canon. That features 1991’s Marvel Vacation Particular quick through which the X-Males uncover that Santa Claus is among the strongest mutants on Earth — Jonathan Hickman, the ball’s in your court docket. And 2016’s Energy Man and Iron Fist: Candy Christmas #1, the place Santa reveals up in a flashback, conserving the demonic Krampus at bay years earlier than Luke Cage and Danny Rand had the identical gig. Even Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #112, a one-off subject from 1985 the place Santa reveals as much as disgrace a thief wearing a Santa costume, is a part of the official historical past of the Marvel Universe.

Admittedly, there are some tales the place the canonicity may be uncertain; a 1992 quick from Marvel Age #109 the place Captain America remembers rescuing Santa from the Nazis in the midst of World Battle II could or will not be a part of official Marvel historical past. Not due to Santa’s involvement, however as a result of it was one of many usually out of continuity humor strips from cartoonist Fred Hembeck, for instance. (It’s, nonetheless, an important concept nonetheless.) Regardless, Santa’s place in Marvel canon is fairly safe, given the proof readily available.

So entrenched within the Marvel Universe is he, in actual fact, that there’s even a non-Christmas comedian the place he seems. 1988’s Sensational She-Hulk #8 solutions the query of what Santa does when he’s not delivering toys across the globe on an annual foundation: Seems, he’s the world’s best detective, going by the identify of Nick St. Christopher — a person who, as he cheerfully explains, “all the time know[s] who’s been naughty… and good…” (“I can’t wait to see how they write this one up in [The Official Handbook to the] Marvel Universe,” the fourth-wall-breaking She-Hulk feedback because the story ends.)

To the chagrin of all super-Grinches on the market, the custom of together with Santa Claus in Marvel and DC comics is way from a factor up to now; a 2018 subject of Deadpool despatched the Merc with the Mouth after Father Christmas in a narrative not solely dissimilar to DC’s Lobo particular from 1 / 4 century earlier — this time, although, it was some disgruntled children who wished Santa’s jolly head on a plate — and final yr’s New 12 months’s Evil one-shot from DC had an look from Ni’Klaus of Myra, a robust wizard who was actually Santa utilizing yet one more identify. Each of these are, it ought to be added, canonical appearances.

So long as there are Marvel and DC comics — to not point out the vacation season, though that ought to maybe be taken without any consideration given the context — it appears assured that Santa Claus will proceed to point out up in each universes on an irregular foundation, spreading good cheer and reminding audiences that, at coronary heart, superhero comics are crammed with ridiculous, unrealistic characters created to deliver smiles to the faces of kids. For people who have an issue with that, there’s a lump of coal along with your identify on it.