Santa is a character that is found in both the DC and Marvel Universes. While this is the case, there some slight differences between how the two universes portray the character. But first, check out these past gems:

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Wanted: Santa Claus, Dead or Alive!; by Frank Miller

Christmas Comic Cavalcade

Yes, Virginia, There is Was a Santa Doom!!

A Comic Book Christmas Carol



DC Comics

Starting in the Golden Age DC has been all over the map with regards to the existence of Santa Claus. One year they would put out a team-up story where Superman has to step in to help St. Nicholas and the next, there’ll be a story assuring their young readers that Santa most definitely did not exist. This is probably the begin of the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In most cases, any Santa Claus team-up in the DCU is going to be with Superman 90% of the time. Sure, occasionally he shows up and hangs out with another hero, but it’s never Batman.

Anyway here are a few stories that involve the Man in Red.

Santa, the BFF of Superman

Superman and Santa have met many times, here are just a few notable meetups.

Superman’s Christmas Adventure (1940)

Clark Kent and Lois Lane go to Metropolis’ department stores as they start working on a Christmas story for the Daily Planet.

They meet a young boy named Billy Connelly, is unable to afford anything for Christmas. The two take pity on him, and when they return to the returning to the Daily Planet, suggest to Perry that the paper sponsor a Toy Drive to help out needy children. While out on assignment Clark spots a rich boy, James Daniels, throwing a tantrum after he receives childish playthings, all the while demanding greater gifts instead. That night, as Superman, Clark takes young James on a tour of the city showing him less fortunate children, and James realizes how much he has, and how little others do, having a Christmas revelation.

Meanwhile, at the North Pole, two elderly men, Doctor Grouch and Mister Meaney attempt to convince Santa Claus to end his philanthropy, and instead join them in a business venture. Afer the two are kicked out by the Elves, Grouch and Meaney decide to take their campaign elsewhere, planning to start by shutting down the Toy Drive at the Daily Planet. The two men knock the employees out with gas and then set the presents on fire. Luckily, immediately after they leave, Clark Kent changes into Superman and takes care of the fire.

rouch and Meaney return to Santa’s workshop, intent on destroying all of the toys with axes. Lois, who followed the two men, is caught sneaking around, they tie her to a rocket.

In the workshop, the two are stopped by a swarm of Toy Soldiers, which are part of Santa’s security system. Superman rescues Lois. Meaney and Grouch move on to Plan C: kidnap Santa’s Reindeer.

Santa calls on Superman to help him rescue the Reindeer, and although he is successful, Meaney successfully gases the reindeer, making them unable to work on Christmas. No worries though, Superman is there to fly Santa’s sleigh around himself!

At the end of the night, Superman and Santa go to Mr. Grouch’s house, where Grouch once more has captured Lois once again. Despite their evil that night, Santa decides to forgive the two and gives them both presents anyway. Grouch and Meaney experience a complete change of heart, and gain great respect for Santa, deciding to like Christmas after all.

On the way home, Superman witnesses James Daniels carrying loads of presents with his Butler, intending to give them to all of the unfortunate children of Metropolis. Superman wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

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“The Man Who Hated Christmas” (Action Comics#105)

The story opens with Jasper Rasper, a mean man who hates Christmas, in fact, it is stated in the story’s caption that “IF HE COULD KILL CHRISTMAS, HE WOULD.”

Jasper Rasper hates Christmas so much that he has concocted a plan so that Christmas is ruined for everyone. He takes a batch of drugged chocolates to the North Pole. Before he puts this plan in motion, Jasper fires an employee just for saying “Merry Christmas.” This, of course, catches the attention of Perry White, who declares that this would make “a sensational feature story!” and sends Clark to cover the story for the paper. Clark uncovers Rasper’s plans to sabotage Christmas from his less than loyal employees.

Superman heads to the North Pole, but Rasper had a head start and is already there making trouble.

Rasper saunters right into Santa’s house and ends up interrupting his workout which is an obstacle course of chimneys and puts his devious plan into action. First, he gives Santa the chemically altered chocolates and then goes and roofies the Reindeer.

When Superman arrives, the chemicals have already had their dastardly effect, causing Santa Claus to swell to twice his usual size. This is a problem since this version of St. Nick actually climbs down every chimney in order to make his deliveries. In order to save Christmas, it’s up to Superman to slim Santa down again…which results in some strange and creepy goings-on.

In the montage of the Superman weight loss program we see:

Superman uses scare tactics to sweat and scare the weight off, which include a volcano and dangling him from a bridge

Superman making Santa dance with costumed women while he sits back and watches

and finally terrifying Santa with the horrors of space

Superman’s method works, though, but the reindeer are still out of commission, which means Superman has to pitch in and carries the sleigh so Santa can deliver the toys.

On the way back to Metropolis, Jasper Rasper’s Rasper Helicopter had a bit of a malfunction, leaving him stranded on an iceberg. Santa and Superman rescue him, which causes Rasper to have a change of heart and learn the True Meaning of Christmas.

Rasper gives Cartwright gets his job back, and Santa successfully overcomes his chemically induced weight gain by being terrorized by Superman.

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During the Silver Age, the Earth-1 Superman had a very different relationship with Santa.

DC Comics Presents #67: The Twas the Fright Before Christmas!

Superman finds that a boy Timmy Dickens, who held up a sidewalk Santa Claus with a dart gun, is under a powerful hypnotic suggestion. After taking the boy to the Fortress of Solitude to break the boy’s trance, Timmy reveals that he had raided the closet where his parents stored all of his Christmas gifts. Superman realizes that his old foe, the Toy Man is the culprit behind the crime. On his way back to Metropolis, Superman is blinded by a beam of energy, directly in the face. The Man of Steel falls to Earth like a stone and is able to land so that he is able to absorb the impact of the ground, keeping Dickens from injury. Timmy’s attempts to revive the Unconscious Superman fail and they are discovered by a half-dozen elves. These elves carry the unconscious Man of Steel to safety, while the Toy Man has monitored the entire affair from his hidden lair back in Metropolis.

Superman awakens in the abode of Santa Claus. Unable to believe the evidence before his very eyes, the Man of Steel and Dickens are taken on a tour of Santa’s workshop. Santa Claus, it appears, has been keeping an eye on the Toy Man. Santa Claus bemoans the loss of the simpler times when his elves cobbled together wooden soldiers and rocking horses even though he has done upgrades to modernize the workshop.

Superman also becomes nostalgic for his early childhood toys, specifically a Kryptonian holo-toy, which was capable of generating images directly from Superman’s mind. Santa Claus gathers his giant sack of toys and mounts up for his Christmas deliveries. Superman, still suffering the effects of the Toy Man attack, tries to make it back to civilization under his own steam, but is still suffering from the effects of the weapon. Superman, unable to maintain flight, lands in Santa’s sleigh, where he stays for the remainder of the journey. When the two at the Toy Man’s hideout, Superman enters through the chimney, taking the Toy Man by surprise. The Toy Man counters with an army of weaponized toys.

Santa Claus has his own army of weaponized toys which is lucky for Superman, who finds he’s hard-pressed in the fight against the Toy Man’s diabolical toys. Toy Man levels a toy gun, powered by white dwarf star matter, at the Man of Steel but is foiled by Santa Claus who scatters marbles across the floor, causing the Toy Man to lose his balance.

Toy Man’s errant shot hits one of his robot soldiers, causing the mechanized monster plummets through the shop floor, all the way to the Earth’s core. Superman defuses the situation by using his heat vision to melt the Toy Man’s gun.

With the Toy Man defeated, Superman finds the list of customers who have unwittingly purchased deadly toys from the Toy Man’s stores. With Santa Claus’ aid, Superman covers the entire continent, darting in and out of one home after another, replacing the Toy Man’s gimmicked gifts with harmless replicas from Santa Claus’ bag. As Superman is just about to return Dickens to his home, the little starship toy once again blasts the Man of Steel into unconsciousness.

When he awakens this time, Superman finds himself back at the North Pole, with Dickens standing over him.

The whole adventure with Santa Claus was nothing more than a dream. Superman returns Dickens back to his house. As he goes to retrieve his Clark Kent clothes, he finds his long-lost Kryptonian holo-toy.

Activating the device, Superman finds a Christmas message… from Santa Claus.

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Santa, the butt of an ongoing practical joke…

DCU Infinite Holiday Special – Shadowpact: “Christmas Spirits”

In this short story is the best one of the seven stories in this Holiday Special, Santa Claus is trying to hire Shadowpact to protect him and save Christmas from the ACL (The Anti-Christmas League). It’s truly a fun story to read with a hilarious reveal in the end.

Blue Devil is hanging around in the Oblivion Bar when he comes across a familiar friend…Good Ole’ Santa Claus, who needs a favor from the heroes.

After the team is gathered, Santa tells them the sad story of how the Anti-Christmas League are trying to ruin him.

While he’s spouting out crazy ways they could protect him, Nightmaster calms him down and tells him they have a simpler plan.

The team reassures him further, before sending Santa on his way.

Turns out this has been going on for years and it is all a big practical joke:

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Marvel Comics

Actual appearances by Santa Claus are rare in Marvel comics, Marvel’s Christmas stories are usually more about the heroes getting together or the Punisher impaling crooks with various holiday decorations, such as the antlers of a set of tiny fake reindeer (the high point of the medium, maybe next year’s Christmas Post!), but he still shows up from time to time.

It’s always really interesting when he does, too, because while people are usually skeptical about whether the person they’ve encountered is the real Santa Claus, they very rarely deny that he actually exists.

Santa has had numerous run-ins with Hitler, Hitler Clones, and Hydra

During WWII Santa was kidnapped by Adolf Hitler in an effort to destroy America’s morale. Luckily he was saved by Nick Fury, Captain America, and Bucky Barnes.

Years later, Santa saved New York City from a Hitler-Clone calling itself the Hate Monger by causing one of the Hate Monger’s pilots to crash into a nuclear bomb.

Another story finds Santa demoralized by mankind’s lack of faith and belief and sells his entire franchise to Hydra. One of Santa’s elves recruited some of Santa’s helpers to prevent Hydra from ruining Christmas. These helpers included Howard the Duck, Vito Claus, Bubba Clause, Santa Clara, Claus Tse-Tung, Sanity Claus, and Willy Lumpkin Claus.

Howard convinced Santa to renege on his deal with Hydra and the recruited Santa’s helpers join forces with Santa and the elves to drive off the Commando Corps of Hydra Accountants.

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Santa was once possessed by the Power of the Infinity Gauntlet (MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR MAGAZINE, 2009)

Before the Infinity Gauntlet became the centerpiece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was wielded by one supremely unlikely character: Santa Claus.

Marvel Holiday Spectacular 2009, had Santa was driven mad by the omnipotent power of the combined Infinity Gems, which caused him to attack Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Professor X and the rest of the Illuminati, the group of heroes that held the items that powered the Gauntlet.

Santa sought out the heroes after learning his reindeer were shape-shifting Skrulls. The Marvel heroes agreed to let him use the Gauntlet to deliver toys around the world on Christmas Eve. Despite his jolly reputation, Santa succumbed to the Gauntlet’s charms. The threat came to an end after Namor disarmed Santa with a well-placed snowball throw, Iron Man gave Santa some spare robotic reindeer he just happened to have laying around. In hindsight, this should have probably been done in the first place.

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Santa was a mutant who turned the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants into action figures (Marvel Holiday Special 1991)

Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Banshee go looking for what Cerbero says is the most powerful mutant ever…an ‘Omega Level Mutant”. Their serch bring them to the mall where they bump into the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. A fight ensues until Santa shows up and turns the members of the Brotherhood into action figures (they got better) and then transports the X-Men to Rockefeller Center where Scott and Jean are and the team celebrates the day together

Santa, of course, erases both groups’ memories of his involvement and then gifts the entire city with snowfall.

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Santa turned out to be Ultron (Marvel Holiday Special 2005)

Doctor Strange is hosting the Avengers Holiday Party as hijinks ensue such as Tony, Logan, and Steve Rogers all hitting on Mary Jane, The guys are taking full advantage of the hovering mistletoe to get a chance to kiss Spider-Woman (apparently Jessica Drew now has a #metoo story), Doctor Strange’s Christmas tree being a carnivorous monster, and Gravity (a guest of Luke Cage) is just trying to get into the party.

While the party is going on, a well-intentioned lady has created a robotic Santa to make the myth real. As the Santa Bot flys away it proclaims:

The Santa bot goes to all the places where the Avengers could be having their party. It stops at Avenger’s Mansion, Stark Tower before finally arriving at The Sanctum Santorum.

Santron is defeated after it receives a cookie, thus fulfilling its protocol. Using the files from the Ultron Santa, the heroes learn who is behind the Santatron.

It turns out that after the last battle, Ultron sought out Virgie Halron, who used to work for Stark. Turns out as a kid, Virgie was devastated when kids told her that Santa was not real and it affected her greatly. When she came upon Ultron, she saw the chance to make Santa real.

Virgie tries to turn herself into the police, only to be stopped by the Avengers and invited to spend Christmas Eve with them and has her belief in Santa okayed by Captain America.

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Santa was on Deadpool’s Hitblist

Deadpool takes a job where he is supposed to change the status of “International Scum Bag” Rass Bankin (Rankin & Bass) from the naughty to nice list.

In order to do this, Deadpool travels to the North Pole. Deadpool sets off a flashbang in the reindeer shed which distracts the elves and allows him to get into Santa’s house.

As Deadpool is about to hack the list Jolly Ole St. Nick shows up…and apparently, the two have unfinished business…

As the two throw down, the Abominable Snowman breaks into the house, intent on killing Santa (they must have had a falling out following the events of the 1960′ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). Deadpool kills the Yeti, saying Santa is his to kill.

The two finally come to their senses after Santa asks why they are fighting.

Deadpool returns to Bankin, who doesn’t get what he expects for Christmas:

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Hope it is a good one…