DC Comics told you once, and now they’re telling you twice: Santa Claus is coming to town, again, with the just announced Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns.
Written once again by Jeff Parker, with art by Lukas Ketner, the five-issue sequel series to Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight will be published weekly, for five weeks, leading right up to Christmas.
“I was blown away at how well last year’s SILENT KNIGHT series was received, readers really responded to us going full tilt with Norse-mythos Santa in the DCU,” said Parker via a press release provided to Comic Book Club. “We followed the old tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas (remember the line from ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’?). Then to be asked if I wanted to do another one AND have an extra issue? That was the Happy New Year.”
In the first series, we discovered that not only is Santa Claus real, but he’s a battle-hardened, supernatural-hunting hero who had previously helped train Batman. In the sequel, after the Justice League is taken by a mysterious enemy, Damian Wayne seeks out Zatanna and Santa Claus to save them all before Christmas. And in the process, you’re going to meet a new enemy… The Silent Knight.
“It’s still unclear to me whether Batman will be speed-skating in the story,” added Ketner. “I may have been heavy-handed with the Xmas flavor in my audition sketches; it was meant to show how interested I was in doing THIS story specifically. I loved the first series, and Jeff was dangling an Etrigan-shaped carrot.”
While Ketner is drawing the bulk of the story, original series artist Michele Bandini will be returning to draw scenes of the Justice League in the Hollow Kingdom of the Knight. Noted Parker, “You’ll see many of the creatures he designed return so there’s another direct connection to the first series. You might want to reread that before SILENT KNIGHT RETURNS kicks off in November (visualize me doing the Superman wink here).”
Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #1 sports a main cover by Bernard Chang, with variant covers by Dan Mora, Kevin Wada, and Erica Henderson. There will also be a polybagged, evergreen-scented variant cover by Dan Hipp. The series runs on Wednesdays between November 27 and December 25, but you can check out the covers and interior pages below. Click for larger versions!
