For my twelfth and final Blog of Christmas, I’m going back to an old favorite: “The Silent Night of the Batman” from February, 1970’s Batman 219, by Mike Friedrich, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano.
It’s a simple little tale, just 8 pages long. Batman is summoned to Gotham police headquarters by the Bat-signal. Is there some new crime spree happening this Christmas Eve? Nope! Gordon and the boys just want to invite Batman to stay in with them, singing carols while Gotham City takes care of itself for one night.
Of course, Batman is skeptical. But he agrees to hang out and sing until word of some crime inevitably comes in. Only, it doesn’t. While Batman is singing, we see various near-tragedies occur, only to be turned around because people are generally better than Batman expects them to be.
And that’s it. No Joker running around in a Santa hat committing Christmas-themed crimes. No family having a lousy Christmas because someone stole all their presents, or their Christmas dinner, or because a family member is lying near death only to somehow be saved at the last moment. (It’s a Christmas miracle!) Not a single punch is thrown, not a single shot fired, or any bombs exploded.
I don’t really read Batman comics regularly any more, because the character has evolved away from the version that I grew up with. He no longer fights crime, he wages a war against crime. He doesn’t have friends, he has soldiers and allies. When I stopped reading Batman regularly, part of the reason was that I couldn’t remember the last time I saw him smile. I don’t feel that the Batman of today’s comics would take a break from his “war” to sing Christmas carols with the cops.
Fortunately, huge swaths of “my” Batman are still available, both in print and digitally. (This particular one isn’t available digitally, so these images are from my copy of Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2.) I’ve chosen this as my final Blog of Christmas, because it really does sum up what I consider to be the Christmas spirit: people chosing to be the best that they can be.
I could talk about how great the art is, carrying the storytelling burden of this mostly silent story. However, Neal Adams is already pretty much regarded as one of the greatest Batman artists of all time, and I don’t have anything to really add to that. Besides, I think the work speaks for itself.
And that’s it for my 12 Blogs of Christmas! Thanks for sticking around. I’m planning on resuming weekly blog posting next week, so come on back to see what else is making me happy this year!
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