Batman Holiday Special ’09

DC Universe Holiday Special ’09 (Batman)
“Silent Knight”
Writer – Jay Faerber
Art/Colors – Peter Nguyen
Letters – Rob Clark, Jr.
Editors – Adam Schlagman & Eddie Berganza


Welcome to DC Comics’ 2009 celebration of the Holiday Season… which, via the sheer amount of short-stories included in this ish, will bring us right on up to Christmas Day!  No joke, there are actually sixteen stories in this book!  Some shorter than others, but, Christmas Completionists that we are, we’ll get to ’em all!


Let’s start our journey with… oh, c’mon.  Yer kiddin’ me, right?  Another Silent Batman Christmas story?!  How many of these do we need in our lives?


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We open with Batman in hot-pursuit of a Santa Claus who had just robbed a truck of a bag of loot.  The baddie fires a few shots at the Bat before slipping away into an old warehouse.  An old warehouse… full of Santa Clauses?!  Well, isn’t this just the most festive little crime ring we ever did see?

Batman camps out above for a bit planning his next move… before, somehow getting inside the joint.  I don’t see any broken glass, or open doors.  Actually, all I can see is the painstaking level of detail Peter Nguyen put into Batman’s boot laces!  I mean, check this out:

Anyhoo, Batman lands amid the Santas… and proceeds to beat all that’s holy outta one of ’em.  Thankfully, the right one!

Just then, another one of the Santas puts his hand on Batman’s shoulder… it’s here that we learn that the rest of ’em are good guys.  They give our hero some cocoa and cookies… and share a Christmas snack.

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I’ll give it one thing… at least this wasn’t the same old “Batman’s tough and scary… but has a heart of gold” silent story I feel like we usually get around Christmastime!  At least there was something more to this than that.


Not saying it’s all that great or anything… I mean, this feels like something it took all of 30-seconds to come up with from a “writing” standpoint.  The art, however, is pretty phenomenal!  While stylistically probably not everyone’s cuppa tea (or cocoa), I don’t think you can deny the sheer talent of Peter Nguyen.


What else is there to say?  Batman sitting down to cocoa and cookies with the Santas is a bit too “lol, random” for me to get excited about… but, I’m sure this can be a satisfying ending for some!


Tomorrow: The Man of… Snow?