By all accounts, the Dark Knight should seriously hate Christmas. It’s bad enough having to put up with that annoying alternative version of ‘Jingle Bells,’ but the worse part is that, as eccentric as Gotham City’s criminals tend to be, they certainly don’t stop for the holidays!
Dealers continue to deal, robbers continue to steal (and, for some reason, to leave pun-based clues), themed serial killers continue to serial kill…
Dark Victory #3
To be sure, when you think of the greatest Christmas stories ever told (Die Hard, Gremlins, Nightmare before Christmas), it becomes clear this is a holiday that lends itself to all sorts of twisted tales. But leave it to Gotham to take things to berserk extremes: name any crime that comes to mind and you can bet it’s probably taking place somewhere in or around the city…
The Brave and the Bold #148
Hell, even crimes that *don’t* come to mind:
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #12
(And I’m not even counting whatever the Penguin’s confusing evil scheme was supposed to be in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns!)
Plus, you know, if by themselves Christmas rituals make this a depressing time of year, things can always be made worse by some family drama:
The Brave and the Bold #184
There is just no limit to all the weird ways in which even happy moments can suddenly get spoiled in Gotham City:
Batman and the Outsiders #8
And yet, whether dealing with a sorcerer who can possess babies or punching out the Calendar Man for having erased every Christmas card in Gotham, not even Batman manages to fully escape the spirit of the season…
Legends of the Dark Knight #5
NEXT: Jason Todd strikes back.