The Comicon Advent Calendar 2022: Day 9 – The Silent Night Of The Batman
by Richard Bruton
More Comicon Advent treats now, a Christmas comic every day of Advent leading up to Christmas Day… today it’s ‘The Silent Night of the Batman‘, a classic short from Gary Friedrich with art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano.
It was a short in Batman #219 from 1969 and it all starts, as so many tales in Gotham do, with the bat-signal shining bright against a snow-filled cloud on Christmas Eve…
But this signal’s just Commissioner Gordon trying something strange and new – they’re going to be singing carols in the police department, because it’s not a night when Batman should be allowed to take a night off…
As the choir sings, we flit around the streets of Gotham, seeing various people getting glimpses of what they think might be Batman, or just a reminder that he’s watching over them and knows what they’re doing… and that’s enough to make petty thieves returns their stolen loot, a gunman have a change of heart, and a suicidal wife find those few extra moments to change her mind.
And all through it, Batman’s just singing carols, which is a strange look for the Dark Knight for sure, but what the hell, Christmas stories are allowed to be all schmaltzy and cute, so if this one has a magnificent Neal Adams Batman singing carols, then that’s just fine.
As for the ending, Friedrich merely adds to the whole Christmas weirdness with a spirit right out of Dickens evoking the ghostly nature of the season with Batman’s very own Christmas spirit…
Yep, a short but sweet little Christmas tale there, all about Christmas time being a time to make different choices and do something good in the world.
And you can too, there’s plenty of charities out there that need your money and your help this season, perhaps this year more than any other…
UK – donate or volunteer – Shelter, Crisis, St Mungos.
USA – donate or volunteer – Covenant House, National Coalition for the Homeless.
