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It's not just not believing that gets you on my naughty list.
- —Santa Claus
History
Origins
Julenissen was the child of a Light Elf and a Frost Giant who lived in Alfheim along with his parents. As a child, Julenissen spent most of his time with his mother, fostering his magical potential, since his father needed to spend most of his time in Jotunheim due to his biological need for cold. He got to explore the innocent wonders of the fairy-realm with his mother, but as he got older, he developed a frostier physiology, and his family made the difficult decision for him and his father to stay in Jotunheim so that he wouldn't endanger those around him. For a time, Julenissen and his father fit in well with the Jotuns, and his mother would come to visit disguised as an Ice Elf. However, there came a time when Allfather Odin came to Asgard to speak with Laufey, and the Frost Giants attacked him, acting on past transgressions. Julenissen was unwilling to fight, and even went so far as to sneak a bust of the Allfather made of ice into his throneroom as a gift. Furious that Julenissen would give a gift to their sworn enemies, Laufey exiled the young sorcerer to Midgard, promising to make an example of the half-breed and his race-mixing parents.
Now trapped on Earth, Julenissen was lost and sought a purpose. It was only when Laufey returned and threatened Midgard directly that Julenissen was inspired to take action. Odin and his legion of Asgardian warriors were defending the mortal realm from the Frost Giants' assault when Julenissen took the fight to Laufey himself, putting up a sizable challenge that he was not expecting. When Odin joined the assault, Laufey was defeated, and Odin returned to Asgard, offering Julenissen a place to go. Julenissen refused, seeking to protect the mortals, especially the terrified children whose faces haunted him during the battle. Odin understood, leaving him with a gift before he returned: a seemingly empty bag. When Julenissen reached inside, he pulled out a frozen bust of his own likeness. It was then that Julenissen decided to inspire joy in the mortal children by giving them gifts, creating the being we know today as Santa Claus.
Modern Times
In Santa's first appearance in the modern era, he was set upon by a young boy named Ray Dinsmore, who blamed him for the death of his father on Christmas Eve. Ray had murdered several men dressed as Santa hoping to find and kill the real Santa. Santa did stop and see Ray and fought to defend himself, but was seemingly slain. By the story's end, Ray was incarcerated in a psychiatric ward believing he'd succeeded, and Santa was seen wishing him a merry Christmas, having given him the gift of closure.[1]
Santa Claus has, on a number of occasions, thwarted burglars who have used his appearance to break into people's homes. The first time he did this was when an elderly woman assured a mall Santa she didn't need anything for Christmas, and a burglar sought to make himself rich selling her belongings, and Julenissen effortlessly dispatched the pretender and left him bound in oversized wreaths at the local police precinct.[2] Thirty years later (R.T.), Santa specifically put an end to the criminal antics of the Santa Claus burglar, forcing him to do community service to make amends for his transgressions, and encouraged Spider-Man to call his Aunt May.[3]
Santa was first recognized as a mutant by Cerebro during the era of the All-New All-Different X-Men, and the team journeyed to Rockefeller Center to locate the mutant, instead locating the Brotherhood of Mutants, where Mastermind was using his powers to make the Blob appear to be Santa Claus. The Brotherhood, recognizing the X-Men, attacked, and Santa intervened in the resulting battle, sedating both teams and returning them from whence they came. In the case of the X-Men, since they were returned to the X-Mansion, they assumed that they'd merely fallen asleep while decorating the Christmas tree.[4]
Santa's workshop came under attack one Christmas Eve by Doctor Octopus, who somehow subdued Santa and enslaved the elves, in order to create booby-trapped toys for children and further his nascent experiments with A.I. Since his daughter Cassie received one of the demented dolls, Ant-Man investigated where the toys came from, eventually finding his way to the North Pole, where Doc Ock still had command of the workshop. Ant-Man engaged Doc Ock, but in the struggle, Santa managed to free himself, turning Ock into an action figure that he sent back to his lab, and teleported Ant-Man back to Cassie with an unaltered doll for Christmas.
One Christmas Eve, Santa's sleigh was sabotaged by one of his elves and he crashed in the heart of Richmond, Virginia. His sleigh was seen by Katie Power, and the Power Pack arrived to help Santa, who suggested they finish his route while he dealt with his newest addition to the naughty list. The Pack's delivery quickly became a competition to see whose powers were best suited to delivering presents, with Jack even claiming he could become the next Santa. In the end, the elf was defeated, and Santa congratulated the Pack for their efforts, giving them replicas of superhero equipment from their favorite characters: an Iron Man helmet, Captain America's shield, Thor's hammer, and Wolverine claws.
At some point, Thanos sought the Finite Gauntlet, and, since he was searching for it on Christmas Eve, he opted to take on the appearance of Santa Claus to search homes for it. The real Santa quickly took notice and engaged Thanos, even pulling the Gauntlet from his magic sack. Despite Thanos' best efforts, he was defeated when Santa threw off his coat, freezing him solid, and then left him on Titan. Afterwards, he resumed delivering presents, including the Gauntlet, which he claimed was merely a replica.[5]
X-Men and Mutantdom
When there came a time that the X-Men were disbanded and Charles Xavier was kidnapped by Magneto on the island of Genosha, he sent his Acolyte Blink to bring him the rest of the X-Men to see their leader fall. Finding the mansion empty, Blink decided to form a new team to liberate Xavier to challenge Magneto. By accident, she triggered a projector housing the essence of Photon, who assisted her in assembling a number of new allies, including Santa, who was regarded to be one of the great mutant heroes by her native era. The team made their way to Genosha and tunneled their way in. Santa was part of the team to challenge Magneto and his followers directly, and was the primary muscle for the team, able to hold his own in the brawl long enough that the other team members freed Xavier and rendered Magneto powerless. The team then left Genosha and went their separate ways, with Santa returning to his workshop.
One Christmas, the Greater Midwest was besieged by Nanny and the Orphan-Maker, seeking to make orphans of Santa's favorite children. To this end, they were kidnapping mall Santas to find out which children they'd seen might be mutants, so that Nanny could adopt them. The Great Lakes X-Men intervened, but were taken down by Orphan-Maker, forcing their new member Squirrel Girl to defeat them with the help of the real Santa Claus. It was to Doreen that Santa first confirmed outright that he was (now) a mutant.[6]
Secret Invasion and the New Santa
Wielding the Finite Gauntlet against the Illuminati.
During the Secret Invasion, Santa's reindeer were replaced by Skrulls. When they made their move on Santa, he was able to dispatch them with some difficulty (they had been granted the powers of other high-powered mutants and immunity to any form of control that would allow them to be trapped permanently in their animal forms). Furious that his enhanced awareness was able to be deceived, Santa again took control of the Finite Gauntlet, and used it to torture the Skrulls and declare war on their race for their subversion. It took the combined efforts of the Illuminati with their own Infinity Stones and some of his elves, including Agonistes (who decided to activate Santa's contingency plan to save Christmas) to make him stand down. That Christmas, Santa was granted use of Tony Stark's flying car to make his deliveries.
A month later, Agonistes managed to track down Nick Norris, a rough and tumble runaway in New York City who'd fled his home in Kansas for a better life. Agonistes managed to dupe Nick into journeying to the North Pole, where they discovered Santa had been frozen solid and the workshop ransacked. Nick was forced to use the last of the ambient magic in the space to avert attacks from the Anti-Claus, who was set on destroying every last vestige of Christmas, including Santa's bloodline, which included Nick...he was the son of Santa. The Anti-Claus seemed to be getting the upper hand, until Nick discovered Santa's sack and trapped him within it. After being freed from his frozen prison, Santa thanked Agonistes for bringing his son to him, and expressed an interest in bringing his son into the family business, in part so he could intervene more in mortal affairs. Nick agreed, feeling lost in the world, and began to take the metaphorical reins of his father's enterprise.
One year on New Year's Eve, New York City was set upon by the frigid demon Ikthalon, who intended to take advantage of the festivities to bring Earth to a standstill and expand his realm. Santa was aware of the disturbance and enlisted fellow frozen hero Iceman, in attendance at Times Square, where the incursion occurred, to help deal with the threat. Santa's typical icy attacks were only strengthening the demon, so it was up to Iceman to absorb the ice giving the creature physical form. He then spent the remainder of the evening with Santa, allowing him the illusion of a normal life uninhibited by his perpetually freezing form. Iceman claimed that he could get in touch with some tech geniuses to recreate the thermal displacement technology that once transported his additional cold to the North Pole, but Santa simply replied that he had a family, a home, and a purpose, what more could a mutant really want? He then returned to the North Pole, once the evening had concluded.
More recently, the (Macy's) Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was attended by the Cockroach Kid, was hijacked by the Balloon Man, who was able to manipulate all of the parade balloons to terrorize the city. Santa, a featured guest in the parade, teamed up with the Kid to defeat Helio and his blimps, and even gave him a picture of him and his mom, believed lost to time.
Mentions / Non-Appearances
Ms. Marvel, being a character who does not practice the Christian faith, and therefore does not celebrate Christmas, was the latest in a line of heroes supposedly recruited by Santa to fight crime on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, following in the footsteps of heroes such as the Brick, Shadowcat, Wolverine and Doctor Voodoo. In the role of the "Christmas Crusader," Kamala defeated M.O.D.O.C. and a squad of A.I.M. agents who were attempting to steal the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. While it was left ambiguous whether or not the Brick was joking about Santa's actual involvement with the "Christmas Crusade," it is entirely possible that he was involved.[7]
Appearance
Personality
Powers and Abilities
Powers:
Santa Claus Physiology: Santa was a half-elf half-giant hybrid with various corresponding powers and abilities. One of these abilities was reality manipulation, which he used to genetically transform himself into a human mutant, seemingly at the omega level. He did, however, retain his penchant for sorcery. The boundaries between mutation, his heritage, and his sorcery make it difficult to determine which powers come from which source.
- Advanced Longevity: Santa has been alive for thousands of years, and though he appears to be an old man, it is unlikely that being elderly would affect his powers or health, even if he were truly elderly.
- Cryokinesis: Santa can generate ice and snow, seemingly without limit. This ability may not fully be within his control, as he claims his mere presence creates a white (snowy) Christmas, and that he wears fur not to protect himself from the frigid North Pole weather, but to protect others from his own freezing presence. This was seemingly confirmed when he froze Thanos solid simply by removing his coat.[8]
- Vapor Form: When his air intake is restricted (such as by covering a nostril, or "laying a finger aside of his nose," as the adage goes), Santa dissolves into a frozen mist. In this form, he is completely incorporeal, can cause frostbite just by being grabbed at, and shimmers with a blinding light. Santa claims this ability was retained from his original genetic lineage.
- Duplication: Santa delivers presents across the globe by creating enough duplicates of himself so that each one only has to cover a few square miles. These duplicates have free will but also function like they have a hive mind, in constant communication with each other, and able to appear and disappear at will.
- Space-Time Manipulation: Santa can pause time in a semi-local radius, able to move at blinding speeds for brief periods, and teleport seemingly anywhere in the world or between dimensions without limitations or any physical or audible feedback such as Nightcrawler's smoke or brimstone scent.
- Reality Manipulation: Santa has the unlimited ability to manipulate reality within an approximately ten-foot radius of himself. This includes seemingly impossible acts such as turning animate beings inanimate and vice versa, altering his own density and that of those around him, creating force fields, etc.
- Shape-Shifting / Illusion Creation: Santa can alter his appearance, height, weight, and clothing, seemingly without limit. Given that he can also generate illusions, it is unclear if these powers are related.
- Telepathy: Santa is capable of telepathic communication and sedation of nearly any sentient being, including animals.
- Cosmic Awareness: Santa knows who's naughty and nice, seemingly without explanation or limitation.
- Power Sharing: Santa seems to be able to share his power with those closest to him, ensuring that his wife and son will live as long as he has.
It is assumed that as the child of a Light Elf and Frost Giant, Julenissen possessed some combination of their inherent abilities, which include superhuman strength, durability, and stamina; undetermined levels of photokinesis; enhanced size; the ability to generate illusions, and the ability to generate snow and ice constructs. Whether he retains any of these abilities other than those mentioned above is undetermined. Given that he was able to hold back blows from Thanos, it can be presumed that he retains at least some degree of his former strength and durability.
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Abilities:
Weaknesses:
- Lack of Business Acumen / Leadership: Santa is inexperienced when it comes to organizing his elves and streamlining his toymaking operation, which has led him to be swindled out of his classically-portrayed assets such as his elf workforce and North Pole headquarters on several occasions.
Equipment
- Magic Sack: A gift from Odin, Santa's sack of presents seems to serve as a portal to another dimension or itself being a pocket dimension, able to hold far more presents than its dimensions would indicate. It is entirely possible that the sack is a magical artifact of unknown origin.
- Flying Sleigh: Santa rides around the globe in a flying sleigh pulled by his nine flying reindeer. Given that his reindeer have proven able to assist him independently and have even been replaced by Skrulls during the Secret Invasion, it is possible that only the real Santa uses the sleigh and the reindeer and the rest simply create a reindeer-drawn sleigh with his illusory powers.
Formerly |
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| Finite Gauntlet: Santa seemingly made use of the Finite Gauntlet twice: once against Thanos, and once against the Illuminati. Both times, he willingly gave it up (after some convincing). |
Notes/Trivia
Notes:
- Julenissen (Earth-166) is the Earth-166 counterpart of Santa Claus (Earth-616), as well as his animated counterpart, Jolnir (Earth-TRN838).
- He was also inspired by his counterpart in the movie Violent Night, where he is portrayed as a former Viking warrior by the MCU's own David Harbour, which meshed nicely with his animated counterpart's Asgardian-centric lineage.
Trivia:
- Many Marvel characters have dressed as, impersonated, or otherwise served as Santa Claus, both the classic cultural depiction and Julenissen himself. Chief among these are the Blob, Captain Marvel, the Kingpin, an unnamed Latverian, Michael Dunn, the Rhino, the Santa Burglar, the Spymaster, and Stan Lee himself.