Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 196. Who is Santa Claus in Marvel Comics?!

Transcript

Ep. 196. Who is Santa Claus in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:11
  Merry Christmas, my beautiful listeners and watchers.
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  If you're brand new here, welcome.
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  My name is Megan and this is Vigilante Vibes where we talk
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  all things Marvel and since it's Christmas, I figured what better
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  way to celebrate them than talking about one of the wildest
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  character Marvel Comics. That is completely on theme with
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  Christmas and it continues my coverage of the underrated
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  mutants of Marvel Universe. I'm talking about Santa Claus.
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  You heard that right. Santa Claus is canonically
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  canonically. I just realized I've never said
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  that word out loud before so hopefully that's right.
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  Anyways, Santa Claus is an Omega level mutant.
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  Before I get started, be sure to like and subscribe so you don't
• 0:55
  miss anything else I put out. Because I put out so much comic
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  reviews, movie reviews, trailer reactions, character breakdowns,
• 1:02
  wonderful interviews with wonderful guests if I just say
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  so myself. So be sure to follow.
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  Also, I am super sick. What better thing do you want on
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  Christmas Eve? Eve, them being super sick.
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  So apologize for all this. And if I look like I'm dying,
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  it's probably because I am. So let's get into this.
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  So Santa Claus, an Omega level mutant, how did this come about?
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  How do we know? Has it confirmed in the comics?
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  I'm going to tell you all of it at one point.
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  The X Men's mutant detecting supercomputer Cerebro actually
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  identified Santa Claus as the most powerful Omega level mutant
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  it has ever registered. That puts him in the same
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  category, if not more, as characters like Iceman, Cable,
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  even Jean Grey. This reveal comes from the story
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  A Miracle, a few blocks down from 34th Street by Scott
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  Lobdell and Dave Cockrum, which appeared in the 1991 Marvel
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  Holiday Special. The whole thing starts with the
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  X-Men just hanging out, chilling, decorating their
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  Christmas tree when Cerebro suddenly starts going nuts.
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  It alerts them that the strongest mutant it has ever
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  detected has just appeared. When they follow the signal to
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  Manhattan, they discover that the source of this massive
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  mutant power is Santa Claus. The team rushes to Rockefeller
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  Center, meets Santa, sit face to face, and things immediately go
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  off the rails. Santa casually turns the
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  Brotherhood of Evil mutants into toys and then wipes everyone's
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  memory of the encounter like it's no big deal.
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  And what I love the most about the story was how cocky Santa
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  Claus was. I don't know, it's just so
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  funny. That memory wipe is pretty much
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  the reason Santa being an Omega level mutant has almost never
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  come up again because no one remembers it even happened.
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  And honestly, it's the perfect example of just how ridiculously
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  overpowered Santa is in Marvel Comics.
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  Thankfully, the X-Men weren't the last major heroes cross
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  paths with the mysterious Man in Red.
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  So now let's dive into the back story of Marvel's Omega level
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  mutant Santa Claus. Santa made his first, very first
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  official appearance in Marvel Canon all the way back in 1955,
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  before Marvel Comics was even officially Marvel Comics.
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  He debuted under the Atlas Comics banner and Strange tales
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  #34 which was an anthology series that leaned hard into
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  weird and supernatural stories. So of course, it had to have
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  Santa Claus. In this particularly strange
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  tale, a struggling garage attendant named Sammy Glenn gets
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  the chance to borrow the car of a wealthy customer for six
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  hours. During that short window, his
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  entire life turns around. He lands a better job, even
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  finds love. By the end of the issue, it's
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  revealed that the rich customer was Santa Claus the entire time,
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  and this was his roundabout way of giving Santa an early
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  Christmas present, which is aw adorable.
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  In the Marvel Universe, Santa has just as many origin stories
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  as he does in real life, if not more.
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  According to Marvel lore, there were actually three separate
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  figures whose legends eventually blended together.
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  Over time, humanity's collective beliefs merged those stories
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  into the single being we now know as Santa Claus.
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  This unusual history was officially laid out in the
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  official Handbook of the Marvel Universe profile featured in the
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  2006 Marvel Holiday Special. It's just, if you go looking for
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  it, just look for the pages with no pictures.
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  It's just words all over. So it's a lot of reading, but
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  it's interesting. It goes into the whole back
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  story of Santa Claus and where he came from.
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  One of those original Santas was the real world Saint Nicholas,
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  the Bishop of Myra in what is now modern day Turkey.
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  He was famous for his generosity, including the story
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  where he secretly gave gold to three impoverished women so they
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  could afford dowries and get married.
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  Today, Saint Nicholas is remembered as the patron St. of
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  children, especially poor children and travelers, and he's
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  often described as a protector of anyone in need.
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  Another influence came from Old Winter, a figure rooted in pre
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  medieval Britain. During the winter solstice, a
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  trusted elder from the village would dress in animal furs and
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  go door to door, offering food and drink to anyone who showed
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  hospitality. Overtime this tradition evolved
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  into Old Father Christmas and eventually just Father
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  Christmas. The 3rd and final influence on
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  Marvel's Santa mythology is Odin, the All Father of Asgard.
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  In the 1991 Marvel Holiday Special, Odin stepped in to save
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  a Norse villages midwinter celebration.
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  He gifted the villagers some of Asgard's finest food, wine
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  linens, and even arranged A guiding signal to help lost
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  sailors find their way home in time for the feast.
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  These legends eventually merged with the others, giving rise to
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  the Santa Claus we now know in Marvel Comics.
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  Marvel Santa is clearly powerful, but exactly where that
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  power comes from is still kind of unclear.
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  Since he's fueled by belief, he feels closer to a God on par
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  with the AS Guardians, or even the Greek pantheon.
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  At the same time, his abilities are often described as magical,
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  which makes sense considering Odin's involvement.
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  But then things get complicated because Santa has also been
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  confirmed to be a mutant, so he has an X gene.
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  Being a mutant doesn't mean you can't use magic though.
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  The characters like magic. Ileana Rasputina and the Goblin
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  Queen Madeline Pryor do both it, but it definitely does blur the
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  lines when it comes to his abilities.
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  Santa is functionally immortal, can deadlift around 2 tons, and
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  has claimed to possess super speed, although he still relies
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  on his sleigh and reindeer to get around.
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  His magic sack has near infinite storage, allowing him to carry
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  gifts for every good person on earth.
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  He also appears to be telepathic, instantly knowing
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  whether someone has been naughty or nice, and may even have
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  passive mind control or charisma abilities that make people more
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  kind just by bearing being near him.
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  Santa also doesn't work alone. He's assisted in his yearly gift
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  giving mission by an entire workforce of elves who spend
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  most of the year building toys and prepping the sleigh for
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  Christmas Eve. In a very Marvel twist, these
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  elves aren't just fairy tale creatures, they're actually
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  interdimensional refugees from Alfine, the realm of the Light
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  elves and Asgardian lore. While Marvel hasn't fully told
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  the story of how these elves came to work for Santa, most of
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  them seem genuinely happy in the North Pole Workshop, especially
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  when you consider that Alfheim is frequently caught up in wars
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  and cosmic disasters, so they really got the best end of that
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  deal by taking that job. Over the years, Santa has
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  crossed paths with a shocking number of Marvel characters in
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  Marvel age #109. He was kidnapped by Adolf
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  Hitler, prompting Captain America, Bucky and Nick Fury to
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  launch a rescue mission. Later in Nick Fury, Agent of
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  shield #10, Santa helped foil a hate monger plot to bomb New
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  York City on Christmas Eve. One of the villains became so
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  distracted by the sight of Santa flying a sleigh that he crashed
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  his plane into the bomb, setting it off early.
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  Santa also has teamed up with Howard the Duck twice, worked
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  undercover with She Hulk as a private investigator under the
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  alias Nick Saint Christopher, and once joined forces with Luke
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  Cage and Iron Fist to banish the demon Krampus.
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  Deadpool is even hard to assassinate him, though to Wade
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  Wilson's credit, he absolutely could not go through with it.
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  While Santa first tangled with characters like Captain America
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  and the X-Men, he's been popping up across Marvel Comics for
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  decades now, which has given him plenty of opportunities to team
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  up with just about anyone. He's helped Spider Man shut down
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  a dangerous Santa impersonator, Assisted Captain Marvel in
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  stopping an evil corporation from experimenting on homeless
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  people battling Nanny and the Orphan Maker, and even taught
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  the Great Lakes Avengers and X-Men the true meaning of
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  Christmas. Going back to when he worked
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  with She Hulk, he tried to do something different.
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  He was. During one offseason, he created
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  the persona Nick Saint Christopher and hit the streets
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  of New York City as a hard boiled private investigator.
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  In that role, Santa cross paths with She Hulk again helped her
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  investigate a serial killer case she was working on as a
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  Christmas gift. He also gave her the ability to
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  revert back to Jennifer Walters, something she could not do at
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  the time, so she could spend the holidays with her family.
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  After that, Santa retired the Pi gig and headed back to the North
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  Pole. Then there's the infamous story
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  where Santa Claus welded the Infinity Gauntlet.
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  This story takes place in an alternate universe and isn't
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  considered official Canon, but it is set in the universe nearly
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  identical to Earth 616. In that reality, Santa 424 O 9
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  discovered that his reindeer had been replaced by scrolls.
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  To make sure Christmas wasn't ruined, he asked the Illuminati
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  to borrow the Infinity Gauntlet so he could finish his
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  deliveries. Unfortunately, even Santa wasn't
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  immune to the Gauntlets corruptive influence.
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  Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and the rest of the team had to step in
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  and forcibly remove it from him, something they managed to do,
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  but only just like they barely got it.
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  Once it was over, Tony Stark built Santa a set of robotic
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  reindeer, and Christmas was saved once again by Earth's most
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  influential heroes and by Santa, Earth's Mightiest Mutant.
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  Possibly the weirdest Marvel moment of what all came in the
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  what? The number 10 from 1990.
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  After Santa was injured by Doctor Doom security systems,
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  Doom felt honor bound to finish Santa's Christmas deliveries
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  himself. The whole experience even ended
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  with Doom receiving a stuffed bear, a gift from a young girl
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  who had earlier saved him from getting beaten up by superheroes
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  who assumed he was doing something shady.
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  Which is very, very fair because it's Doctor Doom.
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  But I mean, he's delivering presents.
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  What do you you can't assume he's a Grinch, but I loved him.
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  I'd follow him into battle. So who am I to judge?
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  So yeah, that is Santa Claus in the Marvel Universe.
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  I when I first learned of Santa Claus in the Marvel Universe, I
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  didn't think he was. I didn't think he was even
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  anything more than Santa. I didn't think he was a mutant.
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  I didn't think he had all these team UPS.
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  I didn't think he had lore that had to do with the Marvel
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  Universe. So I hope you guys learned
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  something from this and I hope you have a lovely holiday
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  whether it's Hanukkah, Christmas, whatever you believe
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  or whatever you celebrate. I will be going to take some
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  aspirin and go wrap presents until my brain falls out of my
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  eye sockets because I am so sick right now.
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  So hope it didn't show too much in my episode.
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  So with that being said, Happy holidays and have a marvelous
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  day.