When families start disappearing after stopping in the Pola-Cola Corporation’s Xmasville – a year-round Christmas-themed town full of Santas – Klaus and Lilli step in to investigate and kick some holly jolly butt, seasonal style!
I really like Grant Morrison and Dan Mora’s Klaus so I’d love to say their latest Christmas Special is another sparkling addition to the nice list but The Crisis in Xmasville isn’t much of a merry read.
Ironically for a story extolling the virtues of imagination, Morrison’s script is anything but. Stereotypes abound like the evil Pola-Cola (no prizes for guessing which company they’re meant to represent) CEOs, one of whom looks like Mr Burns, to the Bad Santa villain Klaus has to fight (who’s also part vampire AND part werewolf for no reason!); this is just lazy characterisation from Morrison. Klaus’ allies in this fight, Grandfather Frost and Snowmaiden, are also summarily tossed in without any introduction, though they’re basically the festive Justice League.
It’s a generic and uninteresting tale of good vs evil which plays out predictably with the expected forced seasonal sentimentality at the end. Dan Mora’s art looks good, particularly Grandfather Frost’s Russian ice palace which is beautifully painted, though even the art doesn’t look as polished as it usually does, as if Mora’s rushed it.
Unfortunately, unlike last year’s special and the first Klaus book, The Crisis in Xmasville is less of a pleasant stocking filler and more of a lump of coal - a disappointing effort from a creative team of this calibre.
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