The magic and mystery behind Santa’s origin is yet to be fully revealed in “Klaus” #3. Instead, writer Grant Morrison and artist Dan Mora continue to slowly and expertly pace a tale full of anticipation and wonder.
Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Dan MoraKlaus is caught delivering presents to the town’s children and must fight his way past Lord Magnus’s guards to avoid imprisonment.
“Klaus” has been expanded from six to seven issues and that’s a good thing. With its third issue, “Klaus” proves it is deserving of a further fleshing out of its world and iconic main character known the world over. Grant Morrison continues to tell a straightforward fairy tale steeped in realistic drama amid the magic. An evil baron squeezes a tight vise over all the land, where children are not allowed to play and the adult citizens must slave away in service to the king. Lurking in the shadows is the future Kris Kringle who acts more like a strapping young superhero than a jolly old man.
The simplicity with which Morrison tells the story in “Klaus” #3 lends a classic atmosphere to a story that feels like a reinvention of a well-known myth. Mixing old and new brings a flavor of the unexpected that molds this issue, and the series so far, into something fresh and accessible. The basic emotions of utter despair and childlike hope and wonder are tools for Morrison to use in order to draw us into a story of universal understanding. Without magic and imagination, the world becomes a grimy and soot-colored monstrosity. And, speaking of monstrosities, Morrison adds an element to the plot that further dips this series appropriately into the realm of the fantastical.
Morrison’s collaborator in making “Klaus” #3 such a success is Dan Mora. His art conjures that magic beneath the realism and depicts the clashing of pure forces against those with sinister leanings. This is breathtakingly on display in a splash page with Klaus on a rooftop observing the city. The empty streets and muted colors of the buildings are slightly illuminated by a sun that is far off in the distance. We see Klaus’ back as he looks off toward the bright light and is within a city that looks to be trapped within a mountainous gorge. That sense of hope and epic grandiosity to come is encapsulated in this one moment and is just one example of Mora’s gorgeously detailed and highly expressive art.
Mora’s use of color, as described in the previous paragraph, lends a feeling of complexity to what appears to be a simple story. “Klaus” #3 takes us to further depths of darkness and even loftiest heights of hidden wonder through Mora’s colors. The blackness of the scene between the baron and what appears to be a possibly hidden villain is spooky and supernatural in its teasing. The virtual lack of bright colors is given a reprieve with Klaus’ red superheroic “cape” and the ginger hair of a certain lady. Color is even more fantastical and jarring when a scene in the forest, like one from a previous issue, is a fantasia of psychedelic and otherworldly mystery.
“Klaus” #3 is told like a tale of old. Instead of imposing a narrator though, Morrison and Mora allow us to discover the magic and mystery as it unfolds. The power of hope mixed with a swashbuckling holiday hero is a concept that could have been expected to turn into something schmaltzy or too straightforward. Instead we get a story that makes us feel like a child again as we gasp and awe with each turn of the page.
Final Verdict: 8.9 – “Klaus” is on its way to being one of the best miniseries of 2016. Morrison continues to impress as a writer while Mora has been a revelatory discovery for this reviewer.
