History:(Marvel Holiday Special 2006 - Santa Claus entry (fb) - BTS) - The fawn Rudolph was born to Santa Claus' flying reindeer, Donner. As he grew, Rudolph displayed a glowing red nose, leading to his being ostracized by the other reindeer.
RUDOLPH
Real Name: Rudolph (see comments)
Identity/Class: Terrestrial reindeer magic user (see comments)
Occupation: Leader of the reindeer pulling Santa Claus'
sleigh
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom), Santa Claus
Enemies: Doctor Octopus (Otto
Octavius)
Known Relatives: Donner (father)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: The North Pole
First Appearance: (unidentified) What The--?!
I#10 (January, 1991);
(identified as "Rudolf") What The--?! I#16 (January,
1992);
(identified as "Rudolph") Marvel Holiday Special
2006 (February, 2007)
Powers/Abilities: Rudolph has all the physical attributes of a typical reindeer but he also possesses a variety of magical abilities including the intelligence and ability to speak English and a glowing red nose that is able to glow bright up to light up the night sky.
Rudolph is also capable of flight
via magical means. He is also very long-lived, having survived decades, if not longer, likely due to Christmas magic.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 4'0")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 450 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
History:
(Marvel Holiday Special 2006 - Santa Claus entry (fb) - BTS) - The fawn
Rudolph was born to Santa Claus' flying reindeer, Donner. As he grew,
Rudolph displayed a glowing red nose, leading to his being ostracized
by the other reindeer.
(Marvel Holiday Special 2006 - Santa Claus entry -
BTS) - During one Christmas Eve in which a thick fog had settled over
Santa Claus' North Pole headquarters, Santa Claus realized Rudolph's
red nose would be the perfect solution to light the way through the fog
so Santa could complete his worldwide gift deliveries. Chosen by Santa
to lead his sleigh that night, Rudolph helped saved that particular
Christmas, earning him popularity and legendary status among the other
reindeer.
(What The--?! I#10) - Decades later, Rudolph accompanied Santa Claus to the roof of Castle Doom in Latveria to deliver presents. Santa was unfortunately injured by a trap set by Doom and when Santa passed out from the pain, an annoyed Rudolph commented "Nice going, Tin-Head!" to Doom. After the injured Santa convinced Doom to take his place for the night, Rudolph accompanied "Santa Doom" to the roof of the new Avengers Mansion in the USA and when Doom monologued that he should be careful of the Avengers' security measures, Rudolph angrily berated Doom, reminding him that the Avengers knew to expect Santa Claus. When Doom subsequently paid a visit to Four Freedoms Plaza to deliver Santa's gifts to the Fantastic Four, he was punched through the roof by the Thing, prompting Rudolph to sarcastically question another reindeer if it was clobberin' time. Weeks later, after Santa had recovered, he thanked Doom for his assistance on Christmas Eve and returned to his sleigh, asking Rudolph what Doom meant about his heart's desire being taken care of when Santa had given him no gifts. The easily-annoyed Rudolph replied that he was sure he didn't know, noting only that Doom was one "twisted gent."
(What The--?! I#16) - After
Ant-Man (Scott Lang)
freed Santa's North Pole workshop from Doctor Octopus, Rudolph snatched
Doc Ock as the villain attempted to flee the scene and angrily dragged
him back to Santa, revealing that he had found Ock attempting to sneak
away. A bit later, Rudolph had been hitched to Santa's sleigh as Doctor
Octopus was forced to help pack the sleigh with gifts for Santa to
deliver. Once the sleigh was packed, Santa offered to give Ant-Man and
Doctor Octopus a ride home, using his powers to shrink the toy sack
down to size to fit the superhumans and prompting Rudolph to comment
that there was now plenty of room and they should leave the driving to
their red-nosed reindeer. The sleigh then took flight with Rudolph
leading the way with his glowing red nose.
Comments: Created by Scott Lobdell and John
Byrne.
Despite Rudolph's appearances
being
in the What The--?! comic, which typically features stories set on
Earth-9047, the two stories featuring Rudolph are confirmed to have
occurred on Earth-616 in Santa Claus' OHotMU profile in the Marvel
Holiday Special 2006.
A version of Rudolph appears in the "New Wave Christmas Carols" story in Crazy Magazine I#83 but this is likely an Earth-80360 counterpart, as Santa is also in that story and the appearance is not mentioned in Santa-616's OHotMU or Appendix profiles. This leads me to believe that the appearance is Earth-80360 rather than Earth-616. Another version of Rudolph appears in Barbie I#50, published by Marvel, but that comic was a licensed comic based on the famous Mattel doll and would not be Earth-616 either...
Rudolph's name was spelled
"Rudolf" in What The--?! I#16 but Santa Claus' OHotMU entry in the
Marvel Holiday Special 2006 notes that his name is properly spelled
"Rudolph," much like in the actual "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
Christmas carol. Perhaps when appearing in-story in What The--?! I#16,
Marvel decided to change the name to "Rudolf" to avoid any potential
legal copyright issues since "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was
created by the Montgomery Ward department stores, which were still open
and operating in 1992 when What The--?! I#16. Then again, it could've
just been a misspelling since the Marvel Holiday Special 2006 confirms
the spelling of "Rudolph" even in the What The--?! I#16 story.
Montgomery Ward has since closed all of their physical stores but the
name still exists on some products sold online at least as recently as
2020, though I've heard "Rudolph" has since fallen into the public
domain...
It was not clear if Rudolph himself had the ability to actually use magic or if his abilities were merely the result of magic cast upon him. Either way, he was capable of using his magical abilities.
Not sure why but I cracked up at how surly and easily-angered Rudolph was in his two appearances in What The--?!. Quite the humorous contrast to how Rudolph is typically portrayed in holiday media.
Rudolph sure grew a lot between
his
appearances. In What The--?! I#10, he has small antler nubs (see above
headshot image) but the time What The--?! I#16 comes along, he has a
pair of mid-size antlers. I'm no reindeer expert but I've read that
reindeer do lose their antlers annually so perhaps Rudolph's had
recently fallen off just before What The--?! I#10 and had completely
grown back in time for What The--?! I#16.
Frankly, I'm surprised
Rudolf/Rudolph
hasn't appeared in more comics. Over at the Distinguished Competition,
Rudolph had his own series! If you know of any other Rudolph
appearances or mentions, let me know so I can get it added into this
profile!
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Rudolph should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
What The--?! I#10 (January, 1991) - "I'll Be Doom for Christmas" story
- Scott Lobdell (writer), John Byrne (art), Craig Anderson (editor)
What The--?! I#16 (January, 1992) - "Ock Around the Christmas Tree"
story - Scott Lobdell (writer), Marie Severin (art), Renee
Witterstaetter (editor)
Marvel Holiday Special 2006 (February, 2007) - "Official Handbook of
the Marvel Universe: Santa Claus" story - Jeff Christiansen (writer),
Arthur Adams (Santa Claus entry art), John Barber (editor)
First posted: 12/25/2024
Last updated: 12/25/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
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