Batman: Arkham Origins is introducing a Mr. Freeze DLC. We look back at this villain's impressive history in other media.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that Batman: Arkham Origins will be getting a Mr. Freeze DLC, "Cold, Cold Heart", and it got us thinking: what is it about Mr. Freeze, perhaps more than any other Batman villain, that makes him ideally suited for portrayal in media outside of comic books? For a character that has been in print for over fifty years, Mr. Freeze has gone on to find his greatest successes off the printed page, from TV to movies, and ultimately to video games.
First appearing as Mr. Zero in Batman#121 (1959), Mr. Freeze was an unremarkable bald villain in a gaudy costume, brandishing a cold gun and an air-conditioned suit that allowed him to live at normal temperatures. In true Batman villain fashion, he made heisting diamonds (or “ice”) his criminal profession, and he was behind bars by the end of his brief first adventure. It was 1966 before we’d see Mr. Zero again, when the character was revived for the seventh and eighth episodes of the BatmanTV series and rechristened Mr. Freeze. Here we can see the beginnings of the character’s love affair with other media. While Mr. Freeze made only a handful of comic appearances over the first thirty plus years of his existence, in short order he featured in three two-part adventures on the wildly successful Batman TV series, where he was portrayed by three different actors.
George Sanders played Mr. Freeze on episodes 7 & 8 of Batman. The two-parter was a loose adaptation of the character’s first appearance in Batman#121. He returned in the season two episodes 53 and 54, played by Otto Preminger (whose bald head certainly looked the most like that of his comic book counterpart). He returned for one more two-parter in Batmanseason three (episodes 93 and 94 for those keeping track), this time played by a visually striking Eli Wallach.
Not only does Mr. Freeze owe his name to the BatmanTV series, but the most recognizable traits of his look also stem from the show. While “Mr. Zero” wore a gaudily colored red and green refrigeration suit, almost indistinguishable from the tights that most other superheroes and supervillains wore, the famously garish Batmanshow actually toned down Mr. Freeze’s look. Gone were the red and green tights, replaced with a more space-age refrigeration suit, and in later episodes, a chilly blue-grey pallor for the villain, as well!
But that was practically it for Mr. Freeze. He packed up his freeze gun, new name, and more sensible design sense and appeared sporadically at best for the next twenty years. Even his brief comic appearances in the early '90s showed him in heavily armored, blue and white garb that had actually been designed for a little seen Kenner Super Powersaction figure from that line’s relatively limited production third wave (that mold was reproduced for Toy Biz’s first line of DC Comics Super Heroesaction figures in 1989).
Mr. Freeze’s finest hour remains the Batman: The Animated Series episode, “Heart of Ice,” the Emmy Winning tale written by Paul Dini and directed by Bruce Timm. “Heart of Ice” radically reinvented Mr. Freeze, giving him not only a striking art-deco design (courtesy of comic book artist and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola) and an unforgettable vocal performance (by Michael Ansara), but finally giving the character a meaningful backstory. Victor Fries commits his crimes to raise money for his terminally ill wife, who lies in cryogenic stasis until a cure can be found. Not only a great Mr. Freeze story, “Heart of Ice” may very well be one of the single greatest superhero stories told in any forum.
How important did “Heart of Ice” ultimately become to the Batman mythology? So important that it has become the standard take on the Mr. Freeze character across all media for the last two decades, including the one and only big screen live-action interpretation of Mr. Freeze, as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger inBatman and Robin (although the less said about this the better). Nevertheless, there are few comic book supervillains out there who have had FOUR distinct live-action incarnations and an animated series appearance so momentous that it changed fan perception and future representation of the character.
But that’s just it isn’t it? Mr. Freeze began life as a ridiculously costumed Lex Luthor lookalike with an interesting bit of weaponry, but it took a television show to perfect not just his look, but his very name! Perhaps ironically, it was the brightly colored BatmanTV show (arguably the most faithful live-action visual representation of a comic book of all time) that actually had the good sense to tone down Mr. Freeze’s color scheme and replace it with a more appropriately space age, utilitarian look. It was animation that finally visualized the beautiful destructive power of Mr. Freeze’s weaponry, with an indescribable sound effect and hypnotic electric blue laser beam fury.
It’s that combination of striking visuals and specific power set that makes Mr. Freeze such a perfect character for video games. The very concept of a “freeze gun” which can immobilize enemies temporarily (we can ignore such technicalities as frostbite and hypothermia), or make them brittle and subject to devastating physical attacks is tailor-made for a good boss battle. Mr. Freeze was probably the biggest selling point in 2001’s Batman: Vengeance (a game based on Batman: The Animated Series). Players face off against Freeze not one but THREE times through out the game before finally defeating him. You dodge ice left and right, unable to get close to Freeze (he’s too strong for melee attacks). The only way to beat him is to use his environment against him.
The last time we saw Freeze in the Arkhamseries, he was a pawn in the Joker’s game, forced to synthesize a cure for the TITAN virus in order to get his wife back from the Clown Prince of Crime. Arkham Citywas incredibly rough on Freeze: he’s also betrayed by Hugo Strange and taken prisoner by Penguin, who dons his freeze gun for his own amusement. Things look hopeless for Freeze until Batman rescues him and helps him create the cure for TITAN. Of course, Freeze’s true motivation is to get his wife back to safety. Always the tragic character. After the events of Arkham City, it is assumed that Victor is sent back to the old Arkham Asylum.
Arkham Origins'"Cold, Cold Heart" DLC tells the story of Freeze’s first showdown with the Dark Knight (which will undoubtedly be less “Mr. Zero” and more “Heart of Ice”). Previously, a teaser poster on the game’s Facebook shows a Wayne Humanitarian of the Year Award frozen in ice. Could this be a new take on the Ferris Boyle storyline? Or is Freeze after Wayne and his resources? It's confirmed that Wayne Manor is a setting in the new story, so we have a feeling Batman will be fighting Freeze very close to home. The Dark Knight will don a special Extreme Environment (XE) suit and new gadgets including the Thermal Gloves and Thermocharged Batarangs.We have a feeling this Mr. Freeze story will give us what we wanted from Arkham Origins in the first place.
Check out the trailer here.
We hope this new Freeze story portrays the iconic villain as a tragic anti-hero, a man that would do anything for the love of his life. A ruthless villain who, unlike other characters such as the Joker, has a purpose that still weighs heavy on fans’ hearts.
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