| “ | Think of it, Batman. Never again to walk on a summer's day with a hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh yes, I'd kill for that. | „ |
| ~ Mr. Freeze's most famous quote. |
Victor Fries, better known as Mr. Freeze, is a recurring antagonist in the DC Animated Universe, serving as a minor antagonist in Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond. He also serves as the titular main antagonist of the 1998 film Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero.
He is a former Gothcorp scientist, who upon discovering his wife, Nora, was fatally ill, was forced to cryogenically preserve her until he could find a cure. When his employer retaliated, Fries was subjected to a chemicals that altered his genetic makeup so that he would require sub zero temperatures to survive, becoming Mr. Freeze and setting himself into either curing his wife or making everyone's life miserable, coming across Batman several times.
He was voiced by the late Michael Ansara.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- Robbed several Gothcorp cryolabs in order to build a freeze ray to get his revenge on Ferris Boyle.
- When he accidentally hit one of his henchmen with his freeze ray, Freeze just blamed it on him and left his henchmen behind.
- Plotted to kill all the guests at Ferris Boyle's humanitarian awards party, brushing off the fact that most of them were innocent and that only Boyle was the one who deserved his justified wrath.
- After his initial defeat at the hands of Batman, Freeze is recruited by theme park mogul, Grant Walker, to not only transfer his condition over to Walker, but also to build an even bigger freeze ray to destroy most of the world.
- He does the following during the direct-to-video movie, Batman and Mr. Freeze SubZero:
- Kills an entire submarine crew for accidentally damaging his wife's life support.
- Kidnapped the corrupt doctor, Gregory Belson, and forced him to operate on his wife.
- When Belson reveals his wife needs an organ transplant and there aren't any deceased donors with her blood type, Freeze suggests finding a living donor, knowing it would kill them.
- Kidnapped Barbara Gordon to harvest her organs, threatening to allow his polar bears to maul Dick Grayson to death should Barbara refuse.
- When Barbara makes an escape attempt, Freeze goes berserk and shoots recklessly at her with his freeze ray.
- During Cold Comfort:
- Freeze kidnaps a team of scientists and forces them to operate on him after his condition grew unstable.
- Broke into Wayne manor and froze Alfred just to spite Bruce Wayne, almost killing him. This alone caused Bruce to abandon any and all sympathy he once had for Freeze, viewing him as just another criminal now.
- Tried to freeze all of Gotham since he can no longer live a normal life, should he have succeeded, the whole population of Gotham would have been killed.
- During his final appearance in Batman Beyond's episode, Meltdown, Freeze relapses back into villainy after his condition returns and kills Dr. Stephanie Lake, and tries to kill Derek Powers. Though, one could argue this isn't heinous as Dr. Lake tried to kill him previously and Derek Powers deserved to die due to his evil acts.
- He attempted to blow up the whole Wayne-Powers facility he was cloned at, which, as Bruce stated, could have killed hundreds of people if he succeeded.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- No matter how awful Freeze became, he always loved his wife. Her sickness is what drove him into villainy, and during his final appearance, Freeze considers opening a charity in his wife's name in order to help the people he hurt during his time as a villain.
- He's very tragic, as not only did he lose any and all chance of living a normal life because of Ferris Boyle, but his life was awful up until that point too. At one point, Freeze admits that Nora was the first good thing that ever happened to him.
- When Freeze realizes Nora would not like seeing him work with someone like Grant Walker to destroy most of civilization, Freeze makes a temporary truce with Batman and Robin and helps defeat Walker.
- Although initially he was indifferent to the innocent people he would've killed at Ferris Boyle's awards ceremony, after he is captured and brought to Arkham, Freeze is shown bursting into tears and begging his dead wife for forgiveness.
- For most of Meltdown, Freeze is shown to be remorseful of his past crimes and genuinely wanted to redeem himself in the eyes of the public. In fact, the only thing that caused his relapse into villainy was his condition returning, something that was beyond his control.
- His death in the aforementioned episode is also treated sympathetically, when Terry McGinnis offers to save Freeze from certain death, Freeze declines by saying "Believe me; you're the only one who cares", allowing himself to die in an explosion and goes as far as sealing himself off from Terry to ensure that he escapes. Even Bruce ended up feeling sorry for him again, admitting he was wrong to Terry.
- During Batman and Mr. Freeze SubZero, he adopts an orphan Inuit child named Koonak who he genuinely loved like a son. He's also shown to be very fond of his polar bears throughout the film.
Trivia[]
- An early story idea for Mr. Freeze's reappearance in Batman Beyond the writers had involved a running gag in which whenever the elder Bruce Wayne opened his fridge, we would see Freeze's head promising to get back at him someday, leading Wayne to sneer at him and always close the fridge, but the proposed idea was scrapped for being "too insulting" to the character. Had the original idea been used, depending on how funny the running gag was meant to be, it's possible that Mr. Freeze would have qualified as Near Pure Evil.
- This version of Mr. Freeze is said to have inspired the characterization from the Mr. Freeze seen in Batman & Robin, which is very fitting, as that Mr. Freeze is likewise Inconsistently Heinous.
External Links[]
- Mr. Freeze on the Villains Wiki
- Mr. Freeze on the DC Animated Universe Wiki
- Mr. Freeze on the DC Database Wiki
- Mr. Freeze on the Batman Wiki
- Mr. Freeze on the VS Battles Wiki
- Mr. Freeze on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
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 Animated Universe Inconsistently Heinous
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Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures Superman: The Animated Series Justice League/Unlimited | ||
 Inconsistently Heinous
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Comics Theatrical Movies Direct-to-video Movies Television Video Games
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