#[powering up my comically large supervillain ice ray]

[muirmarie]

modern trek erasing mccoy is genuinely my villain origin story

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 6

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January.

  TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “It would move me to tears, if I had tears to shed.” Number 6 is…Heart of Ice.

Many seem to consider “Heart of Ice” to be the single best episode of “Batman: The Animated Series.” If it isn’t number one, it’s usually VERY high up, typically in the Top 5 at least. So for me to rank it a mere number six is probably blasphemy, in some people’s minds. As usual, I have nothing against “Heart of Ice” – far, FAR from it – but I just have personal biases that cause me to like five other episodes more. Of course, we’ll get to those stories when we get to them…for now, let’s focus on this one. This episode marks the first appearance of Mr. Freeze, and is famous for its reimagining of the character’s origin story. In the comics before this point, Freeze was a pretty standard, honestly rather dull villain: as one version of Green Lantern described him, he was “a two-bit gimmick villain from Gotham City.” Back then, he was an unnamed mad scientist, whose experiments in creating a freeze ray led to him needing to wear a special suit to keep himself in a sub-zero environment at all times. He was honestly depicted as sort of a blundering sort, whose condition was self-inflicted by his own foolhardiness. He was also known by a different name, “Mr. Zero.”

It was actually the Adam West series that first reinvigorated the character: not only was that show the series that gave him the title of “Mr. Freeze,” since the series’ creators felt that was a catchier name (and they were so very right), but they added a surprisingly tragic element to the character’s backstory: Freeze was still a mad criminal scientist, but his condition was no longer self-imposed. It was revealed that, when he first met Batman, the Caped Crusader (accidentally) doused Freeze with some of the dangerous chemicals he was experimenting with, and Freeze’s cold-hearted attitude was largely a result of his bitter desire for vengeance against the Dark Knight, whom he felt had robbed him of a normal life. Of course, the Silly Sixties could only go so deep with this pathos, due to its focus on campy comedy. It was the Animated Series that brought Freeze to critical mass, taking some of these same elements and expanding on them in a way that has now become legendary.

In “Heart of Ice,” we find out that Mr. Freeze was once a good man: a cryogenics expert by the name of Victor Fries, who was trying to save his wife, Nora, from a terminal illness. Unfortunately, Fries ran afoul of his employer: an entrepreneur named Ferris Boyle, who tried to shut down his experiments, not caring about Nora’s wellbeing at all. Victor tried to fight back, and was tricked by Boyle, who knocked him into a collection of unstable chemicals. This is what has led to him becoming Mr. Freeze: an ice-themed supervillain who can no longer exist outside of arctic-level temperatures, seeking vengeance against the one he blames for destroying his life and trying to murder his poor, beloved bride. When Batman is put on the villain’s trail, he ends up in Freeze’s crosshairs. Honestly, there is so much I could talk about on what makes this episode so magnificent. For starters, it’s one of the best animated episodes of the show, in my opinion. (The only one that might top it is “Feat of Clay.”) The music is spellbinding, with Freeze’s haunting, music-box-like theme repeated throughout the score, in stark contrast to Batman’s grandiose, orchestral power. It’s also notable for featuring Mark Hamill as a character OTHER than the Joker, as he plays the role of Ferris Boyle in the story. (Apparently, he actually recorded the voice of Boyle before ever landing the role of the Ace of Knaves, even though several Joker episodes all predate this story’s release. Weird.) And of course, the themes present in the story – the difference between vengeance and justice, and of what it means to be truly human – are powerful and nuanced in their presentation. One could write a whole book about what makes this episode so great, and still not have said enough. So…again, probably heresy leaving it out of the Top 5. For those of who are (unfairly) upset with me, I feel there’s no better apology I can give than Mr. Freeze’s own final lines: “I can only beg your forgiveness, and pray that you hear me somehow, someplace. Someplace where a warm hand waits for mine.”

Tomorrow we move into the Top 5 of the countdown! Hint: “My fault…I didn’t get the joke…”