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From the time of his first appearance in 1959 onward, Mr. Freeze was portrayed as one of many "joke" villains (see also Killer Moth, The Mad Hatter) cast as stock enemies of Batman. Originally called Mr. Zero, the producers of the 1960's Batman television series renamed him Mr. Freeze (and portrayed Batman addressing him as "Dr. Schimmell"), and the name quickly carried over to the comic books.
Nearly thirty years later, Mr. Freeze would owe even more to television. In Batman: The Animated Series, the "Heart of Ice" episode, he was made into a more complex, tragic character. This version of Mr. Freeze was enthusiastically accepted by fans, and has become the standard portrayal for the character in most forms of media, including the comicbook series themselves.
Mr. Freeze - Origin
As shown in "Heart of Ice", Victor Fries was fascinated with freezing animals as a child, which would lead to his career in cryogenics research. He was sent to a strict boarding school by his father, where he met Nora, an attractive and gentle girl whom he subsequently married.
Unfortunately, Nora later fell terminally ill. Fries took on a job working for a large company run by the ruthless Ferris Boyle, working in his field. Fries did not like the job but needed money to help Nora.
Fries discovered a way to put Nora into cryo-stasis, hoping to sustain her until a cure could be found. Boyle attempted to have her brought out of stasis, overruling Fries' frantic objections. A struggle ensued, in which Boyle kicked Fries into a table full of chemicals and he was left for dead. He survived, but his body temperature was lowered dramatically, and from then on he could only live at sub-zero temperatures, forced to wear a special refrigerating suit to stay alive. As Mr. Freeze, he used cryonic technology to create a gun, which fired a beam that freezes any href = "http://www.experiencefestival.com/1960s_batman_television_series">1960s Batman television series, Alfred, Arctic, Arkham Asylum, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Batgirl, Batman, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, Batman Beyond, Batman and Robin, Batman and Robin (1997 movie), Batman villains, Batman: Gotham Knights, Batman: TAS, Batman: The Animated Series,
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Character history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |
