Showing posts with label Mr. Freeze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mr. Freeze. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Sensei Starman Plays Gotham Knights - Part 50
In this extra long episode, we thwart the Regulator effort to break Mr. Freeze out of Blackgate Prison AND bring Clayface to justice!
Monday, February 13, 2023
Sensei Starman Plays Gotham Knights - Part 49
In which our search for a missing judge ends with a fateful decision regarding bringing a new hero into the Knights' trust and we head out to Blackgate Prison to prevent an effort to break Mr. Freeze out of jail.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Sensei Starman Plays Gotham Knights - Part 36
In which we tackle the Mister Freeze boss fight again, this time with some more appropriate weapons and armor. We then catch up on e-mail and do a little crafting.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Sensei Starman Plays Gotham Knights - Part 35
In which we continue fighting our way through the frozen Elliott Center, working toward one hell of a boss fight with Mr. Freeze.
Monday, January 23, 2023
Sensei Starman Plays Gotham Knights - Part 34
In which we clear out a Mr. Freeze mission in record time, thanks to being far higher than the recommended challenge level. Things prove more challenging when we move on to the next level, where Mr. Freeze gets a weather-control machine and threatens to turn Gotham into Minnesota!
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 4 - Antifreeze
For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.
Influences
The Batman comics of Grant Morrison (Black Glove Society)
Bat Trivia
Mention is made of a made-up Batman villain called Icarus who had "Zero-G" sneakers. This gimmick sounds like the Air-Walker shoes employed by The Trickster in the comics.
First appearing in Batman #667 in August 2007, the Black Glove Society were created by Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel. Apparently a secret society of wealthy elites who just throw wild parties, the true organization was made up of sinister people who staged a yearly contest to play out some epic battle of good and evil. In this case, they tried to manipulate Batman.
Interestingly, one of the members of the Black Glove Society was a woman named Jezebel Jet who was briefly a love interest of Bruce Wayne. It seems likely that Jada Jet is meant to be an Arrowverse adaptation of the character.
Technobabble
Mary says that the formula used to freeze Jordan is based on the catalytic mechanism of Victor Fries' research, but what used to happen inside a chamber is now happening inside Jordan's cells. The effect on organic tissue is like the process that petrifies wood.
The GCPD are said to have thermal cameras all around Gotham City. Luke uses this knowledge to find an unusually hot room for thawing out one of the other Black Glove victims.
Mary notes that plants evolved to survive winter by synthesizing a type of antifreeze in their vascular tissue to thaw from the inside outward.
The Lucius Fox AI was not designed to run independent of the Batwing suit failsafe and has no purpose beyond acting in Like's best interest In this case, it determined Luke was not ready to wear the suit yet, which was why it shut down..
Dialogue Triumphs
(Alice is surrounded by Black Glove Society members, including the man in the suit.)
Alice: Just taking a shot here... are you make-believe?
Luke: So, what? So, even though nobody thinks that you'll win, you're just gonna... stay and fight?
Ryan: Have you met me?
Continuity
In the opening scene, a man is shown conducting experiments on various figured frozen with Mr. Freeze's cryo-formula and thawed out. One of these subjects cracks when asked to leave the room. The man calls this experiment a failure and notes they have 24 hours until the client's deadline.
Mary is shown on a park bench with vines crawling over her.
Marquis got Ryan onto a prominent "30 Under 30" list.
Charlie Clarke is the head of Public Relations for Wayne Enterprises and has been there since Lucius Fox's day.
Sophie's sister Jordan is also on the 30 Under 30 list because of her work with the local community center.
Mary tries to tell Ryan and Luke about waking up on the bench, but they both blow her off.
Alice is still imagining spiders crawling inside her because of the nanite trackers.
Alice hallucinates more mail from her father and killing the orderly who brought the messages to her.
Charlie says that he had to bribe Bruce Wayne to get him to memorize his talking points.
Ryan remembers that Wanye Enterprises is set to make its biggest quarterly venue gains in six years.
Marquis makes a big deal about getting his picture with Ryan at the event.
Sophie tells Jordan that she had a dream about Ryan bringing her soul while she was in bed.
Sophie is 31 years old. She is also apparently still unemployed.
Jordan says that Sophie should ask Ryan out.
Jordan is abducted by the man from the opening scene.
Jada calls Vesper Fairchild to report a rumor.
Alice is dropped off at Mary's clinic.
Alice admits that she got Montoya to let her out of Arkham because she said she had a lead on the "Zero-G" sneakers of the Batman villain Icarus. Alice completely made this villain up.
Mary refers to Alice's faked cold from 303.
Sophie asks Ryan and Marquis to help her find Jordan, who has gone missing.
Luke is trying to reset the AI in his Batwing suit, but it hasn't worked since he shut down the fail safe.
Marquis gets a tip that Jordan was taken to Room 1620 of the hotel the 30 Under 30 event is at.
Ryan finds Jordan, frozen solid by Mr. Freeze's equipment without a cryochamber.
Ryan tells Sophie about how the last person they tried to reheat and how they aged at 4 times the normal rate.
Alice recognized Jordan's kidnappers as The Black Glove Society - a group of rich elites that supposedly rule Gotham City from the shadows who are also looking into a way to live forever.
Sophie says that Jordan and her activist friends were working to expose the Black Glove Society and she was going to use her speech at the 30 Under 30 event to do that.
Mary says she can save Jordan if she can get a clean sample of Fries' formula.
Marquis becomes angry with Ryan after she questions how he knew what room she'd be in.
Vesper Fairchild reports that the CEO of Wayne Enterprises has been diverting millions of dollars into a secret personal account.
Charlie reports that Wayne Enterprises stock has gone down 47$ in the past hour and the CFO is conducting a full audit into the company's finances.
Ryan offers to resign, but Charlie says this is the sort of thing that gets people arrested, not fired.
Luke determines that Jada didn't fake the numbers that were given to Vesper Fairchild - she somehow uncovered the secret budget used to pay for Batman's technology.
Alice hallucinates the orderly talking to her again while searching Jordan's apartment with Sophie.
Alice finds Jordan's hidden notes on the Black Glove Society, which connect them to Jeturian Industries.
Sophie and Alice get knocked out by the Black Glove Society thugs.
A sign once again show's that Mary's clinic is on Bennett Avenue.
Batwoman saves Sophie and Alice from being burned up along with Jordan's apartment.
Mary thaws Jordan out safely.
Alice tells the rest of the team about her hallucinations and how they are getting worse.
Mary says the quality of care at Arkham is so crappy that they could well be giving her medication that causes a psychotic break rather than actually helping Alice.
Sophie agrees to let Alice move in with her and Mary agrees to takeover making sure Alice is getting the proper medication.
Charlie Clarke says he knows Ryan didn't steal from the company because she hasn't been CEO long enough to steal a stapler, let alone set up a fund to steal $30 million.
Clarke says that he was used to having to cover up similar scandals thanks to Bruce Wayne's public record of addiction, misbehaviors and mysterious disappearances.
Clarke comes up with a press release which says that the missing money was part of a top secret defense contract with ARGUS which Ryan mistakenly thought needed to be kept secret from the Board of Directors due to national security reasons.
Luke makes reference to an old friend at ARGUS who will help to sell the story that the misappropriated funds were part of a secret ARGUS contract. This is likely a reference to John Diggle, whom Luke befriended in 216.
Clarke suggests Ryan resign since the stock price is still falling because someone is manipulating the press against her. He fears they will lose control of Wayne Enterprises in a hostile takeover if Ryan stays.
Luke is fearful of losing the company after all his dad did to build it up.
Ryan reactivates the fail-safe and this reawakens the Lucius Fox AI.
The AI says that helping run Wayne Enterprises is beyond the scope of his programming.
Ryan reaches out to Marquis, but he shuts down any attempt to work with her against Jada.
Jada meets with the Black Glove society and it is confirmed that she had commissioned them to come up with a way to safely freeze and unfreeze a person using Victor Fries' science.
Jada says that Marquis is about to take a leave of absence.
The Fridge Factor
Alice and Sophie get easily knocked out by the Black Glove Society thugs. As Sophie notes, this only happened because Alice thought they were a hallucination at first.
The Bottom Line
Oddly uninteresting. Too much of the episode shifts focus away from the established characters and their subplots to focus upon the high-finance, public drama of Ryan's ascension which seems rushed given that we just found out Ryan became CEO last week. Unfortunately, this isn't nearly as interesting as Luke's issues with his dad, Alice's hallucinations or even Sophie's relationship with her sister. It doesn't help matters that the show is utilizing the Black Glove Society which, while coming first, seems like a half-hearted rip-off of the similar and better-known Court of Owls.
Plot
When Ryan is named to Gotham City's "30 Under 30" list, Luke worries that Marquis Jet's efforts to form an alliance with Ryan will bring Jada Jet's wrath down on Wayne Enterprises. Meanwhile, Alice's hallucinations grow stronger, Mary feels unlike herself and Sophie's sister Jordan goes missing after an incident which suggests more of Mr. Freeze's technology is still on the street.
Influences
The Batman comics of Grant Morrison (Black Glove Society)
Bat Trivia
Mention is made of a made-up Batman villain called Icarus who had "Zero-G" sneakers. This gimmick sounds like the Air-Walker shoes employed by The Trickster in the comics.
First appearing in Batman #667 in August 2007, the Black Glove Society were created by Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel. Apparently a secret society of wealthy elites who just throw wild parties, the true organization was made up of sinister people who staged a yearly contest to play out some epic battle of good and evil. In this case, they tried to manipulate Batman.
Interestingly, one of the members of the Black Glove Society was a woman named Jezebel Jet who was briefly a love interest of Bruce Wayne. It seems likely that Jada Jet is meant to be an Arrowverse adaptation of the character.
Technobabble
Mary says that the formula used to freeze Jordan is based on the catalytic mechanism of Victor Fries' research, but what used to happen inside a chamber is now happening inside Jordan's cells. The effect on organic tissue is like the process that petrifies wood.
The GCPD are said to have thermal cameras all around Gotham City. Luke uses this knowledge to find an unusually hot room for thawing out one of the other Black Glove victims.
Mary notes that plants evolved to survive winter by synthesizing a type of antifreeze in their vascular tissue to thaw from the inside outward.
The Lucius Fox AI was not designed to run independent of the Batwing suit failsafe and has no purpose beyond acting in Like's best interest In this case, it determined Luke was not ready to wear the suit yet, which was why it shut down..
Dialogue Triumphs
(Alice is surrounded by Black Glove Society members, including the man in the suit.)
Alice: Just taking a shot here... are you make-believe?
Luke: So, what? So, even though nobody thinks that you'll win, you're just gonna... stay and fight?
Ryan: Have you met me?
Continuity
In the opening scene, a man is shown conducting experiments on various figured frozen with Mr. Freeze's cryo-formula and thawed out. One of these subjects cracks when asked to leave the room. The man calls this experiment a failure and notes they have 24 hours until the client's deadline.
Mary is shown on a park bench with vines crawling over her.
Marquis got Ryan onto a prominent "30 Under 30" list.
Charlie Clarke is the head of Public Relations for Wayne Enterprises and has been there since Lucius Fox's day.
Sophie's sister Jordan is also on the 30 Under 30 list because of her work with the local community center.
Mary tries to tell Ryan and Luke about waking up on the bench, but they both blow her off.
Alice is still imagining spiders crawling inside her because of the nanite trackers.
Alice hallucinates more mail from her father and killing the orderly who brought the messages to her.
Charlie says that he had to bribe Bruce Wayne to get him to memorize his talking points.
Ryan remembers that Wanye Enterprises is set to make its biggest quarterly venue gains in six years.
Marquis makes a big deal about getting his picture with Ryan at the event.
Sophie tells Jordan that she had a dream about Ryan bringing her soul while she was in bed.
Sophie is 31 years old. She is also apparently still unemployed.
Jordan says that Sophie should ask Ryan out.
Jordan is abducted by the man from the opening scene.
Jada calls Vesper Fairchild to report a rumor.
Alice is dropped off at Mary's clinic.
Alice admits that she got Montoya to let her out of Arkham because she said she had a lead on the "Zero-G" sneakers of the Batman villain Icarus. Alice completely made this villain up.
Mary refers to Alice's faked cold from 303.
Sophie asks Ryan and Marquis to help her find Jordan, who has gone missing.
Luke is trying to reset the AI in his Batwing suit, but it hasn't worked since he shut down the fail safe.
Marquis gets a tip that Jordan was taken to Room 1620 of the hotel the 30 Under 30 event is at.
Ryan finds Jordan, frozen solid by Mr. Freeze's equipment without a cryochamber.
Ryan tells Sophie about how the last person they tried to reheat and how they aged at 4 times the normal rate.
Alice recognized Jordan's kidnappers as The Black Glove Society - a group of rich elites that supposedly rule Gotham City from the shadows who are also looking into a way to live forever.
Sophie says that Jordan and her activist friends were working to expose the Black Glove Society and she was going to use her speech at the 30 Under 30 event to do that.
Mary says she can save Jordan if she can get a clean sample of Fries' formula.
Marquis becomes angry with Ryan after she questions how he knew what room she'd be in.
Vesper Fairchild reports that the CEO of Wayne Enterprises has been diverting millions of dollars into a secret personal account.
Charlie reports that Wayne Enterprises stock has gone down 47$ in the past hour and the CFO is conducting a full audit into the company's finances.
Ryan offers to resign, but Charlie says this is the sort of thing that gets people arrested, not fired.
Luke determines that Jada didn't fake the numbers that were given to Vesper Fairchild - she somehow uncovered the secret budget used to pay for Batman's technology.
Alice hallucinates the orderly talking to her again while searching Jordan's apartment with Sophie.
Alice finds Jordan's hidden notes on the Black Glove Society, which connect them to Jeturian Industries.
Sophie and Alice get knocked out by the Black Glove Society thugs.
A sign once again show's that Mary's clinic is on Bennett Avenue.
Batwoman saves Sophie and Alice from being burned up along with Jordan's apartment.
Mary thaws Jordan out safely.
Alice tells the rest of the team about her hallucinations and how they are getting worse.
Mary says the quality of care at Arkham is so crappy that they could well be giving her medication that causes a psychotic break rather than actually helping Alice.
Sophie agrees to let Alice move in with her and Mary agrees to takeover making sure Alice is getting the proper medication.
Charlie Clarke says he knows Ryan didn't steal from the company because she hasn't been CEO long enough to steal a stapler, let alone set up a fund to steal $30 million.
Clarke says that he was used to having to cover up similar scandals thanks to Bruce Wayne's public record of addiction, misbehaviors and mysterious disappearances.
Clarke comes up with a press release which says that the missing money was part of a top secret defense contract with ARGUS which Ryan mistakenly thought needed to be kept secret from the Board of Directors due to national security reasons.
Luke makes reference to an old friend at ARGUS who will help to sell the story that the misappropriated funds were part of a secret ARGUS contract. This is likely a reference to John Diggle, whom Luke befriended in 216.
Clarke suggests Ryan resign since the stock price is still falling because someone is manipulating the press against her. He fears they will lose control of Wayne Enterprises in a hostile takeover if Ryan stays.
Luke is fearful of losing the company after all his dad did to build it up.
Ryan reactivates the fail-safe and this reawakens the Lucius Fox AI.
The AI says that helping run Wayne Enterprises is beyond the scope of his programming.
Ryan reaches out to Marquis, but he shuts down any attempt to work with her against Jada.
Jada meets with the Black Glove society and it is confirmed that she had commissioned them to come up with a way to safely freeze and unfreeze a person using Victor Fries' science.
Jada says that Marquis is about to take a leave of absence.
The Fridge Factor
Alice and Sophie get easily knocked out by the Black Glove Society thugs. As Sophie notes, this only happened because Alice thought they were a hallucination at first.
The Bottom Line
Oddly uninteresting. Too much of the episode shifts focus away from the established characters and their subplots to focus upon the high-finance, public drama of Ryan's ascension which seems rushed given that we just found out Ryan became CEO last week. Unfortunately, this isn't nearly as interesting as Luke's issues with his dad, Alice's hallucinations or even Sophie's relationship with her sister. It doesn't help matters that the show is utilizing the Black Glove Society which, while coming first, seems like a half-hearted rip-off of the similar and better-known Court of Owls.
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 3 - Freeze
For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.
Influences
The Batman: The Animated Series episode Heart of Ice (background for Arrowverse version of Mr. Freeze)
Goofs
Granting that Gotham City is hell on Earth, it still seems odd that Nora Fries, a victim of some form of dementia after being cryogenically frozen for two decades, would be placed in the same asylum as the likes of Scarecrow and the Riddler, particularly when she had a sister working for the police who was willing to care for her.
The temperature regulator on the Bat-Suit needing to be activated remotely rather than kicking in automatically seems like a major design flaw.
Artistry
The fight scene among the pipes at Ace Chemicals is fantastic, well-shot and well-blocked.
Bat Trivia
Technobabble
According to Luke, the tanks Mr. Freeze used to hold his custom liquid nitrogen formula were compact, custom-built vacuum flasks that made the contents more concentrated and seemingly less dangerous than it truly was.
Luke says that WayneTech uses injectable nanobots in their research all the time.
Mary determines Alice is faking being sick based on her blood pressure, heart rate and glucose levels being normal.
A typical cryochamber can freeze a person but they'll die of hypothermia in about 10 minutes.
Nora says her husband's formula can effectively stop time and keep a person from aging, but once they thaw out time catches up with them. This is why she looked 34 three years earlier and now appears to be in her late 70s/early 80s. By her best guess, she'll look 122 by Christmas.
The Bat-Suit has a temperature regulator but it froze up before Luke could access it.
Dialogue Triumphs
Nora: I am so sick of people sacrificing their lives for me... my husband, my sister, the research, the lost years, the desperation. For what? So I could be trapped all over again?
Continuity
As the episode opens, a boy named Evan accidentally opens a tank of Mr. Freeze's special Liquid Nitrogen formula, freezing a city bus solid.
Evan says he found the tank under the Loeb Bridge.
Mr. Freeze is said to be dead on a news report.
Alice tries to call in sick, claiming she feels like spiders are crawling in her veins since getting injected with tracker nanites.
Luke says it's actually best Alice sit this mission out as the cannister was tagged by the GCPD at 10:07 am that morning and they probably don't want her going on a mission to burgle the police station.
Ryan breaks into the GCPD evidence locker, only to discover the Freeze tank was stolen.
The thief is an elderly woman, who takes the tank to Nora Fries - Mr. Freeze's wife. The thief says they can finish what Victor started.
Both women are abducted by a gang led by a woman.
Luke identifies the thief as Dee Smithy - a processing clerk for the GCPD who called in sick that morning for the first time in 20 years and who is Nora Fries' sister.
Luke says that Victor Fries had six doctorates, yet insisted on being called Mr. Freeze.
Luke makes reference to Captain Cold from The Flash, noting that he wasn't a real Captain.
Nora Fries suffered from McGregor's Syndrome, a lung disease that had no cure at the time of her diagnosis. Other victims of McGregor's Syndrome in the Arrowverse have included the Clock King (A214) and Francine West (F204) Nora was cryogenically frozen by her husband until a cure could be found and kept her in stasis using a special cryochamber and his patented freezing formula.
Victor died before Nora thawed out, after his formula finally wore off.
Nora apparently thawed out several years earlier and was given the cure for McGregor's Syndrome. However, she was so confused and disoriented after being locked away from the world for 20 years that she was locked in Arkham Asylum. She escaped in 2018 and had not been seen since. (This coincides with Nora Fries' cameo in A709 during the Elseworlds event.)
Marquis comes by Ryan's office and tells her that he figured out figured out she is his sister. He figured it out because his nannies gossiped and his mother disappeared for several months.
Marquis guesses Jada had an affair and knew her husband wasn't the father.
Ryan is one year younger than Marquis.
Marcus wants to partner with Ryan at Wayne Enterprises and prove that he can make it on his own. He says he suspects Ryan wants to show up Jada as well.
Ryan goes to Dee Smithy's house and finds evidence of a struggle and that Nora Fries was living there but that her McGregor's syndrome hadn't been cured.
Luke guesses that whoever came after Dee and Nora wanted the tank, which means they need a cryochamber. This leads Ryan to Ace Chemicals.
Dee gives the woman holding her and Nora hostage Victor Fries' notes and the tank, but the woman insists they should get the cryo chamber working.
Nora protests that she has no idea how Victor's technology worked and that when she went to college they didn't even teach science to women.
Ryan told Mary about Alice faking the letters from Jacob Kane.
Alice claims she has only been delusional that one time.
Alice broke into Mary's filing cabinet and knows that Luke is showing symptoms of PTSD.
Alice tells Mary she should keep this quiet from Ryan and says it is her place on the team to be silent until she's needed, pointing out that neither Kate, Ryan nor Luke ever went to her for help unless they needed something.
The gang leader says her client wanted the Freeze tank because they thought it would make them immortal.
Batwoman shows up and gets Nora Fries to run to Mary's clinic on Rucka and Bennett.
Batwoman tries to fight the gang leader and is knocked out and locked inside the cryochamber.
Dee is forced to activate the chamber with Ryan inside it.
Ryan tells Luke to suit up and rescue Dee and not to worry about her.
Nora gets to clinic, where Alice takes her hostage after Mary examines her.
Alice threatens to kill Nora if Mary doesn't get the nanites out of her.
Nora tells Alice to go ahead and kill her because she's sick of people sacrificing to try and save her life when she never really got the chance to live.
Sophie takes over the comms in the Batcave and tells Ryan she's mad at her for getting her to search for her mom but turning to the rest of the team to discuss her feelings.
Sophie complains that Ryan judged her without really knowing her.
Luke saves Ryan.
Chasing after the thugs who kidnapped Dee, Ryan tells Sophie that it was clever of her to try and make her angry so she'd stay awake.
Luke accuses Sophie and Ryan of flirting in the middle of a chase.
The thugs blow up the bridge to try and stop the Batmobile.
Luke uses the Freeze formula to make an ice bridge so Ryan can finish the chase.
Luke puts the tank back in Batman's trophy case, saying there's not much left in it.
Luke says he fixed the glitches in the Bat-Wing suit.
Mary tells Ryan truth about Luke's PTSD and how he disabled the fail-safes in the suit rather than fix it properly.
Luke denies having PTSD and Ryan ignores Mary's warning.
Ryan decides to put the team first, as much as she likes the idea of having a brother, because of the damage Jada Jett could do to her found family.
The Fridge Factor
Ryan gets knocked out way too easy, to set up the rush to rescue her in the second half of the episode.
The Killing Jokes
It's unclear just how Ryan could be knocked out in the first place given how tough the Bat-Suit is.
The Bottom Line
Plot
An unfortunate incident in downtown Gotham suggests that Mr. Freeze's signature technology has fallen into the wrong hands, placing Ryan in danger as tensions build between her, Ryan and Mary. Meanwhile, Ryan's confrontation with Jada Jet leads to an intriguing offer from her son, Marquis.
Influences
The Batman: The Animated Series episode Heart of Ice (background for Arrowverse version of Mr. Freeze)
Goofs
Granting that Gotham City is hell on Earth, it still seems odd that Nora Fries, a victim of some form of dementia after being cryogenically frozen for two decades, would be placed in the same asylum as the likes of Scarecrow and the Riddler, particularly when she had a sister working for the police who was willing to care for her.
The temperature regulator on the Bat-Suit needing to be activated remotely rather than kicking in automatically seems like a major design flaw.
Artistry
The fight scene among the pipes at Ace Chemicals is fantastic, well-shot and well-blocked.
Bat Trivia
Reference is made to the Loeb Bridge as a landmark. This is likely a nod to Jeph Loeb, the Batman writer who wrote The Long Halloween and Hush.
Mr. Freeze first appeared in Batman #121 (February 1959) using the alias Mr. Zero. His name was changed to Mr. Freeze when he was adapted for the 1966 Batman TV show, which also gave him the unlikely name of Dr. Art Schivel. This was retconned for the modern age in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice," which gave Mr. Freeze the name Dr. Victor Fries and a tragic backstory tied to his efforts to save the life of his beloved wife, Nora. This has been the definitive origin of Mr. Freeze in most adaptations since.
The Arrowverse version of Mr. Freeze has a similar background to the one in Heart of Ice, save that this version of Victor Fries died before he had the chance to save his wife.
Mr. Freeze first appeared in Batman #121 (February 1959) using the alias Mr. Zero. His name was changed to Mr. Freeze when he was adapted for the 1966 Batman TV show, which also gave him the unlikely name of Dr. Art Schivel. This was retconned for the modern age in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice," which gave Mr. Freeze the name Dr. Victor Fries and a tragic backstory tied to his efforts to save the life of his beloved wife, Nora. This has been the definitive origin of Mr. Freeze in most adaptations since.
The Arrowverse version of Mr. Freeze has a similar background to the one in Heart of Ice, save that this version of Victor Fries died before he had the chance to save his wife.
Photos of Cassandra Jean Amell (who played Nora Fries in A709) are used to show Nora Fries as she looked before she was cryogenically frozen. She is the wife of Stephen Amell, who played Oliver Queen on Arrow.
The cryochamber fight takes place at Ace Chemicals. This is well known as the same chemical factory responsible for creating The Joker in most tellings of his origin story.
The cryochamber fight takes place at Ace Chemicals. This is well known as the same chemical factory responsible for creating The Joker in most tellings of his origin story.
Mary's clinic is said to be on the corner of Rucka and Bennett. This is likely a nod to writers Greg Rucka and Marguerite Bennett. The former is the co-creator of the Kate Kane Batwoman. The latter had a lengthy run on the Batwoman comic.
Technobabble
According to Luke, the tanks Mr. Freeze used to hold his custom liquid nitrogen formula were compact, custom-built vacuum flasks that made the contents more concentrated and seemingly less dangerous than it truly was.
Luke says that WayneTech uses injectable nanobots in their research all the time.
Mary determines Alice is faking being sick based on her blood pressure, heart rate and glucose levels being normal.
A typical cryochamber can freeze a person but they'll die of hypothermia in about 10 minutes.
Nora says her husband's formula can effectively stop time and keep a person from aging, but once they thaw out time catches up with them. This is why she looked 34 three years earlier and now appears to be in her late 70s/early 80s. By her best guess, she'll look 122 by Christmas.
The Bat-Suit has a temperature regulator but it froze up before Luke could access it.
Dialogue Triumphs
Nora: I am so sick of people sacrificing their lives for me... my husband, my sister, the research, the lost years, the desperation. For what? So I could be trapped all over again?
Alice: So you want me to kill you? Could you be a worse hostage?
Mary: I was being nice to you.
Alice: Nice? You think I want... nice? You think I want this stupid arrangement with Batwoman, who I can't even stand, and little miss judgy two-shoes being nice?
(Alice laughs madly and then sighs, depressed.)
Alice: It's no wonder I'm losing my freaking mind.
(Alice leaves the room and slams the door.)
Mary: I am... so sorry about that. Um... believe it or not, she's my sister.
Nora: Heh. You certainly fight like it, but I've got to say I understand her.
Mary: You understand the woman who just had you at knifepoint?
Nora: I follow the news. She's been trapped her whole life, and now she wants her freedom.
Mary: Does your sister know that that's what you want?
Nora: Dee's wasted too many years of her life trying to fix me. I love her too much to tell her the truth.
(Alice laughs madly and then sighs, depressed.)
Alice: It's no wonder I'm losing my freaking mind.
(Alice leaves the room and slams the door.)
Mary: I am... so sorry about that. Um... believe it or not, she's my sister.
Nora: Heh. You certainly fight like it, but I've got to say I understand her.
Mary: You understand the woman who just had you at knifepoint?
Nora: I follow the news. She's been trapped her whole life, and now she wants her freedom.
Mary: Does your sister know that that's what you want?
Nora: Dee's wasted too many years of her life trying to fix me. I love her too much to tell her the truth.
Continuity
As the episode opens, a boy named Evan accidentally opens a tank of Mr. Freeze's special Liquid Nitrogen formula, freezing a city bus solid.
Evan says he found the tank under the Loeb Bridge.
Mr. Freeze is said to be dead on a news report.
Ryan has a meeting with Jada Jet to finish their conversation from the end of 302. However, Jada had no real interest in talking and agreed to meet with Ryan only to tell her that she doesn't care to have a relationship with her and will not hesitate to destroy her or Wayne Enterprises if Ryan doesn't stay out of her business and life.
Ryan bitterly says she just wanted to know who her birth mother was and now she knows Jada isn't worth her time.
The meeting is interrupted by Marquis Jet - the Executive VP of Jeturian Industries and Jada Jet's son.
Sophie didn't tell Ryan that Jada had another child because she thought it would only complicate things.
Alice confesses to telling Ryan about her biological mother still being alive, so Luke and Ryan now know that Jada is Ryan's biological mother.
Ryan bitterly says she just wanted to know who her birth mother was and now she knows Jada isn't worth her time.
The meeting is interrupted by Marquis Jet - the Executive VP of Jeturian Industries and Jada Jet's son.
Sophie didn't tell Ryan that Jada had another child because she thought it would only complicate things.
Alice confesses to telling Ryan about her biological mother still being alive, so Luke and Ryan now know that Jada is Ryan's biological mother.
Alice tries to call in sick, claiming she feels like spiders are crawling in her veins since getting injected with tracker nanites.
Luke says it's actually best Alice sit this mission out as the cannister was tagged by the GCPD at 10:07 am that morning and they probably don't want her going on a mission to burgle the police station.
Ryan breaks into the GCPD evidence locker, only to discover the Freeze tank was stolen.
The thief is an elderly woman, who takes the tank to Nora Fries - Mr. Freeze's wife. The thief says they can finish what Victor started.
Both women are abducted by a gang led by a woman.
Luke identifies the thief as Dee Smithy - a processing clerk for the GCPD who called in sick that morning for the first time in 20 years and who is Nora Fries' sister.
Luke says that Victor Fries had six doctorates, yet insisted on being called Mr. Freeze.
Luke makes reference to Captain Cold from The Flash, noting that he wasn't a real Captain.
Nora Fries suffered from McGregor's Syndrome, a lung disease that had no cure at the time of her diagnosis. Other victims of McGregor's Syndrome in the Arrowverse have included the Clock King (A214) and Francine West (F204) Nora was cryogenically frozen by her husband until a cure could be found and kept her in stasis using a special cryochamber and his patented freezing formula.
Victor died before Nora thawed out, after his formula finally wore off.
Nora apparently thawed out several years earlier and was given the cure for McGregor's Syndrome. However, she was so confused and disoriented after being locked away from the world for 20 years that she was locked in Arkham Asylum. She escaped in 2018 and had not been seen since. (This coincides with Nora Fries' cameo in A709 during the Elseworlds event.)
Marquis comes by Ryan's office and tells her that he figured out figured out she is his sister. He figured it out because his nannies gossiped and his mother disappeared for several months.
Marquis guesses Jada had an affair and knew her husband wasn't the father.
Ryan is one year younger than Marquis.
Marcus wants to partner with Ryan at Wayne Enterprises and prove that he can make it on his own. He says he suspects Ryan wants to show up Jada as well.
Ryan goes to Dee Smithy's house and finds evidence of a struggle and that Nora Fries was living there but that her McGregor's syndrome hadn't been cured.
Luke guesses that whoever came after Dee and Nora wanted the tank, which means they need a cryochamber. This leads Ryan to Ace Chemicals.
Dee gives the woman holding her and Nora hostage Victor Fries' notes and the tank, but the woman insists they should get the cryo chamber working.
Nora protests that she has no idea how Victor's technology worked and that when she went to college they didn't even teach science to women.
Ryan told Mary about Alice faking the letters from Jacob Kane.
Alice claims she has only been delusional that one time.
Alice broke into Mary's filing cabinet and knows that Luke is showing symptoms of PTSD.
Alice tells Mary she should keep this quiet from Ryan and says it is her place on the team to be silent until she's needed, pointing out that neither Kate, Ryan nor Luke ever went to her for help unless they needed something.
The gang leader says her client wanted the Freeze tank because they thought it would make them immortal.
Batwoman shows up and gets Nora Fries to run to Mary's clinic on Rucka and Bennett.
Batwoman tries to fight the gang leader and is knocked out and locked inside the cryochamber.
Dee is forced to activate the chamber with Ryan inside it.
Ryan tells Luke to suit up and rescue Dee and not to worry about her.
Nora gets to clinic, where Alice takes her hostage after Mary examines her.
Alice threatens to kill Nora if Mary doesn't get the nanites out of her.
Nora tells Alice to go ahead and kill her because she's sick of people sacrificing to try and save her life when she never really got the chance to live.
Sophie takes over the comms in the Batcave and tells Ryan she's mad at her for getting her to search for her mom but turning to the rest of the team to discuss her feelings.
Sophie complains that Ryan judged her without really knowing her.
Luke saves Ryan.
Chasing after the thugs who kidnapped Dee, Ryan tells Sophie that it was clever of her to try and make her angry so she'd stay awake.
Luke accuses Sophie and Ryan of flirting in the middle of a chase.
The thugs blow up the bridge to try and stop the Batmobile.
Luke uses the Freeze formula to make an ice bridge so Ryan can finish the chase.
Luke puts the tank back in Batman's trophy case, saying there's not much left in it.
Luke says he fixed the glitches in the Bat-Wing suit.
Mary tells Ryan truth about Luke's PTSD and how he disabled the fail-safes in the suit rather than fix it properly.
Luke denies having PTSD and Ryan ignores Mary's warning.
Ryan decides to put the team first, as much as she likes the idea of having a brother, because of the damage Jada Jett could do to her found family.
Mary gets Nora some help for her problems and Dee agrees to let Nora live her life, however long that might be.
Nora notes that the park where she meets Mary was the same one she and Victor went to on their first date.
As the episode ends, a vine grabs Mary and pulls her into the undergrowth.
Nora notes that the park where she meets Mary was the same one she and Victor went to on their first date.
As the episode ends, a vine grabs Mary and pulls her into the undergrowth.
The Fridge Factor
Ryan gets knocked out way too easy, to set up the rush to rescue her in the second half of the episode.
The Killing Jokes
It's unclear just how Ryan could be knocked out in the first place given how tough the Bat-Suit is.
The Bottom Line
This episode leaves me cold, pun very much intended, as this is a flat episode despite some impressive action sequences. There's no real heart to it, despite being based around one of Batman's most emotionally stirring villains and unsurprisingly the best parts of the episode are the ones that take advantage of that conflict. Alas, all the other drama - Alice's madness, Luke's lying to Ryan, and the situation with the Jets - seems muted compared to that.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Nightwing #29 - A Review
Lost within a ring of snow and ice - the second circle of the labyrinth formed out of Gotham City - our heroes find themselves contending with a twisted version of Mr. Freeze and an army of frost giants! Thankfully, Nightwing has arrived on the scene to join the search for Batman, but he faces his own inner-conflict regarding the menace they face. Meanwhile, The Teen Titans meet up with The Suicide Squad, forming a reluctant alliance to get into the maze themselves...
The unfortunate thing about comic-book crossovers is that new readers, attracted by the linking story line, may find themselves turned away from a single chapter due to unexplained references to the book's regular story. This problem plagues Nightwing #29 which makes repeated mention of a villain called Dr. Hurt and Dick Grayson's connection to The Court of Owls. While I am vaguely familiar with this plot-line from Scott Snyder's Batman, Tim Seely doesn't do a very good job of explaining it and it's largely incidental to the action of the issue in any case. Even that much might be confusing for those readers who haven't already read Batman: The Red Death #1, which is more efficient in explaining the basic idea of The Dark Multiverse.
Thankfully, this issue's script makes up for this shortcoming in other ways. Seely's grasp of the characters, for instance, is top-notch. I was particularly gratified to see Killer Croc as being written as something other than a complete idiot, though Damian Wayne is back to being a spoiled brat. Your mileage may vary on if this is an accurate assessment of his character, but it doesn't jibe with what we saw in Teen Titans last week. But whatever - I can forgive a lot simply for the revelation that Harley Quinn and Green Arrow are both pen-and-paper RPG players.
The artwork is a similarly mixed bag. Paul Pelleiter is a good artist but his detail-driven style suffers in the small panels that the story requires. This frequently causes the panels to be cluttered and only the fact that Andrew Hennessy applies his inks so sparingly saves the issue. Even then, the fine details are often lost in the more heavily-shaded panels with a higher saturation of darker colors.
The Final Analysis: 6 out of 10. Decent enough but it could have been so much better.
The unfortunate thing about comic-book crossovers is that new readers, attracted by the linking story line, may find themselves turned away from a single chapter due to unexplained references to the book's regular story. This problem plagues Nightwing #29 which makes repeated mention of a villain called Dr. Hurt and Dick Grayson's connection to The Court of Owls. While I am vaguely familiar with this plot-line from Scott Snyder's Batman, Tim Seely doesn't do a very good job of explaining it and it's largely incidental to the action of the issue in any case. Even that much might be confusing for those readers who haven't already read Batman: The Red Death #1, which is more efficient in explaining the basic idea of The Dark Multiverse.
Thankfully, this issue's script makes up for this shortcoming in other ways. Seely's grasp of the characters, for instance, is top-notch. I was particularly gratified to see Killer Croc as being written as something other than a complete idiot, though Damian Wayne is back to being a spoiled brat. Your mileage may vary on if this is an accurate assessment of his character, but it doesn't jibe with what we saw in Teen Titans last week. But whatever - I can forgive a lot simply for the revelation that Harley Quinn and Green Arrow are both pen-and-paper RPG players.
The artwork is a similarly mixed bag. Paul Pelleiter is a good artist but his detail-driven style suffers in the small panels that the story requires. This frequently causes the panels to be cluttered and only the fact that Andrew Hennessy applies his inks so sparingly saves the issue. Even then, the fine details are often lost in the more heavily-shaded panels with a higher saturation of darker colors.
The Final Analysis: 6 out of 10. Decent enough but it could have been so much better.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Injustice: Ground Zero #8 - A Review
Bored out of her crazy little skull, Harley Quinn and her new gang of resistance fighters were reduced to asking the GCPD if there was anything they could do to help them. This led to the sewers and their accidental uncovering of a Regime plot to draft the few free heroes and villains still free in Gotham. Can Harley and company overcome an enraged Bane and Killer Croc?!
Pop Mhan's artwork proves a perfect vehicle for this erratic tale. Mhan shifts his style expertly to fit the needs of the scene. His action sequences make use of a more traditional style that well-suits the kinetic nature of the conflict. By contrast, the flashbacks in which Harley remembers better days (well, relatively speaking) with The Joker are rendered with a softer, more exaggerated appearance that would look cartoonish even without the inclusion of singing birds circling a romanced Harley's head. Mark Roberts does an equally fantastic job finishing the art with his colors.
The story is the equal of the art. It is worth noting that Chris Sabela does not romanticize The Joker and Harley's relationship at all. The plot by Brian Buccellato makes no bones about the fact that Harley is being abused. This is not the least bit preachy, however, but serves to drive home the central conflict of Harley's character. Intellectually, she knows The Joker is bad but that doesn't matter when the bad feels good. The rest of the issue outside the flashbacks, however, confirm Harley's status as a capable anti-hero and a true icon of the DC Universe.
Pop Mhan's artwork proves a perfect vehicle for this erratic tale. Mhan shifts his style expertly to fit the needs of the scene. His action sequences make use of a more traditional style that well-suits the kinetic nature of the conflict. By contrast, the flashbacks in which Harley remembers better days (well, relatively speaking) with The Joker are rendered with a softer, more exaggerated appearance that would look cartoonish even without the inclusion of singing birds circling a romanced Harley's head. Mark Roberts does an equally fantastic job finishing the art with his colors.
The story is the equal of the art. It is worth noting that Chris Sabela does not romanticize The Joker and Harley's relationship at all. The plot by Brian Buccellato makes no bones about the fact that Harley is being abused. This is not the least bit preachy, however, but serves to drive home the central conflict of Harley's character. Intellectually, she knows The Joker is bad but that doesn't matter when the bad feels good. The rest of the issue outside the flashbacks, however, confirm Harley's status as a capable anti-hero and a true icon of the DC Universe.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Batman Annual #1 (2012) - A Review
It is a rare thing for me to come across a comic which is technically well-executed yet leaves me wanting to throw it against the wall because of the story it tells The last story I can remember having such a reaction to was Identity Crisis - a mini-series which had many wonderful character moments but ultimately proved to be horrible due to some ludicrous action sequences (i.e. Deathstroke takes on the entire Justice League single-handed), many gratuitous deaths and a climax that revealed the reader had no real chance of solving the mystery that was meant to be the core of the plot. Yes, Identity Crisis was one such story. Batman Annual #1 is another.
There will be spoilers following this paragraph so if you wish to be surprised but still want to know what I thought of the book, let me say this. This book is surprising. It is shocking. It is well written and the artwork is wonderful. Yet I fully intend to pretend this story never happened in my own personal mental continuity because the main conceit of the story is too far at odds with how I feel certain characters should be portrayed. You have been warned. Now read on if you wish to know the fine details.
First Snow, as this story is titled, details Mr. Freeze's activities during the Night of Owls. We find out that it Mr. Freeze's technology was used by the Court of Owls to preserve and revive their Talon assassins. Armed with the knowledge that his theoretical formula for reviving the cryogenically frozen works, Freeze escapes from Arkham Asylum and makes for The Iceberg Lounge. His mission? Recover his weapons and his cryogenically frozen wife, before getting revenge on the man who turned him into what he is today.
The artwork by Jason Fabok is quite lovely. If I may wax poetic, it is crisp and clear as a cool winter's day. The palette chosen by colorist Peter Steigerwald is perfect, full of muted blues, pale grays and off-whites throughout - all the colors of winter. Every page in this book is a treat to look at.
There are many wonderful scenes here, too. Freeze's brilliant escape from Arkham Asylum is a wonderfully well-paced action sequence. And Freeze's interaction with The Penguin is a treat, playing up the quite menace of both villains to good effect. But everything starts to fall apart in the flashback sequences in which we learn who the heartless mogul responsible for ruining Victor Fries' life is... Bruce Wayne!
Is it unbelievable Bruce Wayne, given the way he usually carried himself as a buffoon in the early days, would be so hands-on in running his business? Yes.
Is it unbelievable that Bruce Wayne, as a business man, would turn his nose up at a revolutionary procedure for saving lives that could make his company millions... just because it wasn't what he was looking for? Yes.
Is it unbelievable that Bruce Wayne, as a person who lost his loved ones through tragedy and knows full well the lengths one can go through to try and save others, would be so unsympathetic to someone who was driven to extreme measures in the name of saving a life? Yes.
Thankfully, this turns out to be a fake out. Or does it? The final pages, in which Batman confronts Freeze reveal something shocking about Mr. Freeze's past. Something that is meant to drive him from the realm of sympathetic villains and anti-heroes and push him firmly back into the collective of unreasoning Arkham Asylym inmates but only serves to make Batman into an even greater monster.
There will be spoilers following this paragraph so if you wish to be surprised but still want to know what I thought of the book, let me say this. This book is surprising. It is shocking. It is well written and the artwork is wonderful. Yet I fully intend to pretend this story never happened in my own personal mental continuity because the main conceit of the story is too far at odds with how I feel certain characters should be portrayed. You have been warned. Now read on if you wish to know the fine details.
First Snow, as this story is titled, details Mr. Freeze's activities during the Night of Owls. We find out that it Mr. Freeze's technology was used by the Court of Owls to preserve and revive their Talon assassins. Armed with the knowledge that his theoretical formula for reviving the cryogenically frozen works, Freeze escapes from Arkham Asylum and makes for The Iceberg Lounge. His mission? Recover his weapons and his cryogenically frozen wife, before getting revenge on the man who turned him into what he is today.
The artwork by Jason Fabok is quite lovely. If I may wax poetic, it is crisp and clear as a cool winter's day. The palette chosen by colorist Peter Steigerwald is perfect, full of muted blues, pale grays and off-whites throughout - all the colors of winter. Every page in this book is a treat to look at.
There are many wonderful scenes here, too. Freeze's brilliant escape from Arkham Asylum is a wonderfully well-paced action sequence. And Freeze's interaction with The Penguin is a treat, playing up the quite menace of both villains to good effect. But everything starts to fall apart in the flashback sequences in which we learn who the heartless mogul responsible for ruining Victor Fries' life is... Bruce Wayne!
Is it unbelievable Bruce Wayne, given the way he usually carried himself as a buffoon in the early days, would be so hands-on in running his business? Yes.
Is it unbelievable that Bruce Wayne, as a business man, would turn his nose up at a revolutionary procedure for saving lives that could make his company millions... just because it wasn't what he was looking for? Yes.
Is it unbelievable that Bruce Wayne, as a person who lost his loved ones through tragedy and knows full well the lengths one can go through to try and save others, would be so unsympathetic to someone who was driven to extreme measures in the name of saving a life? Yes.
Thankfully, this turns out to be a fake out. Or does it? The final pages, in which Batman confronts Freeze reveal something shocking about Mr. Freeze's past. Something that is meant to drive him from the realm of sympathetic villains and anti-heroes and push him firmly back into the collective of unreasoning Arkham Asylym inmates but only serves to make Batman into an even greater monster.
Even if we accept that the previous scenes are the imaginings of a mad Mr. Freeze and that he is an obsessed stalker who has been kidnapping the same cryogenically frozen woman with the hope of curing his "lost love"... how does this justify any of Bruce Wayne or Batman's actions?
The only word we have that Mr. Freeze isn't trying to save his wife comes from Batman. Freeze's shrink at Arkham certainly seems to believe that Freeze is a married man trying to save his wife and that sort of delusion is precisely the sort of thing they would try to cure first. And even if Nora Fields isn't any relation to Mr. Freeze, she had a family that froze her wanting her to be cured of the condition that threatened her life.. Who is Bruce Wayne to deny her a chance at life, even if her cure comes at the hands of an obsessive stalker? There's nothing to stop him from taking Freeze's work and trying to use it to help others. Nothing, save his own greed and disinterest.
Many Batman stories have suggested that, on some level, Bruce Wayne is as crazy as the villains he fights. But to my knowledge no story has ever seriously suggested that Bruce Wayne was as callous as the criminals he has devoted his life to fighting. With this story, Scott Snyder has done the impossible and the unthinkable - he has turned Bruce Wayne into a hypocrite and a being more cold-hearted than Mr. Freeze.
It is a well-written story and I hate it all the more for that.
If anyone needs me, I'll be rewatching Heart of Ice.
If anyone needs me, I'll be rewatching Heart of Ice.
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