#ferris boyle

[wanderingmind867]

Listening to Christmas music today, remembering my mom's birthday was on christmas, and thinking of my own issues led me to end up writing a 10 page outline for a Mr. Freeze miniseries involving a lot of personal connections to stuff i feel like i've gone through (also, the phantom stranger ends up playing an important role). So here's what I wrote:

In reference to the Twelve Days of Christmas, we'd have a 12 (possibly 14, if I do a prologue and epilogue) Issue Mini-Series about Mister Freeze on Christmas. It's a story all about him, in fact. While Batman's away from Gotham, Victor Fries escapes from Arkham only to find that someone stole Nora away from him, and left him a note: If Victor doesn't find her within 12 days, she'll die.

This story would explain everything about Victor Fries: His childhood, how he met Nora, how she got Cancer, how he became Mr. Freeze, etc. We'd also address some big unanswered questions, like: did Victor and Nora have any siblings or living parents? What happened to them? What was Nora's childhood like? All of these questions would be answered. The story is a story of Victor Fries in the present, but it's just as much a big biography of the lives of Victor and Nora Fries.

The story would be arranged in 14 parts; a prologue, an epilogue and 12 chapters in between. On his quest, Victor Fries ends up helping people, reconnecting with his and nora's family, and rediscovering the joy of christmas. Grief counseling through trauma, in a way. But the story would feature as many characters as I can fit in it: The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, Superman, Captain Cold, Captain Marvel/Shazam, Batman's Rogues Gallery (pretty much all of them), etc. It's a big story, with long chapters.

But since I know I'll probably forget it if I don't write it down now, let me reveal the real villain of this story. The one responsible for kidnapping Nora and blackmailing Victor is… Ferris Boyle, with an assist from Nora's vindictive mother. Ferris Boyle lost all of his money after Victor's story made it to the presses. Gothcorp went bankrupt, and Ferris lost everything. His brain couldn't cope with that, and he swore revenge on Victor. He then found an eager accomplice in Nora's mother, a vindictive and judgemental woman who always felt hated her daughter (yet who also felt Nora was too good for Victor). She blamed him for Nora developing Cancer, and she eagerly agreed to team up with Ferris Boyle.

For 12 days, they lead Victor on a wild goose chase across the country, until he finally manages to confront them back where it all began: in the wreckage of the old house where him and Nora lived together. Seeing what Ferris Boyle is trying to do to him (and that Nora's mother is still trying to take her daughter away from him, when he knows how she treated her), Victor snaps.

In the chaos of the fight in the wreckage, Nora's cryo-chamber breaks. The shrapnel shoots into all three of them. Ferris Boyle is impaled on a chunk of glass shortly after talking about how love is fleeting, while money is everything. Victor's suit breaks, meaning his life is now in danger. And Nora's mom got a chunk of metal caught in her leg. Victor cradles Nora's body, and he just cries, knowing it's hopeless. He has no time to build a new cryo-chamber and save her. It's all over…

And that's when the miracle of Christmas comes into play. The Phantom Stranger appears, and he promises to get Nora safely to a hospital. Victor gently passes her over, and the Stranger begins his walk to a hospital. Meanwhile, Victor has to deal with the injured form of Nora's mother, and the dead body of Ferris Boyle. Knowing that Nora's mom doesn't deserve to die in agony (even if she is a horrible person), he bandages her injuries and trudges off in the snow towards The Phantom Stranger. But the twist: Boyle isn't dead yet; he's merely dying of blood loss. But he trails them too.

At the hospital, Victor and The Phantom Stranger succesfully get Nora back into a cryo-chamber, and then get her mother into a hospital bed. The Stranger vows to look after them, while Victor goes for a walk. Victor goes to sit in the snow outside and think, and that's when a dying Ferris Boyle ambushes him. Pulling the shrapnel out of his chest, he uses it like a knife and tries to stab Victor. He misses, but he keeps trying to fight. He mumbles incoherently about how Victor took everything from him, only for Victor to snap and punch him in the face. And that punch was the finishing touch. Ferris Boyle finally dies, his broken body falling into the snowbank…

And now, for a somewhat happy ending to this story (and something that just feels religious enough to work in a christmas story): Victor hears crying near Ferris's body. Trudging over to it, he finds a baby in the snow, clearly abandoned by his mother. Seeing this as a sign (him and nora could never have kids, and christmas day was nora's birthday), victor takes the child in as his own. And then our epilogue would show Victor finally reconciling with as many of his and nora's family as he can, and then him having a big christmas gathering with all the people who helped him during this twelve day quest.

Then, when he's finally alone, he cradles the baby in his arms and tenderly talks to a photo of Nora. He'll never stop working on a cure for her, but these twelve nights have felt like a sign. A sign he needs to try and stop living in his past, in isolation and loneliness. And he's going to try to fix this, for Nora's sake. She'd want him to do it, for himself if nothing else. And as he cradles the child and rocks them to sleep, The Phantom Stranger watches over it all from the shadows…

[inamindfarfaraway]

I love Victor Fries being soft and sympathetic and moral and kind as much as the next person, but I do find it an interesting piece of his original characterization that he doesn’t treat his employees well. When one of his henchmen is caught in his freeze ray’s blast in “Heart of Ice”, the Mr Freeze story, he coldly blames them for not being careful enough and leaves them behind to get hypothermia; this is contrasted by Batman showing the criminal compassion and thawing him out. A bad boss is the very reason Victor is forced to live with his horrible condition and was presumed dead, making him desperate enough to turn to crime. So you’d think he would be better to his own workers. He is acutely aware of how harmful callousness toward those you have power over can be.

But let’s think about that for a minute, shall we? Power. Victor had probably meekly slaved away to line Ferris Boyle’s pockets for years on end before Ferris tried to murder his wife and then him, all in the name of protecting his profits. And Ferris got nothing but benefits from that arrangement. He covered the altercation with Victor up. He’s going to be awarded for his supposed humanitarianism before Victor and Batman catch up with him! The unspoken truth of that episode is that he couldn’t have faced justice, at least not nearly soon enough, through legal means. Ferris was a monster, but he succeeded for it. In our world, things would likely have stayed that way. He ran his work environment to the end of maximum efficiency. Results over people. This is the exact same mindset Victor has adopted, and the one that makes him a supervillain instead of wholly a victim or even heroic: unlike Ferris, the results he wants (Nora safe, healthy and unfrozen) are good, but he prioritizes them over innocent people. He’s throwing himself into playing the role of a crime boss, someone in control, someone powerful, to avoid his feelings and giving up on Nora. He’s imitating the man who sealed him into this cold shell. Who taught him how to succeed at any cost.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Someone should get BTAS Ferris Boyle, BTAS Lock Up, The Batman 2004 Julie, fucking Tarantula, Unburied Arnold Flass and Quincy Sharp from the Arkham games, put them all in the same room and them BOMB the room.

[not-for-granted]

We need more spotlight on the villains of Gotham who don’t wear the masks.

Antagonists like Rupert Thorne, Roland Daggett, Randall Winters, Ferris Boyle, even Max Shreck. These villains who bring crime into the boardroom, white-collar malfeasance that challenges Bruce Wayne as Bruce Wayne, not merely foes for Batman to pummel. And fair reminder, 2/3rds of these esteemed ‘gentlemen’ are directly responsible for the origins of more colorful rogues in one setting or another.

Plus, it makes the future outlier standout all the more… Derek Powers, aka “Blight”, easily some of the most creative writing in “Batman Beyond” came with blending the standard corruption with supervillainy with that piece of work!

why is harvey dent so rarely portrayed as a genuinely good man with good ideas who actually wants the best for gotham as a politician. why is he the main fall guy in comics when they need a Bad Politician. there’s so many characters you can use for that. why make harvey dent a racist or a fascist or a gentrifier. he’s SUPPOSED to be gothams apollo. idk. i feel like it’s lazy to use harvey for the role of an evil politician

[staud]

Crosby & Kidd – MOTA Part 5

[docgold13]

Batman: The Animated Series - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Mister Freeze

Victor Fries was a scientist working at GothCorp. When his beloved wife Nora was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he began experimenting with cryogenics.  He found a means of sustaining Nora in cryogenic stasis where she could remain until a cure for her disease could be found.  All of this work was done at GothCorp, using huge amounts of the company’s funds.  When Ferris Boyle, the chief executive officer at GothCorp, discovered what Fries had been up to, he went to Fries�� laboratory with his men to shut the whole matter down.

Fries begged for his wife's life, but an irate Boyle had his men destroy the equipment.  Fries himself was kicked into a batch of chemicals, causing a terrible explosion that consumed the entire lab.  

Fries managed to survive this ordeal but the cryogenic chemicals had caused a dramatic and irreversible change to his physiology.  His body could no longer survive in temperatures above zero degrees celsius.  He created for himself a specialized cryo-suit that kept his body at low temperatures.  This suit also tripled his normal strength. He additionally devised a freeze gun that could fire torrents of ice that flash-froze anything it came into contact with.  

Devastated by the loss of his wife and now seeing himself as a cold and unfeeling entity, Fries re-dubbed himself ‘Mister Freeze’ and set about on gaining cold-blooded vengeance against Farris Boyle.  

Freeze’s efforts to bring down GothCorp attracted the attention of The Batman and the Dark Knight barely survived his first encounter with the villain.  After further investigation, Batman was able to determine Freeze’s true identity as well as Boyle’s culpability in the accident that had created him.  

Batman was ultimately able to defeat Freeze while also exposing Boyle’s murderous actions.  Boyle was sentenced to prison whereas Freeze was remanded to Arkham Asylum.  It would prove the first of many battles between Batman and Mr. Freeze.

Actor Michael Ansara provided the voice for Mr. Freeze, with the cold-hearted villain first appearing in the third episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series, ‘Heart of Ice Part One.’

[bracketsoffear]

Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze (Batman) "Nora Fries, wife of Victor, contracted a rare disease, of which there was no cure. Victor, wanting to save his wife, put her in cryo-stasis. Unfortunately, Victor' boss Ferris Boyle tried to pull the plug on Nora and knocked Victor into some chemicals. Victor is now literally cold-blooded, forcing him to stay in a special suit because even room temperature environments can kill him. He tried to take revenge on Boyle, but after Batman foiled him, his primary motivation for crime is to save Nora from her fate. Sadly, every instance where he finally gains the means to revive and cure Nora ends badly for him, and only rarely goes well for Nora, if even that; for example, the DCAU sees Nora successfully cured, but she moves on without her husband, who instead decides to take his pain out on the world when he loses his entire body. On his worst days he falls headlong into selfish destruction, either robbing people blind to fund his research/planning to use them as test subjects because the recovery of his wife justifies anything he does to achieve it, or destroying people's lives and making them miserable because if he can't be happy, no one can be happy. Even his most sympathetic portrayals frequently note an element of selfish delusion to his situation- a belief that by reviving her, all of his actions will have been justified and his suffering will end."

Slugpelt (Pinepaw and the Forgotten World) "she is lonely--her mother was cruel, favoring her brother rainhaze whilst treating her like shit, and the group where she lives is very isolated. also her boyfriend left her to raise her kids alone

she spreads loneliness--while she is less of an antagonist and more of a tragic hero in her own right (and she's at least trying to get better), she does somewhat pass her loneliness down to her kids, being... rather neglectful and barely connecting with them (generational cycles of abuse are somewhat of a. theme in patfw). the comic's author, Raz, is also a big tma fan and has explicitly described her as Lonely-aligned."

[lastlycoris]

So my boss in the prison medical wing is Dr. Nora Fries (pronounced freeze). She's an MD-Ph.D, both a military doctor and a biomedical engineer specializing in prosthetics. It's said that all warsuits that the rich people keep for "personal protection" are derivatives from her initial work. Her criminal moniker is Dr. Fries, which kinda just shows how infamous she is - you know - that they just outright use her name.

As for why she's here, that goes back two decades ago according to personnel here. Mostly to warn me to not mention the former company GothCorp she and her husband (important later) worked at. Because this lady has two obsessions: to restore her husband from a cryogenic freeze without killing him and getting revenge on the company that caused it.

I don't really know about their personal lives. Just two strange people meeting in college and fell in love. Eventually their paths had it so they ended up working in the same company.

Her husband was a specialist in cryogenics, Ph.Ds in physics, engineering and chemistry. And the hopes were to make a chemical gel that could easily preserve pharmaceuticals and food at the end of a cold chain.

And then an accident occurred when the company decided to scuttle the project for insurance purposes and blame Mr. Fries. Of course, this information came out much later.

In any case, they still call those series of small inhabitable inter-connected islands, where the Factory was housed, the Ice Rink. Because every so often, a vat of what's being called Friesium would rupture and instantly send everything in the area to below liquid nitrogen temperatures, which is not survivable.

Logs showed that one of the researchers noticed something was wrong with the chemical vats and sounded the alarm for evacuation to get everyone else out. The six that remained, including Dr. Fries's husband, were required to prevent the entire factory from freezing everyone instantly.

People do not survive getting frozen solid without help - if the initial freeze doesn't kill them, the defrosting will. However, logs apparently showed that Fries's husband had injected everyone with an experimental cryoprotectant fifteen minutes prior to the cryoexplosion - preventing the nastier effects like water expanding to ice to rupture cells - and a single outgoing phone call to his wife.

The rest is history. Dr. Fries makes the first prototype warsuit in three days, a suit impervious to cold and sudden pressure changes from extreme temp drops, and marches in to retrieve the lab members. Ferris Boyle, the president, tries to pull the plug stating it's futile and expensive to continue keeping the six on ice, and Dr. Fries offers the cryosuit design to make payment. He accepts and then goes back on their deal stating it never happened - and then claims it was an attempt at a bribe to prevent him from revealing that it was her husband and lab team that sabotaged the factory.

And I guess that was the moment where she descended into supervillainry.

It was quiet for a week as the Board argued about the PR nightmare pulling the plug would do, even if they claimed these were the ones that caused it.

Then someone armed to the teeth in a shiny warsuit decided to break into GothCorp with a bunch of goons to retrieve the pods - who were funded by the money she got for selling a simplified warsuit design to different criminal factions and companies . And then she declared war on GothCorp.

Now this is twenty years ago before this era of superheroes and supervillains. That warsuit was the pinnacle of high tech at its time, and it singlehandedly brought the military to the city after a month. Why they didn't come sooner was because she was very selective with the damage. Only to GothCorp assets and zero casualties beyond the broken bones people dumb enough to physically get in a walking tank's way.

She singlehandedly brought the company to near bankruptcy. And the military only helped because the company took up a military contact on a very big deficit. Otherwise, they would've just treated it as a civil matter for the police to deal with. After all, no dead people, damage only to private property, and it wouldn't look nice if the military got their asses handed over to them too.

It wasn't even the military that got her in the end. It was some fresh detective named Gordon, now Commisioner, who figured out where she's hiding because running cryogenic preservation for six people took a stable large supply of electricity.

A deal was made between the two. Nora voluntarily surrendered after five days. Gordon discovered the system logs from the factory, showing the company's sabotage of its own factory. Wayne Industries makes a generous offer to preserving and eventually finding a cure for the frozen researchers.

And she's been researching cryogenics in prison every day ever since. The only prisoner. allowed her own laptop and allowed outside to visit her husband every month as part of the unusual deal made with the police.

Except now that Wayne Industries took a severe blow after their Tower collapsed and President kidnapped and probably dead, the frozen six apparently moved to some no-name company, and the decaying law and order of our city, it seems she's taking matters into her own hands because it looks like no one can keep the people she wants to protect safe. At least that's what it seems like.

Makes me wonder, if their places were switched, whether her husband would show the same single-minded devotion to her.

I certainly hope so.

[thewrittingratt]

Jo here with the Rules For Requesting!

Things I won't write

homophobia, Transphobia, anything hateful to the lgbtq community

smut(just a personal preference as writing it makes me uncomfy)

Requesting x oc

things to include in your request

the show/movie universe the request takes place in

what they look

their lifestyle

their personality

if it's romantic or platonic

who you are shipping them with(can be multiple characters) or who they are friends with(if it's for a platonic request)

Requesting X Reader

the show/movie universe it takes place

if its romantic or platonic

who they are being shipped with(can be multiple characters) or who they are friends with(if it's for a platonic request)

Fandoms and characters to request from

DC

Arkhamverse

The Batman 2022

Suicide Squad movies

Stranger Things

Jonathan Byers

Steve Harrington

Robin Buckley

Eddie Munson

One Piece Live Action

Buggy

Shanks

Zoro

Sanji

Slashers

Norman Bates

Otis Driftwood

Brahms Heelshire

Bubba Sawyer

Chop Top Sawyer

Stu Macher

Charles Lee Ray

The Lost Boys

Art The Clown

Thomas Hewitt

Stardew Valley

Shane

Sam

Sebastian

Alex

Harvey

Elliott

Emily

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Jake Peralta

Charles Boyle

The Umbrella Academy

Luther

Klaus

Diego

Ben

Marcus

Alphonso

Supernatural

Dean Winchester

Sam Winchester

Castiel

Crowley

Jack Kline

Gabriel

Scooby Gang

Fred Jones

Shaggy Rogers

Scooby-Doo 2002 and 2004 Movies

What's New Scooby-Doo?

Mystery Incorporated

Basically all the animated 2010s movies

Spiderman ATSV

Hobbie Brown(SpiderPunk)

Pavitr Prabhakar(SpiderMan)

Johnathon Ohnn(The Spot)

Patrick O'Hara(Web-Slinger)

Ben Riley(Scarlet Spider)

Spider Noir

Extra Characters

John Bender(The Breakfast Club)

Andrew Clark(The Breakfast Club)

Brian Johnson(The Breakfast Club)

Beetlejuice(BeetleJuice)

Cameron Frye(Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

!!!

If a fandom or character you would like to request for is not listed feel free to request for that character or fandom anyway and I'll see what I can do!

Prompt list!

https://www.tumblr.com/thewrittingratt/759436500328955904/jos-prompts?source=share

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

🦘 Booklr Reads Australian - Authors on My Shelves 🐨

so, I’ve been trying to think of a way to recommend a lot of Australian authors really quickly for Booklr Reads Australian. what I came up with was just to give y’all a giant list of all the authors I have at home! 

most of them are YA and/or fantasy authors, and I’ve marked my favourites with an asterisk (*) but if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an ask 😊

1. Sarah Ayoub 2. Eugen Bacon 3. Shirley Barber * 4. AJ Betts 5. Danielle Binks * 6. Cally Black 7. Steph Bowe * 8. Alice Boyle 9. JC Burke 10. Meg Caddy * 11. Frances Chapman 12. Wai Chim * 13. Claire Christian 14. Lyndall Clipstone 15. Claire G Coleman 16. Katherine Collette 17. Harry Cook 18. Cath Crowley 19. Robyn Dennison 20. Cale Dietrich 21. Lauren Draper 22. CG Drews * 23. Michael Earp 24. Kate Emery 25. Sarah Epstein 26. Alison Evans * 27. Fleur Ferris 28. Carly Findlay 29. Helena Fox 30. Lisa Fuller 31. Emily Gale 32. Meg Gatland-Veness 33. Sophie Gonzales 34. Erin Gough * 35. Leanne Hall * 36. Pip Harry 37. Sonya Hartnett 38. Adam Hills 39. Simmone Howell 40. Megan Jacobson 41. Amie Kaufman 42. Melissa Keil 43. Nina Kenwood 44. Sharon Kernot 45. Kay Kerr * 46. Will Kostakis 47. Jay Kristoff 48. Ambelin Kwaymullina 49. Benjamin Law 50. Rebecca Lim 51. Gary Lonesborough * 52. Kathleen Loughnan 53. Miranda Luby 54. Tobias Madden 55. Melina Marchetta 56. Ellie Marney * 57. Freya Marske 58. Jodi McAlister * 59. Margot McGovern * 60. Nikki McWatters 61. Anna Morgan 62. Jaclyn Moriarty 63. Liane Moriarty 64. Garth Nix 65. Lynette Noni 66. Carly Nugent 67. Poppy Nwosu 68. Kate O’Donnell 69. Shivaun Plozza 70. Michael Pryor 71. Alice Pung 72. Emily Rodda * 73. Autumn Royal 74. Omar Sakr 75. Holden Sheppard 76. AG Slatter 77. Jo Spurrier 78. Krystal Sutherland * 79. Jared Thomas 80. Hayli Thompson 81. Gabrielle Tozer 82. Christos Tsiolkas 83. Alicia Tuckerman 84. Ellen van Neerven 85. Marlee Jane Ward 86. Vikki Wakefield 87. Lisa Walker 88. Jessica Watson * 89. Allayne L Webster 90. Anna Whateley * 91. Samantha Wheeler 92. Jen Wilde * 93. Rhiannon Wilde 94. Lili WIlkinson 95. Gabrielle Williams 96. Rhiannon Williams 97. Fiona Wood 98. Leanne Yong 99. Suzy Zail 100. Nevo Zisin 101. Markus Zusak

[leviiackrman]

OCS AS CHARACTERS;

Rules: take this quiz and share 5 (or more or less) results from the top 50 that you feel really fit your oc(s). If you don’t recognise many from the top 50, feel free to expand to the top 100

Was tagged by my darling @corvosattano to do this INSANELY fun quiz game for my kiddies!! Thank you sm macy, this is so much friggin fun!!

Tagging: @chuckhansen @sstewyhosseini @risingsh0t @florbelles @confidentandgood @indorilnerevarine @denerims @marivenah @liurnia @jacobseed @jendoe @phillipsgraves @benningsthing @jinfromyarikawa @baldurrs @fenharel @simonxriley @queennymeria @shellibisshe @roofgeese @nokstella @noonfaerie @detectivelokis + @unholymilf

Pippin Took - Lord of the Rings

Sasha Braus - Attack on Titan (!!!!!)

Naruto Uzumaki - Naruto

Simba - The Lion King

Littlefoot - The Land Before Time

Miranda Priestly - The Devil Wears Prada

Carolyn Martens - Killing Eve

Sansa Stark - Game of Thrones

Blair Waldorf - Gossip Girl

Hans Gruber - Die Hard

Chien-Po - Mulan

Cameron James - 10 Things I Hate About You

Flounder - The Little Mermaid

Forrest Gump - Forrest Gump

Charles Boyle - Brooklyn 99

Light Yagami - Death Note

Dr. Hannibal Lecter - The Silence of the Lambs

Chuck Bass - Gossip Girl

Palpatine - Star Wars

Cersei Lannister - Game of Thrones

Ferris Bueller - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Dash Parr - The Incredibles

Jack Sparrow - Pirates of the Caribbean

Holly Golightly - Breakfast at Tiffany’s

George Weasley - Harry Potter

Waylon Smithers - The Simpson’s

Charlie Kelmeckis - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Dr. John Watson - Sherlock

Chidi Anagonye - The Good Place

Dana Polk - Cabin in the Woods

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Tim Burton's Batman and Robin

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/OYqGsom by Connormcgranahan Two years after the fall of the Riddler Gotham is now in for......a COLD end of the Summer a new villain steps into town with a thirst for cold vengeance Mr. Freeze is out to freeze Gotham in cold blood and it's up to Batman and Robin to stop him but Freeze isn't the only threat to Gotham a mercenary named Bane and his army of mercs invade Gotham in search for hidden serum and to brake the Bat The Dynamic Duo will need the help they can get from Alfred Gordon their frienimy Catwoman and a mysterious female vigilante called Batgirl it's about to get cold this summer.....VERY cold. Comments are much appreciated... Words: 647, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman (Movies 1989-1997) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M Characters: Bruce Wayne, Victor Fries, Bane (DCU), Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, Barbara Gordon, Selina Kyle, Jim Gordon, Lucius Fox, Alexandra Knox, Harvey Bullock, Nora Fries, Jack Ryder, Ferris Boyle, Leslie Thompkins Relationships: Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon/Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth & Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Nora Fries/Victor Fries, Barbara Gordon & Jim Gordon, Victor Fries/Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Superheroes, Supervillains read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/OYqGsom

[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…”

[docgold13]

Batman: The Animated Series - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Nora Fries

The beloved wife of scientist, Victor Fries, Nora was diagnosed with a rare terminal illness.  Desperate to prolong her life, Victor cryogenically froze her in stasis, waiting for a cure to be discovered. The process was interrupted by Ferris Boyle which led to Victor's disfiguration, and him becoming Mr. Freeze. Freeze thought Nora to be dead and set out on a vendetta to avenge his wife, although he was stopped by Batman.

Nora turned out to be alive after all and was taken and maintain in stasis by the wealthy amusement park tycoon, Grant Walker.

Walker arranged for Freeze to be broken out of Arkham Asylum and put forth a bargain. He would fund a search for a cure for Nora if Freeze agreed to replicate the process that changed him, thus bestowing the aged Walker immortality. Freeze initially complied yet ultimately turned against Walker and aided Batman and Robin in defeating the villain. In the wake of the battle, Freeze and Nora had disappeared.

Freeze had taken Nora's container to the deep Arctic, where they spent a few months of peace. When an unfortunate accident broke Nora's container, Freeze brought her back to Gotham City, where he learned that Nora had only two weeks to live unless an organ transplant was performed.

With the aide of a corrupt surgeon named Gregory Belson, Freeze kidnapped Barbara Gordon and attempted to perform the transplant. A surgery that could save Nora but would most certainly kill Barbara. Thankfully, the terrible plan was thwarted by Batman and Robin. Freeze's hideout collapsed and Nora was taken to safety by Batman, while Freeze was presumed dead. Days later, Nora was finally cured thanks to Wayne Enterprises and the technology created by Freeze himself.

Nora first appeared in the third episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series, ‘Heart of Ice.’  

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Tolkien

Rating: PG-13

Director: Dome Karukoski

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney, Derek Jacobi, Harry Gilby, Mimi Keene, Anthony Boyle, Adam Bregman, Patrick Gibson, Albie Marber, Tom Glynn-Carney, Ty Tennant, Craig Roberts, Pam Ferris, James MacCallum, Guillermo Bedward, Laura Donnelly, Genevieve O’Reilly, Owen Teale

Release year: 2019

Genres: history, drama, war, romance

Blurb: The future writer and philologist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and three of his schoolmates create a strong bond between them as they share the same passion for literature and art, a true fellowship that strengthens as they grow up...but the outbreak of World War I threatens to shatter it.

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Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze (Batman) "Nora Fries, wife of Victor, contracted a rare disease, of which there was no cure. Victor, wanting to save his wife, put her in cryo-stasis. Unfortunately, Victor' boss Ferris Boyle tried to pull the plug on Nora and knocked Victor into some chemicals. Victor is now literally cold-blooded, forcing him to stay in a special suit because even room temperature environments can kill him. He tried to take revenge on Boyle, but after Batman foiled him, his primary motivation for crime is to save Nora from her fate. Sadly, every instance where he finally gains the means to revive and cure Nora ends badly for him, and only rarely goes well for Nora, if even that; for example, the DCAU sees Nora successfully cured, but she moves on without her husband, who instead decides to take his pain out on the world when he loses his entire body. On his worst days he falls headlong into selfish destruction, either robbing people blind to fund his research/planning to use them as test subjects because the recovery of his wife justifies anything he does to achieve it, or destroying people's lives and making them miserable because if he can't be happy, no one can be happy. Even his most sympathetic portrayals frequently note an element of selfish delusion to his situation- a belief that by reviving her, all of his actions will have been justified and his suffering will end."

Elsa (Frozen) "Cut herself off from her only surviving family member for years (with less than stellar effects on Anna's understanding of meaningful relationships), and then proceeds to isolate further, plunging her kingdom into eternal winter and accidentally turning her sister into an ice statue when she rejects her. Granted, it wasn't exactly intentional, but intent doesn't much matter to the Fears. Only the end result."