"Think of it, Batman. To never again walk on a summer's day with the hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold."
Mr Freeze has always, it seemed to me, been a little of an oddity within Batman's usual rogues' galleryt. He first appeared in 1959, as a one off, in the guise of Mr Zero, during a period whan Batman (and Robin) would typically be involved in such science fiction shenanigans. He next appeared, with the name of Mr Freeze, in the 1960s camp TV series, forcing his return to the comics, where the character had always been an awkward fit with the tone of the comics after Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams began a more serious and grimmer tone in 1970 that has more or less remained ever since.
And yet... this episode is an extraordinary, tragic triumph, reinventing the character as a man whose only wish is to avenge his wife. He's a paradox: cold, emotionless, uncaring of his underlings and collateral damage, yet ultimately driven by love. He can never again, in any sense, know warmth. He is, in a sense, dead. Flawed though he is- Ferris Boyle is correct that he's used millions of company equipment illicitly- he is nonetheless genuinely sinned against: it would have cost nothing for Boyle to wait for Fries to hopefully cure his wife before putting a stopo to everything. Batman is right to expose him.
Every beat of this heartrending tragedy is perfect. And yet again I'm enjoying the sardonic dynamic betwen Alfred and Batman and the deliberate ambiguity between whether this is the 1940s or the present day. Yet the tale of this "villain" remains with me in a way few previous episodes have done.
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