Batman's Most Vengeful Foe: Mr Freeze | Batman The Animated Series

In this video I take a long-overdue look at one of Batman's most beloved foes, Mr Freeze. Mr Freeze is known as one of Batman's most tragic foes, completely dead to emotion, but I think that he's one of Batman's most emotional villains. These negative emotions, and his desire for vengeance, drives him to villainy.
#batmantheanimatedseries #btas #mrfreeze #batman #batmanbeyond
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:43 Heart of Ice
3:29 Deep Freeze
4:52 Batman Adventures Holiday Special
6:24 Batman & Mr Freeze: Subzero
11:41 Cold Comfort
14:31 Meltdown
17:09 Summary
17:48 Next Time
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Music by @Katt Strike - listen to the whole thing here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHzHcmWieM-nl9Wcttps://y...

[@SerumLake]

Special thanks to my channel members David Huber and SWIFTO_SCYTHE! Don't forget that members get access to my weekly video essays a few days early, a custom profile icon, unique emojis, and priority responses to comments!

[@aidanrandall7438]

I wish you would do the Creeper. I personally do wish we got more of him.

[@samanthakelly718]

One detail I really like about BTAS Mr. Freeze is he's the one rogue who has no clear beef with Batman. We don't even see him during the trial. His vengeance and his grief is so personal that nothing matters but his wife and the man who did this to them.

[@SerumLake]

Very true, so long as Batman stays out of his way they’ll get on just fine. We all know that, of course, Batman won’t stay out of his way though!

[@maninthetrenchcoat5603]

Clock King, too. Temple just really hated Mayor Hill, Batman was just in the way.

[@marcusblackwell2372]

The Arkhamverse took that approach, too

[@cardemis7637]

Wasn't he kept at Stonegate Prison instead of Arkham Asylum? He wouldn't have been at the trial, anyway.

[@mr.commonsense]

in one of the Batman games. If Batman dies, then he will appear end the death screen, claiming that he will avenge Batman, as he would have done for him

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

"Boyle puts on the facade of a humanitarian, but inside, he's soulless." Just like most corporate leaders, really.

[@bendrenth441]

The biggest combined reason why I HATE Corpos with every fiber of my being!

[@lochdedy8674]

Not to mention politicians.

[@arnowisp6244]

Sadly it's what they have to be to get on top. the Environment encourages these kinds of People. ​@@bendrenth441

[@janeyrevanescence12]

I remember the first time I watched “Meltdown” and I heard his line: “Believe me, you’re the only one who ever cares”, I broke down too.

[@moonknight87]

Me too

[@nicholasaugello2534]

It's just so sad that he really gave up on everyone and everything, I know he lived a very long life but his last words are just so cold.... He sounds really defeated... Emotionally

[@WarhawkBeyond2040]

What BTAS did for Mr Freeze is they took a silly villain and completely changed him into a tragic cold figure with a heartbreaking origin. I would say all of the episodes that featured Mr Freeze were some of the show's best ever especially Heart Of Ice which is a chilling classic

[@aaronatkinson177]

Except cold comfort he's character was done dirty in that episode in my opinion

[@Xehanort10]

@@aaronatkinson177 Yeah his whole "My condition has left me a head on spider legs and Nora left Gotham thinking I was dead so I'll make everyone suffer" motive in that episode sucked.

[@WarhawkBeyond2040]

@@aaronatkinson177 yeah that was episode was okay but I didn't like how they completely undid his emotional moment at the end of Sub Zero which was a fitting final chapter for him.

[@magallanesagustin4952]

@@WarhawkBeyond2040 yeah, I think his ark should have ended in that or he could have become an ally of Batman.

[@WarhawkBeyond2040]

@@magallanesagustin4952 yeah i like that idea a lot. Sub Zero should have been the last time we see Freeze until Beyond where we see him make a shocking return to help Terry stop Derek Powers / Blight after Bruce locates him in the north. I always thought Grant Walker should have been the new Mr Freeze for the show

[@zemox2534]

There is a quote that sums up TAS Mr Freeze very well: 'Heroes sacrifice themselves to save the world. Villains sacrifice the world to save the person they love.' Freeze will do anything, even endanger innocents, to save his wife Nora. And yet, despite his cruelty, he is not completely heartless. In all 3 of his stories from BTAS, Freeze confronts someone who is far worse than him. The Selfish Boyle, who turned Victor into a frost zombie, the deluded Walker, who wanted to Freeze the world and give himself immortality and the greedy surgeon who wanted money. Freeze, despite claiming to have no emotions, displays clear emotions in each of these stories. Grief, anger, joy, sadness and despair. And in his subsequent stories after heart of ice, he shows a more compassionate side. He stopped Walker and his mad plans to Freeze the world, adopted the Inuit child and told Batman to save him and Nora at the climax of Subzero. Even in his final appearance in Beyond, Freeze saved Batman from Blight and forced him to leave before the building blew up. He was a man driven by revenge, but under the right circumstances, he could be driven to heroic acts. Honestly Paul should have just let Victor's story end after subzero. It Honestly felt kinda petty how he and the rest of the crew brought Freeze back, only to turn him into a remorseless monster. I mean, it is like they wanted to give the team from subzero the finger for giving Freeze a happy ending, without their permission. I know a little extreme but that's how I see it. The fact that Timm wanted Nora to stay dead and keep Freeze as a Vengeance obsessed criminal really speaks volumes about how the crew viewed both Victor and Nora. Arkham knight, while I do not care for it, at least gave Victor and Nora a definitive ending, even if it was very bitter sweet.

[@SerumLake]

That’s a neat quote. Where’s it from?

[@zemox2534]

I do not know. Someone wrote it down in the comments section for a video I watched once.

[@Eidlones]

Ive always loved the line "Think of it, Batman. To never again walk on a summer's day with a hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes. I'd kill for that." It really shows how you really don't realize what you have until it's gone.

[@djdomain]

When Grant Walker tells Freeze that he longs to be like him due to him being biologically immortal... "You want to live like this? Abandoned and alone, a prisoner in a world you can see but never touch?! Old and infirm as you are, I'd trade a thousand of my frozen years for your worst day."

[@bad-people6510]

Michael Ansara was a hell of an actor.

[@vincentfranklin17]

Batman 's line to Ferris Boyle... "Good night... Humanitarian!" Still hits hard!

[@starpokeheart664]

And I think a part of it is because Bruce's mom was a humanitarian so it angers him how Boyle is painting the title to be

[@Stormkrow280]

You can hear the utter contempt and disgust in his voice, showing that he completely understands freeze but is stopped by his moral code.

[@dimancor2925]

Batman: Arkham Origins Cold, Cold Heart)

[@banonKING]

This is why Cold Comfort is the only stain on an otherwise perfect Mr.Freeze record. I do love most of the New Adventures, but this is an undeniable misstep. Freeze was happy, even if he was dying or losing his body, he wouldn't come back to terrify Gotham unless it involved his obession over Nora.

[@qdaniele97]

I also feel like Cold Comfort could have been avoided, but the behaviour of Freeze in the episode could easily be explained by the fact that his body is decaying, and the brain is part of the body. There's nothing stopping his condition from turning him from emotionaly and psychologicaly unstable to neurologicaly completely insane.

[@Revkor]

I think both Paul Dinni and Bruce Tim just have to accept we the fans wanted Nora to live

[@dikastederook6380]

Yeah, Dini and Timm clearly made a mistake here.

[@landofnoone7048]

​@@qdaniele97 agree! Just explain that his conditions makes him slowly forget many things that happened to him, slowly turning to the point where he forgets who Nora is. It's also will make even more huge impact to Batman Beyond episode

[@splunkmastah4609]

"Believe me... You are the only one who cares..." That final line always sticks with me. I find Freeze to be a very relatable villain. One of the more empathetic examples of what we turn into when pushed to a breaking point.

[@justinweber4977]

I loved Meltdown's end to Freeze and how Terry thinks he's really changed, or trying to, and Bruce expects him to go back to old ways... And after all of that, the exchange back in the cave Terry: I guess you were right, after all. Bruce: We both were.

[@Kacpa2]

Arkham games treated Freeze justice while also giving him and Nora a bittersweet ending in Knight.

[@mandalorianhunter1]

Honestly I'm glad they changed Mr. Freeze Honestly he is just not the most vengeful, but the most tragic and saddest villain. No matter what happened, the universe would screw him over. He stopped commiting crimes twice only for fate to keep pulling him back. He is also so brutal since we actually see him murder people on screen which is also chilling when you think about it.

[@Acacius1992]

True (Also an nice (put probably unintentional xD) pun at the end

[@mandalorianhunter1]

@@Acacius1992 it wasn't lol I was in a hurry. Thanks for pointing it out, glad I'm sly in on the fly

[@SerumLake]

I dunno, the BTAS version of Freeze is entirely motivated by vengeance - vengeance on Boyle, vengeance against the world for all it had taken from him, vengeance on Dr Lake and Derek Powers for daring to give him hope. He is also everything else you said - sad, tragic, brutal. At least, that’s my take on him.

[@mandalorianhunter1]

@@SerumLake No I was saying their was more to his character outside of vengeance. I wasn't downplaying anything you said Serum. You should know that man, you point out stuff I miss and I can point out stuff you miss as well. That's what makes a community.

[@SerumLake]

Sorry didn’t mean to come across as dismissive!

[@EditDeath]

I can't help thinking that Freeze's final outing brought him full circle to his original trauma. Nora's not involved this time, but instead it's his own life threatened by a cavalier industrialist's disinterest in human life. In that context it's really no wonder that he snapped as hard as he did.

[@arnowisp6244]

For it to go back to uncaring Corpos. What a Crappy life. 😢

[@Chadius]

Meltdown is such a great send off for Mr. Freeze at least.

[@billtree52]

I think his Beyond design is honestly the best rendition of the character I've ever seen

[@dordbird]

I always imagined that Nora's terminal diagnosis has given her a deep understanding of the value of life. I think it only makes sense that she'd be opposed to the extremes Fries.

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

I think that Freeze's actions in the Batman-Superman Adventures make sense when you consider the fact that in Batman Beyond, he's indicated to have severe systemic organ damage similar to Derek Powers/Blight. *The brain is an organ.* Blight is shown to have sudden severe outbursts of rage he didn't have before the accident that made him what he is, and they get worse as time passes. It is very likely that Freeze's condition had similar effects on his mind. I think that is one of the more important things to consider when it comes to some of Batman's villains. Joker, Clayface, and Mr Freeze were once different people before the accidents that created their villain identities. But after the accidents that created them... how much of that person is left? When the brain has been warped by outside forces, it can be difficult to say if the person after the accident is the same as the one before it, or a completely new person. Clayface's brain is literally playdough, and we can't begin to imagine what that fundamental material change to his brain did to him as a person. Is he still the person he once was, or is he just a blob of animate clay that has fooled itself into thinking he is still the same person in a similar vein to Swamp Thing? It is likely that, by the time of the Batman-Superman Adventures, whatever was left of the man he once was is long gone, leaving only a monster thinking itself to still be a man. The Joker, in TAS, was once a career criminal who was dunked in acid and got his skin bleached and hair turned green, going insane afterwards. In a Year One comic, it actually goes into how exposure to that chemical didn't just disfigure him physically, but also twisted him mentally. If the same goes for TAS continuity, is Joker the same person he was before the accident that created him, or did the man he once was die in that acid bath? I think that the same may be the case for Mister Freeze. It is already clear in TAS that he's not the man he was before the accident. Even at his worst he wasn't anything like he was in Batman-Superman Adventures, but the reveal that his body is literally coming apart could easily be the explanation for that. However, unlike the Blight example above, the damage done to his brain is not just leading him to cold rage, but also a bitter despair and a suicidal depression. The damage done to his body and mind were already severe enough to start with. However, the fact that after several years it is becoming worse would mean that his mental state would get worse with time. The mind isn't separate from the body, and anything that impacts the brain changes the person we are. By the time of the Batman-Superman Adventures, there is likely nothing left of the man he once was, with him instead becoming a monster raging at the loss of everything that made him human.

[@dappercuttlefish9557]

I like the angle some writers take on Freeze's motives where he's the most... normal, I guess, of Batman's villains. Not that he's well-adjusted, but he's way less prone to supervillain theatrics, and being driven by a specific loss means there's a pretty narrow set of things that will get him invested. It's been fun seeing him in Ram V's current Tec run as an outsider who doesn't care about the villain drama.

[@MayanFrighter100000]

I think it is possible to make Mr. Freeze a villain while keeping Nora but to this right, you need Nora to play a bigger role as a person trying to save her husband, but thanks to his crimes, people reject him and some attack him out of revenge and these attacks harm Nora, which turn in back to crime and dedicate himself to purge the criminal underworld violently in an attempt to clean his criminal record but his method was highly questionable and horrific. In the next episode which could be a recon of Cold Comfort, we see Mr. Freeze return to crush the wealthy class and corrupt leaders of Gotham, and Batman and Nora try to stop him before it's too late but unaware of both, Mr. Freeze revival it's too late for him and if he wanted to return, what kind of life it would be if he just a head in a jar and this is the only way he can avenge Nora if he eliminates the corrupt who encourage the criminal underworld to fester, so he could to forces on revenge against his past over Nora who is still alive. That is my opinion but what do you think.

[@Xehanort10]

They should have had Nora come to Gotham in Cold Comfort to try to talk sense into Victor and used the episode to give her an actual character instead of being a plot device to motivate him.

[@MayanFrighter100000]

@@Xehanort10 I do agree, I also think they should’ve gave Mr. Freeze a better reason why he should come back to Gotham.

[@nicodemusedwards6931]

Lots of people talk bout how Batman’s rogues represent different parts of him. But since nobody I’ve seen has mentioned Mr. Freeze, I might as well. Freeze embodies Batman’s dedication and obsession. As much as Batman’s life is tied to “The Mission”, Freeze is tied to “Nora”. Freeze is what would happen if Batman devoted himself fully to that mission and cast everything else aside, becoming the most efficient and ruthless version of himself. A Batman with no room for anything beyond his goal. No room to take an orphaned boy just like himself in: A Batman who’s cold and dead inside.

[@ViktorKruger99]

what a great character, I still remember watching heart of ice as a small child back in the early 90s and while I didnt pick up most of the episode my god, it hits you like a truck when you are an adult what a masterclass of writing in television

[@benjaminfeld6388]

I must admit I have mixed feelings about the episode "Cold Comfort" myself. On one hand it was probably the only way they could give Freeze a reason to actually appear again in what was essentially the new series at the time after his appearance in Subzero. On the other hand it definitely sucks that they had just given Freeze is happy ending just to turn him into a bad guy all over again. Honestly, had no one in the 80s or 90s ever heard of character growth?

[@SerumLake]

Yes, I feel similarly. It would’ve been nice to leave him alone, but I understand why they wanted to bring him back.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Certain 90s Japanese anime do know about character growth, and even so, Western animation like Exo-Squad, Mighty Max, and Gargoyles exist.

[@benjaminfeld6388]

@@michaelandreipalon359 True

[@CapnAlces]

Alas, serialized television has been addicted to the 'status quo' approach to storytelling for decades. If they want to use a character at all, it's so sadly normal to undo their development in hopes of keeping them around for more stories. Comics have been like that even longer. It's changing a little, now that binging is popular, but even that is getting exhausting. Maybe in the future we'll see more middle ground from the spectrum.

[@magallanesagustin4952]

I think that if they wanted Freeze again, they should have just turned him into a good guy instead of a spiteful jerk who wanted everyone else to suffer just because he could no longer be with Nora.

[@jacktoma21]

I definitely think Freeze’s arch is best ended in a bitter sweet way like Subzero. I really liked how they handled it in the Arkham Knight DLC and how it gave Nora some agency in the story. I regularly will switch back and forth between preferring Micheal Ansara and Maurice LeMarch as my favorite Freeze voice

[@SerumLake]

Maurice LaMarche’s performance is heavily inspired by Michael Ansara. I was told that Rocksteady originally hired Ansara, but he became too ill to take the job and passed away shortly afterwards. I would’ve loved to have seen him return, but LaMarche does a good job too.

[@jacktoma21]

@@SerumLake that’s an interesting fact I never knew. At the same time I’m kind of prefer the Arkham games having a completely new cast besides Kevin and Mark because it helps it feel more like its own thing.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

LaMarche is a gem, that's for sure. Does a really good Egon Spengler too.

[@SerumLake]

His Orson Welles is my favourite

[@ScrambledAndBenedict]

You know a great detail in Meltdown? How they foreshadowed that Mr. Freeze's condition would return. His "cured" cloned body was bald, yet the baldness was brought on by his frozen condition; he had hair before he became Mr. Freeze.

[@tysondennis1016]

Pre-BTAS, Mr. Freeze was campy. Post-BTAS, Mr. Freeze is now tragic.

[@flooferderp2918]

Personally I'm most fond of Freeze being one of the few Batman villains motivated by love. It's not Nora who turns him evil *or* good, but his love for her. He's unable to process his emotions. I prefer when his relationship is at least initially wholesome - it makes him feel tragic, as opposed to the more obsessive types Batman has dealt with before. Mr Freeze is defined by how his love and emotions change him, and it is through those he becomes a cold villain. And only through the source of his pain being healed, *or* him processing the emotions away from the pain (such as his condition) can he be redeemed.

[@thetealturtwig5667]

i also think it was a stupid idea to bring Mr. Freeze back after Sub Zero but at least it gave us Meltdown one of my absolute favorites Beyond episodes

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

Victor fries is the best supervillain in animated Batman history, while his original comic self wasn’t that great but was funny, his newer incarnations are so tragic and incredibly written mostly that he’s able to transcend the screen and still be popular after Batman and robin, and I’m saying that as an ENJOYER of that film, so let’s everyone let that sink in and have a happy holidays, hopefully a wonderful new year too, much love to the world ❤

[@The_Phantasm]

When it comes to original concepts and creations for the DCAU, are you more of a fan of the creation of Harley Quinn or the reinvention of Mr. Freeze?

[@SerumLake]

Probably the reinvention of Mr Freeze, seeing as it set the stage for so many of the other reinventions of characters, like Two-Face and Clayface.

[@Elfenlied8675309]

Thank God they retconned the horrible New 52? Comics where Nora is saved and you learn she was just some completely random woman Freeze was obsessed with that had no relation to him at all. She was just a random frozen woman he became attached to and they had never met before. That was quickly redone and they were written to be married again lol.

[@Revkor]

who ever thought THAT was a good idea should have been slapped. but that's modern comics for you

[@KnightLineArtYT]

Yeah, both the visual design and story of his Batman Beyond version really surpasses his TNBA version. I also like Bruce and Terry's response to Freeze's end. With Terry thinking Bruce was right about not trusting Freeze, but Bruce saying that they were both right, since Terry was the ONE person who without any prior bias, wanted to see the best in him.

[@Kattlarv]

It's interesting to me how Freeze had originally had a terrible revenge plan, but after Batman foiled it: He got a good revenge plan.

[@tylerbertram7065]

I hope Matt Reeves does something with Mr. Freeze in his Batman movies and gives this underrated character the love he deserves.

[@SerumLake]

That’d be cool. I love Arnie, but his cinematic Mr Freeze stunk! Time for someone else to give it a go.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

I would rather the villains of his burgeoning saga stay mundane though. Would rather prefer the Court of Owls and Azrael than Mr. Freeze and even Bane.

[@tylerbertram7065]

@@michaelandreipalon359 Azrael would be cool.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

@@tylerbertram7065 But he better not become nerfed as his Arkham Knight iteration though.

[@justinweber4977]

​@@michaelandreipalon359 I've seen pitches for Clayface as a psychotic master of disguise serial killer. That approach would make for an interesting psychological thriller, having to pull at threads and find out who's an imposter. But I think a "Mundane" Mr. Freeze could be done, too, if he's a cryogenics tech with a sick wife. The cold gun might be a no-go, but there are a lot of other ways to use "cold" to kill and torture, and in the right frame you could give him plenty of people to lash out at (insurance, "incompetent" hospital staff, "greedy" specialists refusing to treat her, other patients who would be higher up on a treatment list...

[@HobGungan]

While at the time I thought the spider head thing was pretty damn cool, as I got older I ultimately came down on the side of not liking the direction of the character arc (though I agree Beyond redeemed it somewhat).

[@edgarst837]

Michael Ansara's voicing of Mr. Freeze is up there with Adam West voicing The Grey Ghost. He brought Mr. Freeze to life for me.

[@FrozenJack2007]

dont tell me phantasm is 30 years old. in my head it came out no more than 10 years ago

[@SerumLake]

Excuse my while I turn to dust…

[@RobertStoll]

I love how Batman beyond 's new suit looks. His face being little more than shadow in the glass, with the only detail being his goggles really denotes how much of a shell of the man he once was he'd become.

[@BrianSpurrier]

It’s still a bit weird how in subzero they kidnap Barbara because she has the same rare blood type as Nora (I know he lied about the transfusion, but it still seems to be the reason), but then it’s shown that that blood type is AB negative. While that is the least common blood type in the US, anyone with AB- blood can also receive blood or organs from anyone with O-,A-, or B- blood, all of which are more common than AB-. The only blood type that can only receive itself is O-

[@SerumLake]

Dr Belson and Dr Fries clearly weren’t doctors of medicine! 😂

[@qdaniele97]

That's for blood transfusions. I'm pretty sure for organs transpants they need an almost exact match and afterwards you still need to take antirejection medications for the rest of your life

[@LegendStormcrow]

The frozen billionaire head thing was semi-accurate. They actually froze the whole bodies, but as funding and space got to be a bigger issue.... It happened, it just wasn't the original plan.

[@theimperialcombine]

Batman: Subzero is in my opinion a more proper Batman & Robin movie then well... Batman & Robin, and the ending of it gives me so much love for the character of Mr Freeze where it seems he was finally at peace Its really hard for me to accept TNBA's take on Mr freeze to even be canon even if they try to explain Nora's fate in the newer comics, It does feel like a Strong end to a Villain who lost so much to finally accept Nora being alive and cured just to live the rest of his days in Isolation is such a beautiful send off to the character.

[@SerumLake]

I think that’s also how Warner Bros executives felt about SubZero. They ended up delaying the release by 10 months so that critics wouldn’t dislike Batman & Robin even more!

[@Xehanort10]

@@SerumLake I still don't get how Joel Schumacher thought trying to combine the gimmicky 60's Freeze and tragic 90's Freeze would work. A guy trying to cure his wife and will die without his suit wouldn't be making snow and ice jokes.

[@bad-people6510]

I liked the inclusion in the first episode of the line "Revenge is a dish best served cold," which is both thematically relevant and a nod to Michael Ansara's time as a Klingon on Star Trek the Original Series.

[@scarecrow7421]

Personally I just like to imagine that Cold comfort never happened and it was never explained how Mr. freeze ended up like he did in Batman Beyond.

[@starkilr101]

New Batman and Freeze V Blight was a great fight.

[@user-bz3yt8pi3n]

I really love it when bruce says "I feel ill" when he learns that Boyle is going to be awarded humanitatian of the year award, after what he said about Victor. One of the many aspects of this show, saying Bruce Wayne is a good person😊

[@camerondodge2070]

I completely shriveled up when you said Mask of the Phantasm and 30th anniversary in the same sentence.

[@VALonYouTube]

🎁 The movie will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Christmas day this year.

[@jackthegreek6092]

I actually really love how in the movie Barabara is never subdued by Freeze. You kind of expect her to be simply beacuse she isn't 1. costumed 2. Batman. I expected she would be subdued and Batman And Robin would come just in the nick of time to fight Freeze and save her. I was plesently surprised by how much ass she kicks as just Barabara.

[@SerumLake]

Yeah, that was one of Randy Rogel’s intentions. I spoke to him a few weeks back and he said that he really wanted to focus more on Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. The full interview is here if you’re interested in hearing more: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5rGhamtn9iIqLcsi=u6Fzp-JPfAaIIej3

[@jackthegreek6092]

@@SerumLake wow, that's cool checking it out now!

[@barriehannon6857]

its nice to see he got a fantastic adaptation on the Arkham games as well

[@snonyabeeswax]

mr freeze is my favorite villain ngl i really felt for the more sympathetic versions of him

[@triggeredcat120]

“Revenge is best served cold Batman.”

[@VALonYouTube]

Such a perfect video for this season. ❄️ I loved every single minute of yet another thorough, engaging and enjoyable analysis of a BTAS villain, Mr. Freeze being one of my definite favorites. For someone that revisits SubZero promos from VHS releases and Cartoon Network on a regular basis, taking a trip down memory lane from Heart of Ice, Deep Freeze, The Batman Adventures Holiday Special and the aforementioned SubZero to Cold Comfort, Batman Gotham Adventures, Batman Adventures, and ultimately Meltdown, was such a joy (I prefer to ignore the events portrayed in The Adventures Continue). Thank you so much for your amazing content as usual, Serum. This one is no exception. 🤩 Happy Holidays.

[@thebashar]

I love your stuff. Do you plan on doing more on Batman Beyond?

[@SerumLake]

Thank you! Nothing is off the table 👍

[@sethevans5318]

I had Batman sub zero on vhs as a kid and it was like my favorite movie.

[@jordanjenkins1671]

I really liked how Batman Arkham Knight tied up Victor Fries' and Nora Fries' story.

[@sampan5919]

I haven't watch btas as a kid nor did grew up with it but you made learn why is this show is special, Mr freeze is great but I kind of wish they expand on Nora a little bit more

[@hugoalvarez8307]

I know you prefere BTAS (so do I) but could you do an essay about Terry Mcguiness? He's such an interesting character and (in my opinion) the greatest posible succesor for the Dark Knight

[@SerumLake]

That would be pretty Schway!

[@zodiakgames]

Legit Thats the only movie i owned from the animated series For a reason So good Best villain forever

[@RabbiSteve]

Great video essay. Thanks for doing it and sharing it. I totally agree: Mr. Freeze - easily the most complex and interesting of DC Animated villains.

[@StoryTeller796]

I might make an animation or a written concept and publish it onto KZbin as a video for feedback. I'll of course focus more on Nora and Mr Freeze's relationship because when Batman does the cool action scenes and the detective work, he'll do it, and everyone will clap at the animation quality and choreography and just general heroics but I just want to make them the protagonists with Ferris Boyle being the Antagonist. Batman is just a third party in all of this. Overall, I just want to focus on those 3 and have Batman swoop in to stop Mr. Freeze's insane plan. Batman/Bruce Wayne will have his own animated series in my universe, but for the beginning's sake, I want to pull a Scott Pilgrim Anime and focus on the other characters. I want to make 4 alternate universes. Each version go with 2 premises and explore how they would go in two ways, one being Victor's morality vs his grief, and if he gets Nora back or not, what will happen to him shortly after?

[@SerumLake]

Yes, please do.

[@immortalkoopah3138]

I won't lie I never got to experience the btas series. But freeze being this way is the saddest villain to me

[@jailcatjones3250]

If they make another Robert Pattinson Batman sequel i hope its Heart of Ice and i think Giancarlo Esposito is the perfect mr freeze.

[@Elfenlied8675309]

I believe it's rumored that The Batman part 2's villain is Clayface, most likely the original one Basil Karlo. The one that used facial prosthetics and makeup to look like other people and wasn't a mutant clay monster.

[@MichaelSpikes-pv6kl]

Excellent excellent video

[@cheezeebutter452]

The vengeful spirit, the one you should not have frozen.

[@burge117]

Again, BTAS just makes everything better. Really broke my heart, poor Victor 😢

[@tefnutofhoney2832]

What id have done to bring back freeze is make it a copycat villain. Like, some sick individual saw all freezes crimes and decided "hey i could do better" Alternatively, someone who was injured in a previous freeze crime wave. Maybe freeze *had* managed to clear his name, just for this once-victim of his to feel the need for revenge, framing victor as being back at it again

[@malikshabazz2065]

great work!

[@SerumLake]

🫡

[@Chadius]

Cold Comfort was the weakest Mr. Freeze episode by far. They should have focused on Nora Fries's recovery and the time she spent in Gotham waiting for Victor to return before finally moving on with her life. It could have focused on Mr. Freeze unable to move past the trauma, or his fixation on the idealized version of his wife rather than the real, maybe flawed Nora. Instead she's another background detail combined with some sci-fi body horror. We could have jumped from Subzero straight to Batman Beyond and the storyline would have been unchanged.

[@nathanweast4397]

He's also one of the best boss fights in any Batman game; Arkham City demonstrated how you were supposed to think like Batman; calculate methods to subdue him without repeating the same method while constantly avoiding pursuit in a closed off room.

[@RaptorofRex07]

Oh my gosh how did I not make the boil freeze connection. I was always thinking boil the zit lol

[@nukatom8051]

Mr.Freeze is my first and favorite Batman villain, I first watched BTAS Thanks to that movie Sub Zero. A tragic film with such a hopeful ending, and my neurons were activated when the credits rolled

[@FrozenJack2007]

12:50 oh my god

[@michaelandreipalon359]

They were right... in the same way that people once thought that a hated man like Trump/Luthor can't easily be POTUS.

[@jeffreyherrera5069]

9:28 It doesn't really beg that question. In "Heart of Ice", Victor outright says "Once a cure has been found", indicating that there wasn't a cure for Nora's condition at the time. There was also the file containing all the medical records and blueprints of the tank as well, which described Nora's condition as "terminal". That's literally the reason why Victor froze her, so he'd have time to either search for or manufacture a cure.

[@MegaManDBZX]

One does wonder why Bruce didn’t look into things after meeting Freeze and help Nora before Subzero.

[@blade8989]

I love this channel!!!!!!!

[@CorbinLeonard-rp4et]

Man i got a joke. Looks like mr freeze is now a ice cube head and he's body is now a broken ice Borg

[@anthonyoliver418]

Can I just say, Freeze is an example of how tragedy and trauma can lead people to harming others, like seriously, the fact that Ferris only cared once he pulled a gun just to live really says a lot about how bad Frieze was treated before having the series of life ruining experiences happen to him, it is truly tragic that we still know there is potential redemption with him compared to Boyle

[@rowgerz3466]

They gave Mr. Freeze a good end, a bad return, but fix it with a sad emotional end. He is truly a great villain.

[@takenname8053]

I don't think I ever saw the straight to DVD Mr.Freeze movie, so seeing him in the show felt normal.

[@GhostPlanetFilms]

As AWSM as his Batman Beyond episode was, I like to think Sub Zero was the actual ending for Mr. Freeze.

[@iceluvndiva21]

Man, ice themed characters just can't catch a break. Either they're apathetic, monstrous, people or they're just straight up tragedies either IN UNIVERSE or by the audience completely missing the point of the character.

[@yuukisama2001]

This was one of my favorite episodes of the series. The whole discussion between Bruce and Terry regarding Victor Von Frieze really shows the generational argument regarding their views. Terry is the new guy and he really wanted to give Frieze a chance. The thing that got me was what Bruce said to him, he gave him his last words and he left it at that. Terry had see things for himself. Because Bruce had seen it too many times. He understood him better. At that moment what I felt about the BTAS I always saw Bruce being sympathetic. And always was even though he still had to do a job. Until BBBS I was really hoping that he changed. But that was the whole set up. There was never going to be such a thing. When he went on that rampage it literally sent chills up my spine.

[@magallanesagustin4952]

I hate the NBA episode where Freeze starts ruinning everything random people love and try to commit genocide just because he could no longer be with Nora, as if those people were at fault because of it. He went from someone who just wanted to save his wife to a petty jerk that wanted everyone to suffer just because he couldn't be with his wife.

[@RikouHogashi]

Ahh one of the most "Grey" of Batman's "Gallery" of all of the DCAU not to mention the most Sympathetic outside of for example of the worst case of Typecasting due to dwarfism in Babydoll and the tragic girl sadly only known as "Ace" but he still did crime though he seems the most redeemable due to sympathetic possibility of Batman pooling his funds as Bruce to revive Nora where Boil didn't give a care if Victor wasn't so darn stubborn on his vengeance

[@JanjoZone]

Cool video!

[@SerumLake]

ICE to see you again

[@Game-vi2od]

This video is so cool :D

[@SerumLake]

Very ICE pun, very ICE indeed.

[@user-zv9es6so8u]

My personal favorite take on Dr.Iceberg here is the Arkham Series where I think there made a less Long winded journey to a more Focused one. In Origins we see Essentially ’Heart of Ice’ but in a more Cinematic amd Dramatic take. Setting him up as the Anti-Villain we all Love. In City,They Show what I think would’ve happened if Freeze Was a character that wasn’t bound by comic book rules. He appears in the game,Aids Batman Since he never had personal Beef with Batman. And in his side mission he gets a sorta of happy ending by getting his Wife Back to him. And Then we Have Knight and This is Probably my Favorite Ending for the Character.(I like Mr.Freeze ending in Beyond but this just feels more Natural to me) Freeze is a Twisted Reflection of Batman’s Origin Story and Motivations in a way. Just Like Freeze does everything for Nora,Bruce Does everything so that No Boy has to Watch their Parents get killed in front of them. So In Knight we get the Twisted Deconstructed ending for said Motivation.Its Heavily Shown that Were Martha and Thomas Alive,They would’ve been much better off if Bruce Wasn’t Batman. And Nora is the very same with Victor. Once she’s back she prefers to just Die Beside him rather than Living on and Causing Both Her and Victor Misery by Trying to prolong her condemned Life. With them seemingly accepting Death by the time that Bruce ended KnightFall. I think that the Story of Freeze’s Beggining,Middle and End were much more Focused here and It was a pretty good Take on the BTAS version of him.

[@joshprice4855]

You know, I completely missed the boil thing. I thought it was because it hints to his true nature as an unsightly, pus filled, and painful sore.

[@megam4n11]

while this topic's been done so many times you hammer in the point of the character's motivations, something I've rarely seen in those videos, and you've done it so well!(also if I may ask, where do you get those clips of the series in such high quality? all of my sources aren't that kind clearness to the video quality).

[@SerumLake]

Don’t tell Warner Bros but I copied by Blu-rays (hopefully they don’t mind, it’s probably the fourth time I’ve bought this show!) The rips aren’t perfect, every now and then there’s a weird visual glitch, but I just edit around them.

[@schizophrenic_rambler]

In Cold Comfort he looked like the lovechild of a Necron and a Cenobite

[@Horrorcrusher8312]

Ferris Boyle's parents must be so proud of how their boy turned out.

[@954sean]

Thanks!

[@SerumLake]

No, thank you!

[@CloudWalkBeta]

I think we all wished there were most stories featuring some of batmans iconic villains, but I think some are tragically only worth 1 episode or 2 at best. Freeze certainly feels that way, you can only really use him once, you could always make his episode a LONG multi-part episode... These guys even made a movie of it, but you can't easily make multiple stories for him, for doing so will severely risk diluting him. I think Gotham made that all too obvious to me, Freeze certainly stopped being interested when Nora was gone and suddenly he some random goon for hire?

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

So, _Sub-Zero_ really makes me think that someone knew who the Cryonic Man (a lesser-known Bat-foe who reads very similar to the BtAS Freeze several years before BtAS) was. It's very hard to see the similarities as a coincidence once you've both read up on that character and rewatched _Sub-Zero_

[@Karcen]

I do like how in this boyle dosent just go wait you created cryonics, screw the other project we will be rich.

[@katking9574]

fries v... Boil. literally hot v cold.

[@Efrencit017]

That’s why I’m glad that in the Arkham series he somewhat got a happy ending and got to be with Nora.

[@platinturger]

It is a very bittersweet Ending, and one of the rare moments a Video Game made me cry 🥹

[@katmore9]

Great video! I'd love to know about that proposed Bane film. 🤔 And if any of that script made into "Mystery of the Batwoman" which included Bane.

[@SerumLake]

Apparently none of that script was reused anywhere. I had a decent conversation with the writer, Randy Rogel, on the latest episode of our podcast, Totally Schway: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5rGhamtn9iIqLcsi=bv6JlZXQQjyx2LD_

[@BiteSized_]

There might be some momentary discomfort is my favorite beyond line. I’m glad they gave Freeze a proper ending. Smart

[@TheGodOfGravy]

On your point about Nora not being shown as much more than a blank slate. I think it’s fine in this case. Reason being that you can read into it that we don’t know what Nora wants, we only know what Victor wants. It highlights his character flaw of being selfish in his actions.

[@anthonyruby2668]

Unlike the Gotham the TV show, Nora was the most justified in bringing back cause she was always on the blurred line between suspended animation and giving up the ghost