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Mr. Freeze
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Real name Victor Fries (véritable identité), Mister Zero,, Doctor Zero,, Doctor Schimmell
Mr. Freeze, real name Victor Fries, is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. Created by Bob Kane, David Wood and Sheldon Moldoff, the character first appeared in Batman #121 (February 1959). Mr. Freeze is one of Batman's most enduring enemies and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery.
Freeze is a scientist who must wear a cryogenic suit in order to survive, and bases his crimes around a "cold" or "ice" theme, complete with a "freeze gun" that freezes its targets solid. In the most common variation of his origin story, he is a former cryogenics expert who suffered an industrial accident while attempting to cure his terminally ill wife Nora Fries.
Mr. Freeze was played by George Sanders, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach in the original Batman television series and by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1997 film Batman & Robin, was voiced by Michael Ansara in Batman: The Animated Series and by Clancy Brown in The Batman, and has been voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the Batman: Arkham video game franchise.
IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time List ranked Mr. Freeze as #67.
Biography
From the time of his first appearance in 1959 onwards, Mr. Freeze was portrayed as one of many "joke" villains (see also Killer Moth) cast as stock enemies of Batman. Originally called Mr. Zero, the producers of the 1960s Batman television series renamed him Mr. Freeze (and portrayed Batman addressing him as "Dr. Schivel"), and the name quickly carried over to the comic books. Three actors who portrayed Mr Freeze were George Sanders, Otto Preminger, and Eli Wallach.Silver Age
In the Pre-Crisis continuity series, it is explained that Mr. Freeze is a rogue scientist whose design for an "ice gun" backfires when he inadvertently spills cryogenic chemicals on himself, resulting in his needing subzero temperatures to survive.
Modern Age
Post-Crisis, Freeze was revamped utilizing Paul Dini's backstory. Dr. Victor Fries, Ph.D. (surname pronounced "freeze") was a brilliant cryogenicist. As a child, he was fascinated with cryonics, as he began his "hobby" of freezing animals. His parents, horrified by his fascination, sent him to a strict boarding school, where he was miserable and felt detached from humanity. In college, he met a woman named Nora, whom he fell in love with and ultimately married.
A year and a half after Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, Nora contracts a fatal illness, while Fries works on a freeze ray for GothCorp. Fries' boss Ferris Boyle decides to tell the mob about the gun, leading Batman to create a team of specialists to help him do his job better. Fries decides to use the device on Nora, to put her in cryo-stasis. His boss interrupts and tampers with the experiment, however, resulting in an explosion that kills Nora. Fries survives, but the chemicals in the freeze ray lower his body temperature to the point that he must wear a cryogenic suit in order to survive. He swears revenge on those responsible for the death of his wife (whom he talks to often), and becomes Mr. Freeze, the first supervillain Batman faces in this continuity.
Batman's operatives find Freeze, who shoots one of them with his freeze gun. Batman eventually apprehends him, however.
Freeze's crimes tend to involve freezing everyone and everything he runs into so he never forges alliances with the other criminals in Gotham, preferring to work alone. On rare occasions he has worked with another member of Batman's rogues gallery, usually as an enforcer for Gotham's mob bosses, such as the Penguin or Black Mask. In one of his notable team-ups, Freeze constructed a cryogenic machine for Hush so that Hush might take revenge on Batman.
During his time with the Secret Society of Super Villains, he fashions for Nyssa al Ghul a sub-zero machine in exchange for the use of her own Lazarus Pit. He attempts to restore Nora to life without waiting for the adjusting needed in the pool chemicals. However, she returns to life as the twisted Lazara, and escapes. She blames her husband for her plight, and she estranges herself from him.
The New 52
During the Night of the Owls crossover as part of The New 52, the Court of Owls send assassins known as Talons to kill almost 40 of the most important citizens of Gotham, including Mr Freeze. The Red Hood, Starfire and Red Arrow choose to save him, and subsequently remand him into Batgirl's custody.
Batman Annual #1 introduces a new origin for Mr. Freeze. Here, Victor Fries' fascination with cryonics began when he was a boy and his mother fell through the ice of a frozen lake. The ice was able to keep her preserved long enough for help to arrive, thus sparking his lifelong obsession with the cold. It is later revealed that the accident left Fries' mother in constant pain, and Fries ended her suffering by pushing her into a lake. In this new origin, Nora was never Fries' wife. Her name was Nora Fields, a woman born in 1943. When Nora was 23, she was diagnosed with an incurable heart disease, so her family placed her in cryogenic stasis hoping that a cure would be found in the future. Fries, having written his doctoral thesis on Nora, took on a position as a cryogenic researcher and technician at Wayne Enterprises, the facility that housed Nora's body.
Eventually, he fell in love with Nora and became dedicated to finding a reliable method for slowly thawing cryogenic subjects. However, Bruce Wayne ordered the project to be shut down, as he began to feel uncomfortable with Fries' obsession with Nora. Furious, Fries hurled a chair at Wayne, who dodged the attack; the chair smashed into an array of cryonic chemical tanks, the contents of which sprayed onto Fries and transformed him into Mr. Freeze.
The Court of Owls uses Freeze's cryogenic-thaw formula to revive their Talons, and then they try to kill him. Freeze survives, but is captured by the Red Hood and sent to Arkham Asylum. He escapes shortly afterward and rearms himself with the Penguin's help. Freeze decides to kill Bruce Wayne and take Nora, whom he believes to be his wife, so that they can leave Gotham City behind forever. Infiltrating Wayne Enterprises, Freeze has a brief fight with Nightwing and Robin, but he subdues them. Then, Freeze goes to the penthouse, where he finds Batman and the frozen Nora. Batman defeats Mr. Freeze by injecting his suit with the thawing formula, which he had intended to use to revive Nora from suspended animation.
During the Forever Evil storyline, Mr. Freeze appears as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains at the time when the Crime Syndicate arrived from their world. The Scarecrow later visits Mr. Freeze to let him know of the war going on at Blackgate Penitentiary. The Man-Bats are able to bring the remaining Talons to Mr. Freeze after Man-Bat and Scarecrow steal them from Blackgate. Mr. Freeze and Clayface later encounter the Rogues when they land in their territory. Mr. Freeze tells Mirror Master he is not interested in capitalizing on the bounty on their head, only to use Weather Wizard to create optimal conditions for him to freeze Gotham. As the Rogues are fighting the two, Black Mask (alongside his False Face society) arrives to capture the Rogues to receive the bounty.
Best films
(1997)Played by the actors
Filmography of Mr. Freeze (6 films)
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, 1h24Origin USA
Genres Action, Animation
Themes Films about animals, Mise en scène d'une tortue, Batman films, Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics, Reptile
Actors Troy Baker, Darren Criss, Kyle Mooney, Baron Vaughn, Eric Bauza, Rachel Bloom
Rating71%
Batman, Batgirl et Robin forment une alliance avec les Tortues Ninja pour affronter Shredder qui s'est apparemment joint à Ra's al Ghul et sa Ligue des Assassins, afin de pouvoir prendre le contrôle de la ville.
, 1h12Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Action, Animation
Themes Batman films, Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics
Actors Oded Fehr, Roger Craig Smith, Chris Diamantopoulos, Phil LaMarr, Will Friedle, Charlie Schlatter
Rating59%
Mister Freeze et Le Pingouin sont de retour à Gotham City. Après avoir réfrigéré la ville, le scientifique transforme Bane et Killer Croc en monstres géants dévastant tout sur leur passage. Afin de les combattre, Bruce Wayne élabore un robot géant de Batman et le combat commence. Dans sa quête pour ramener la paix, le super héros sera suivi dans son affrontement par Robin, Green Arrow, Nightwing et Flash.
, 1h15Origin USA
Genres Fantasy, Action, Animation
Themes Films about children, Batman films, Superman films, Films about extraterrestrial life, Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics, Films about extraterrestrial life
Actors Benjamin Bratt, Michael C. Hall, Tamara Taylor, Jason Isaacs, Paget Brewster, C. Thomas Howell
Rating70%
In an alternate universe, the Justice League is a brutal force that maintains order on Earth. This universe has its own versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman:
Batman Beyond: The Movie (1999)
, 2h12Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Action, Animation
Themes Batman films, Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics
Actors Will Friedle, Kevin Conroy, Sherman Howard, Michael Ansara, Linda Hamilton, Teri Garr
Rating76%
Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998)
, 1h7Origin USA
Genres Action, Crime, Animation
Themes Films about children, Batman films, Superhero films, Super-héros inspiré de comics
Actors Kevin Conroy, Michael Ansara, Loren Lester, Mary Kay Bergman, George Dzundza, Efrem Zimbalist II
Rating71%
Since his last encounter against Batman, Mr. Freeze has found a home in the Arctic and started a family (of sorts) with the still cryogenically-encased Nora, an Inuit boy named Kunac, and two pet polar bears, Hotchka and Shaka. Nora's condition begins to rapidly deteriorate due to a submarine accidentally emerging from underwater directly underneath them, shattering her containment vessel. Freeze returns to Gotham City with his companions. He enlists the help of Dr. Gregory Belson to find a cure. Belson determines that Nora needs an organ transplant, but due to her rare blood type there are no suitable donors available.
Batman & Robin (1997)
, 2h5Directed by Joel Schumacher
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Fantastic, Comedy, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Crime
Themes Films about children, Medical-themed films, Batman films, Superhero films, Films about psychiatry, Super-héros inspiré de comics, Films set in psychiatric hospitals, Eco-terrorism in fiction
Actors Michael Paul Chan, John Glover, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vivica A. Fox, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell
Rating38%
Batman and Robin fail to stop Mr. Freeze from stealing a cache of diamonds. They learn that Freeze was once a scientist named Victor Fries, who became dependent on a diamond-powered subzero suit following an accident in a cryogenics lab while working to save his wife, Nora, from a terminal illness called MacGregor's Syndrome.