Warning: SPOILERS for Detective Comics #1015
As far as supervillain motivations go, the frosty fiend and ongoing Batman rogue, Mr. Freeze, has a really good one. Since his re-imagining in the cult 90s classic TV show Batman: the Animated Series, cryogenics expert Dr. Victor Fries has devoted every waking hour of his frozen life to reanimating his sick and medically frozen wife, Nora. But after successfully resurrecting his icy bride, Freeze realize the old saying is true: “be careful what you wish for…”
With the help of some new tech courtesy of villainous billionaire Lex Luthor, Freeze put his mission to thaw Nora into overdrive, going as far as kidnapping and experimenting on women as well as building his own freeze-mobile to take down Batman. But snow-plowing Batman and creating ice zombies were just the beginning, and Freeze was eventually able to achieve his life’s work of waking his wife from cold hibernation… only for her to betray him and threaten the lives of Gotham’s citizens.
Taking place in the pages of Detective Comics #1015, Batman and his frozen foe end up as unlikely partners in the fight against Gotham’s newest ice villain, Mrs. Freeze. Given an experimental and unstable serum to cure her fatal illness, Nora now resembles her blue-skinned, cold-hearted husband–complete with her own set of armor and red goggles. However, what starts as a happy reunion for Mr. Freeze turns south after the married couple go on a crime spree to secure funds for their new life, and Nora ends up becoming addicted to the violence and chaos. Nora soon dumps Freeze to follow her own ambitions. Mainly, destroy Gotham.
With his former corpse bride on a rampage, Mr. Freeze saw no other option than to light the bat-signal himself. In exchange for helping Batman save his recently frozen victims from the icy grip of death, Mr. Freeze asks the Dark Knight to help him bring down his increasingly violent and unstable wife. The pair have no other choice but to form an alliance and face-off against Nora Fries… together.
Detective Comics #1015 ends with Batman again sporting his fire-powered bat-suit (complete with flame-rifle) alongside his old nemesis/new partner, ready to take on Mrs. Freeze. Of course, she isn’t the only the villain with new toys given graciously by Luthor. As part of DC’s Year of the Villain series, many super-criminals throughout the DC Universe have recently received upgrades. Luthor’s endgame involves reviving the Legion of Doom and achieving the godhood he’s always desired, but for Mr. Freeze his one and only desire has become a threat to both herself and all of Gotham.
Speaking of partnerships, writer Peter Tomasi and artists Doug Mahnke and Jose Luis work extremely well together on Detective Comics. Tomasi likes to set Bruce Wayne against the clock to add dramatic tension to his stories, while the action happening on the panels are complimented by the inking and coloring. The arctic blues and dark blacks of Nora and Victor in their sleek cryo-armor make them pop off the page, especially in scenes where they use their ice powers. The final page of Detective Comics #1015 shows Batman holding up his blazing flame-thrower like a torch with Mr. Freeze right behind him charging up his freeze-ray and teasing readers of the impending showdown against Nora.
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