UPDATED: Top 10 Mr. Freezes

The Abominable Snowman of Gotham, Mr. Freeze has cemented himself as one of the more popular characters in Batman’s Rogues Gallery. Once upon a time, the character was - to quote another DC hero - “just another two-bit gadget-villain from Gotham City.” Over time, however, writers, directors, and producers have all refined the character, developing both his powers and his personality. While some incarnations are completely silly, others are stone-cold serious; some could even turn your blood to ice. Whichever way you prefer him, he seems firmly set in the chilly night of Gotham City. So, without further ado (I think this may be the shortest intro to a Batman list I’ve done yet), let’s take a look at my personal Top 10 Favorite Portrayals of Mr. Freeze!

10. Peter Stormare, from Justice League Action.

This show just came out, and already it’s...interesting. Like many of the Freezes in the lower half of this list, this incarnation is clearly targeted at rather young children, like the show itself; some of its goofier elements work and still hold water, others don’t. Mr. Freeze definitely turns out well-done, thankfully. (Granted, I prefer my steak medium-rare, but that’s another story. Ha Ha.) Stormare’s Freeze, in his first appearance, acts as something of a Mephistopheles figure...a role the actor is not unfamiliar with, having played such characters as Count Dracula (against Batman, no less), and the Devil himself, in “Constantine.” In the story, he charms another icy enemy, Killer Frost, to his side...only to use her powers as a sort of battery for his weaponry, as he prepares (as he so often does) to plunge Gotham into a virtual ice age. Perhaps fittingly, it is through the help of the heroic Firestorm that Batman is able to take down his old foe, and turn Killer Frost against Mr. Freeze.

9. Clancy Brown, from The Batman.

In some ways, Clancy Brown’s take on Mr. Freeze was a return to the style of the 60’s show. In other ways, it wasn’t quite. Prior to Brown, the now-tragic-and-well-known backstory of the character had infiltrated just about every incarnation of the character. The creators of “The Batman” thought that you could still make the character interesting without turning him into such a sympathetic villain. Their solution: make Freeze more than a man in a crazy costume with a cool gun (no pun intended). Make him practically a force of nature. In this incarnation, Victor Fries was a petty diamond thief (because diamonds are “ice” in the underworld) who, during an encounter with Batman, ended up getting locked into a cryogenic freezer that was set up with some experimental elements. When he got free, he found he could not survive beyond a sub-zero temperature, and that he had acquired strange abilities that allowed him to project and control cold and ice. His suit was built not only to keep him eternally frosted, but also to help him channel and contain his abilities. This Freeze could shift the weather itself, and with his rugged-yet-slick design, glowing red eyes, and the dark growls of Clancy Brown, he turned out to be one of the most menacing baddies the series produced. He may not have been a very sympathetic portrayal, but that didn’t stop him from being a unique take on the character.

8. George Sanders, from the 60’s series.

Many people attribute the DCAU incarnation of Mr. Freeze to essentially “creating” the character we know and love. This, however, is not the case: many of the famous elements we associate with Freeze actually started with - of all things - the old, campy 1960’s television show. Prior to the show, the character had been given the name “Mr. Zero.” However, the publicity managers of the series (wisely) felt that the moniker “Mr. Freeze” would be catchier, and more marketable; the name stuck. It was also with the 60’s series that we first got a backstory for the character, which described him as a scientist who had been experimenting with cryogenic chemical solutions, which were accidentally spilled all over him, causing his bodily systems to go amok, and forcing him to live in sub-zero temperatures. The character’s real name was “Dr. Schivel,” rather than Victor Fries, and it was implied that he was a fiend even before his heart was quite literally frozen, but the groundplan for the character we know and love today was now in place. I always got the feeling that the creators of the show felt there was a lot of potential with Freeze, but - perhaps partly due to the lack of stories on the character (he’d only had one or two appearances before this show), or perhaps due to their comedic needs - they never quite figured out how to handle him; three different people all played the villain, and each one portrayed him in a manner radically different from the others. Even the costume underwent significant changes. In my humble opinion, the best Mr. Freeze was also the first: George Sanders. Sanders, who had a reputation for dignified and villainous characters (Shere Khan, anybody?), created a surprisingly layered villain for the 60’s series. (I know I say that a lot, but trust me, it’s a lot more rare than I make it sound with all my lists.) While other baddies were unrepentantly nasty and held nothing but contempt for their adversaries, Freeze seemed to have a sense of genuine respect for Batman. At one point, upon capturing Robin, the Caped Crusader requested that Freeze release the Boy Wonder. “You have my sympathies, Batman,” Freeze says, remarkably sincere, and even sad-sounding, then adds helplessly, “Unfortunately, the boy knows our hideout...so what can I do?” A little later, he confesses “I hate having to destroy two such charming people.” Another interesting element to this Freeze is that we got to see him out of costume, as the above image reveals; when in his hideout, he had a special remote device, which allowed him to lower and raise the temperature in specific areas of his headquarters, so that his warm-blooded men and he could cohabitate fairly nicely.

7. Anonymous, from Batman: Toxic Chill.

I’ve mentioned this little-known PC game before, so I’ll make this quick. Basically, the story of the game focuses on an unlikely team-up between Freeze and the Riddler, as Freeze plots to create a means to turn Gotham into his own personal Winter Wonderland. For much of the game, it seems like Freeze is the head of the operation; he’s the one who has the most to gain, obviously, and many of the arrangements to do what he’s doing are actively made by him. However, as the game goes on, it becomes more and more clear that the Riddler has more to do with it than previously thought, and might, in fact, be up to something dastardly all his own, which might even go against Freeze’s scheming. While the actor playing Freeze in the game is anonymous, his rumbling vocals created a deep, painful sense of anger and even loss, his whole plan essentially born out of a feeling of being an outsider. He can’t survive in our natural world; the only world he could live in normally is one of terrifying cold. And when the Riddler’s own twist to the plot is finally revealed, you feel generally sorry for him...and rather satisfied when he gets his own little form of revenge at the very end. Sometimes the small victories are the most savory...

6. Oded Fehr, from Batman: Unlimited.

I sometimes wonder if the people who created this franchise played or knew about the game mentioned in the previous entry; the basic plot of Freeze’s major appearance - in the film “Mechs vs. Mutants” (which isn’t AS silly as it sounds, by the way) - is more or less the same: Freeze feels like an outsider, decides to create a world where he isn’t, enlists the aid of another major villain, and ends up having the tables turned on him in the end. Oded Fehr is a phenomenal actor, and no stranger to dignified, quasi-Shakesperean villains, or even comic book baddies - he splendidly voiced Ra’s Al Ghul in “Young Justice,” for a start - so it’s no surprise that his Mr. Freeze is a fine piece of work. Freeze in this incarnation is less of a villain and more of an anti-hero; beyond anything else, his motives are simply this: he wants to either be accepted, or be alone. Having spent much of his life in isolation in the frozen recesses of the planet, he finds human companionship in the Penguin, who following his failure in the film “Animal Instincts” has been more or less banished to the same place with no way of getting home. At Penguin’s goading, Freeze makes a pilgrimage back to Gotham, and joins forces with a few other villains; through means of special chemicals and inventions, he turns Killer Croc and the walking nuclear-waste-deposit Chemo into ice-spewing giants. When the Penguin later turns on him, however, still determined to either destroy or conquer Gotham City, Freeze is forced to help Batman, and the Dark Knight’s allies, in bringing Croc and Chemo (and a few other rogues who got roped into the mess) back down to size, and foiling Penguin’s plot.

5. Robert Kraft, from DC Universe Online.

Betrayal seems to be a constant thread in this character’s life and history. It’s no wonder he’s frequently locked away in Arkham Asylum; so much backstabbing can’t lead to a healthy mind. What makes Kraft’s significantly more human-sounding take on Freeze (a character often voiced in a deeper, more robotic way) especially tragic is that YOU end up being part of the cause of his misery, no matter which side you play on in this game. For example: on a mission from the Joker, the player comes across Freeze’s lab, and the icy rogue expects you are there to help him, believing you’re one of his own henchmen. Unfortunately for Freeze, you’re really just there to steal some of his technology for the Clown Prince of Crime...technology Freeze needs to resurrect his beloved wife, Nora. Things go pretty sour from there. The cutscene monologue Kraft delivers upon completing the mission is haunting in its calm, vengeful, wavering delivery. Merciless yet also pitiful, Kraft’s Freeze is one of the few depictions that seems to latch onto Freeze’s humanity and desperate situation, rather than just having fun with the crazy gadgets and strange suit. For that, it deserves recognition.

4. Nathan Darrow, from Gotham.

One of the most sorry depictions of Victor Fries, “Gotham” depicts the character essentially as a man for whom nothing really goes right, and whose constant struggle is to get something, ANYTHING to go right for him. In keeping with the now-classic origin story: Darrow’s Mr. Freeze becomes a criminal after his beloved wife, Nora, becomes terminally ill. A gifted cryogenicist, he uses his skills to find a way to freeze her in a state of suspended animation, and then find a cure. However, Victor takes things a little too far: when funding and personnel were no longer readily available, he began to abduct innocent and random civilians to use as guinea pigs in his experiments. When Nora finds out, she is aghast, and when the police catch up with Mr. Freeze, they don't fully understand the situation, and take them both in. Victor finds out his new formula apparently worked at the exact wrong moment, and flees police custody to get it. He then goes on a short little rampage, demanding that his innocent wife be freed upon retrieving the chemical. Nora, however, who just wants peace at this point, and is terrified of her once-beloved husband, switches the formula with an earlier test, causing her own death. Freeze, completely broken, tries to commit suicide...but, ironically, only ends up botching that, too, causing his mutation into the monstrous, sub-zero being we now know and love. Conflicts with other villains, like Firefly and Professor Hugo Strange, as well as obvious tension with the GCPD, seem to only prove one thing: poor Victor Fries just can’t get a break. (To be fair though, nabbing random human guinea pigs probably wasn't the brightest idea...)



3. Matthew Mercer, from the Telltale Series.
When I found out that Matthew Mercer was playing Victor Fries in these games, I was...curious. Mercer is mostly known for playing young and often hotheaded characters; he's no stranger to DC, having played Anarky, Tim Drake's Robin, and the Red Hood, all of whom fit into that same vein. As a result, I was wondering how well he'd do playing the icy and older Mr. Freeze. The answer is "spectacularly well." Of the villains who form the team of baddies known as "The Pact" - a group of supervillains with a grudge against Amanda Waller and her agency - Freeze is probably the most sympathetic. I think my favorite thing about this Freeze is the way we are introduced to him: the power in the Pact's HQ is suddenly flicked off, and from down the hall, Victor comes SCREAMING into the main room, both panicked and enraged, knowing that if the power doesn't come back on soon, his wife - still in stasis - would be kaput. What's great is that Mercer's Freeze NEVER freaks out like that again through the rest of the game. He is, as you would expect, stone cold and rather dry, keeping his cool (no pun intended) even in the midst of battle. But this one freak-out, right at the start, shows us just how unstable Victor is, and how obsessed he is with caring for his wife. This affects how we, as the player, work around him later on. We know we're treading on uneven ground with him, and that if anything were even SUGGESTED as happening to Nora again, he could snap in a split second. Much like Clancy Brown's Freeze, this one also has the power to Freeze things at a touch, though whether this is due to his own powers or his technology is left unclear.

2. Michael Ansara, from the DCAU.

While the 60’s technically created the basic origin story for Mr. Freeze, the DCAU more or less perfected it: with the exception of “The Batman,” just about every incarnation of Freeze that has followed - even some of the sillier ones - has pretty much gone with the backstory given by the writers of “Batman: The Animated Series” in the episode “Heart of Ice.” It was here that we were introduced to Nora, his beloved bride who became the one thing he could care about. In here, it was no accident that made Freeze what he is: a victim as much as a villain, his tragic transformation was due to the corrupt treachery of a businessman he worked under, who sabotaged his attempts to save his wife, and tried to kill him with his own cryogenic technology. Batman gets involved when Freeze comes out to seek revenge for what was done to him and Nora, and the rivalry between the two was born. Every episode that featured Freeze from that point on - as well as the spin-off movie “Batman: Sub-Zero” - basically followed the ongoing story. Freeze ultimately did save his wife...but to his horror, she, believing him dead, ended up with another man. His mutation only increased, eating away at his body, and causing him to become more and more cold-hearted, both literally and figuratively, creating an ongoing tragedy that only seemed to cause him more and more pain…a clever way of working on the part of the writers, who were always able to find ways to essentially make the Abominable Snowman of Gotham more and more miserable. Michael Ansara’s near-robotic voice was perfectly primed; he was able to incorporate so much pathos and power into a voice that almost never left a montone, crafting a surprisingly subtle performance overall. It’s a performance wrought almost entirely out of repression and a marvelous vocabulary. The animators and their designs only added all the more to the spellbinding power of his misadventures, creating what many consider to be - aside from, perhaps, the origins of the Mad Hatter, as well as the original characters of Harley Quinn and Livewire - the single greatest achievement of the entire DCAU.

Needless to say, it’s pretty hard to top Michael Ansara’s take on the character, as a result of all the above reasons. But one version of Mr. Freeze just about manages to do so...

1. Maurice LaMarche, from the Arkham games.

Mix the obsessed humanity of Nathan Darrow and Robert Kraft, with the dark, near-robotic menace of Michael Ansara and Clancy Brown, as well as the anti-heroic neutrality of Oded Fehr, and you’ll basically get the Arkham version of Mr. Freeze. Not necessarily a villain, LaMarche’s Freeze is more of a man walking the edge between madness and sanity, love and loathing. He will do anything for his wife, and takes no real sides; in “Arkham City,” for instance, he helps us on the condition we find Nora...when we refuse to at first, he lashes out in anger (giving us one heck of a boss fight, one should add). Freeze in this incarnation is especially dangerous because not only does his suit and weaponry make him stronger and tougher than Batman himself, physically, but his scientific and often strategic mind allowed him to potentially out-think the Dark Knight, too. It was a constant battle of understanding between the two; Batman conceding that Freeze’s intentions were not wholly evil, but his cruel and callous methods caused more misery than they were perhaps worth. This Mr. Freeze was able to shift with terrifying quickness and intensity from subtle, almost casual humanity to deep, monotonous dramatics (try to reason those descriptions out, if you can; they’re the only fitting things I can think of to describe LaMarche’s performance), allowing us to get the best of both vocal worlds. When the helmet flipped on, it almost felt like Freeze had transformed into another creature entirely; a ruthless force of cold nature, whom we had to try and settle...if we could. For taking what was great about every Freeze before him (and managing some things that future Freezes would latch onto, as well), and adding some little extra somethings of his own, the Arkham take on the character is a clear winner in my book for My Favorite Mr. Freeze.

...Now, who wants ice cream?

Honorable Mentions Include…
Eric Bauza, from Imaginext's DC Super Friends: The Joker's Playhouse.
Jim Pirri, from the Injustice games.