Ice losses in Antarctica are concentrated on its western coast, while Greenland's thawing has spread from the south to the northwest since 2005.

NOAA Projected Arctic changes.

Annual growth and retreat of the polar ice packs from SeaWiFS images.

Polar ice packs are large areas of pack ice formed from seawater in the Earth's polar regions, known as polar ice caps: the Arctic ice pack (or Arctic ice cap) of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean, fringing the Antarctic ice sheet. Polar packs significantly change their size during seasonal changes of the year. However, underlying this seasonal variation, there is an underlying trend of melting as part of a more general process of Arctic shrinkage.

In spring and summer, when melting occurs, the margins of the sea ice retreat. The vast bulk of the world's sea ice forms in the Arctic ocean and the Southern Ocean, around Antarctica. The Antarctic ice cover is highly seasonal, with very little ice in the austral summer, expanding to an area roughly equal to that of Antarctica in winter. Consequently, most Antarctic sea ice is first year ice, up to 1 meter (3.28 ft) thick. The situation in the Arctic is very different (a polar sea surrounded by land, as opposed to a polar continent surrounded by sea) and the seasonal variation much less^{[citation needed]}, currently 28% of Arctic basin sea ice is multi-year ice,^[1] thicker than seasonal: up to 3–4 meters (9.8–13.1 ft) thick over large areas, with ridges up to 20 meters (65.6 ft) thick.

The area of sea ice around the poles in winter is about 15,600,000 km² (6,000,000 sq mi) either for the Antarctic or Arctic. However, whereas the northern cap is shrinking at a rate of about 3% per decade, the southern cap is expanding at a rate of 1.8% per decade. The amount melted each summer is affected by the different environments: the cold Antarctic pole is over land, which is bordered by sea ice in the freely circulating Southern Ocean. The summer icer cover is about 12% of the winter coverage in the Antarctic and 50% in the Arctic.^[2]

This animation shows the Arctic Ocean melt during the summer of 2011.

NASA Cryosphere Program manager Tom Wagner in his video interpretation of the 2011 sea ice record.

Climatic importance[link]

Methane restraint[link]

Decrease of the Arctic ice-pack 1982–2007(NSIDC).

Sea ice helps to constrain methane in permafrost and in clathrates. Arctic methane release triggered by a breakdown in sea ice could cause an abrupt climate change event, potentially similar in some ways to the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum event, or to the great dying, a mass extinction event.

Albedo effects[link]

Sea ice has an important effect on the heat balance of the polar oceans, since it insulates the (relatively) warm ocean from the much colder air above, thus reducing heat loss from the oceans. Sea ice has a high albedo — about 0.6 when bare, and about 0.8 when covered with snow — compared to the sea – about 0.15 – and thus the ice also affects the absorption of sunlight at the surface. The sea ice cycle is also an important source of dense (saline) "bottom water". While freezing, water rejects its salt content (leaving pure ice). The remaining surface water, made dense by the extra salinity, sinks, leading to the productions of dense water masses such as Antarctic Bottom Water. This production of dense water is a factor in maintaining the thermohaline circulation, and the accurate representation of these processes is an additional difficulty to climate modelling.

Hydrological effects[link]

In the Arctic, a key area where pancake ice forms the dominant ice type over an entire region is the so-called Odden ice tongue in the Greenland Sea. The Odden (the word is Norwegian for headland) grows eastward from the main East Greenland ice edge in the vicinity of 72–74°N during the winter because of the presence of very cold polar surface water in the Jan Mayen Current, which diverts some water eastward from the East Greenland Current at that latitude. Most of the old ice continues south, driven by the wind, so a cold open water surface is exposed on which new ice forms as frazil and pancake in the rough seas. The salt rejected back into the ocean from this ice formation causes the surface water to become denser and sink, sometimes to great depths (2,500 m/8,200 ft or more), making this one of the few regions of the ocean where winter convection occurs, which helps drive the entire worldwide system of surface and deep currents known as the thermohaline circulation.

Extent and volume of sea ice and their trends[link]

Records of Arctic Sea ice from the United Kingdom’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research go back to the turn of the 20th century, although the quality of the data before 1950 is debatable. Still, these records show a persistent decline in Arctic Sea ice over the last 50 years.^[3]

Reliable measurements of sea ice edge begin within the satellite era. From the late 1970s, the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) on Seasat (1978) and Nimbus 7 (1978–87) satellites provided information that was independent of solar illumination or meteorological conditions. The frequency and accuracy of passive microwave measurements improved with the launch of the DMSP F8 Special Sensor Microwave/Imager SSMI in 1987. Both the sea ice area and extent are estimated, with the latter being larger, as it is defined as the area of ocean with at least 15% sea ice.

A modeling study of the 52-year period from 1948 to 1999 found a statistically significant trend in Arctic ice volume of −3% per decade; splitting this into wind-forced and temperature forced components shows it to be essentially all caused by the temperature forcing. A computer-based, time-resolved calculation of sea ice volume, fitted to various measurements, revealed that monitoring the ice volume is much more significant for evaluating sea ice loss than pure area considerations.^[4]

The trends from 1979 to 2002 have been a statistically significant Arctic decrease and an Antarctic increase that is probably not significant, depending exactly on which time period is used. The Arctic trends of −2.5% ± 0.9% per decade; or about 3% per decade.^[5] Climate models simulated this trend in 2002,^[6] and attributed it to anthropogenic forcing.

The September ice extent trend for 1979–2004 is declining by 7.7% per decade.^[7]

In 2007 the ice melt accelerated. The minimum extent fell by more than a million square kilometers, the biggest decline ever. The minimum extent fell to 4,140,000 km² (1,600,000 sq mi), by far the lowest ever. New research shows the Arctic Sea ice to be melting faster than predicted by any of the 18 computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in preparing its 2007 assessments.^[8]

While the Northern Hemisphere sea ice reached new record lows, on September 12, 2007 the Southern Hemisphere sea ice area reached 15,910,000 km² (6,143,000 sq mi), close to the maximum recorded of 16,020,000 km² (6,185,000 sq mi).^[9]

The Antarctic increase is 0.8% per decade^[10] although this depends on the period being considered. Vinnikov et al.^[11] find the NH reduction to be statistically significant but the SH trend is not.

In the overall mass balance, the volume of sea ice depends on the thickness of the ice as well as the areal extent. While the satellite era has enabled better measurement of trends in areal extent, accurate ice thickness measurements remain a challenge. "Nonetheless, the extreme loss of this summer’s sea ice cover and the slow onset of freeze-up portends lower than normal ice extent throughout autumn and winter, and the ice that grows back is likely to be fairly thin".^[3]

Sea ice in recent years[link]

2007 record low Arctic sea ice[link]

Decline in ice extent on September 9, 2007 from historic average.

In 2007 the Arctic Sea ice melted early, and rapidly fell to record low levels.

Already in early August 2007, about a month before the absolute minimum was expected, new historic Arctic sea ice minima were observed. Around September 16, 2007, a minimum area of 2,920,000 km² (1,130,000 sq mi) and minimum extent of 4,140,000 km² (1,600,000 sq mi) were reached. These numbers shattered the previous (September 20, 2005) record absolute minima; the 2007 minimum extent was 22% or 1,190,000 km² (459,000 sq mi) smaller (approximately the size of Texas and California, or five United Kingdoms, combined) and 41% below the 1978–2000 average summer minimum.^[3] The area was even 27% below the previous record and 46% below the average, reflecting the poorer quality of the remaining ice packs.^[9] The northernmost ice edge ever was recorded in September at 85.5°N (near 160°E), i.e. just 4.5° from the North Pole. A 2007 NASA study concluded that the shrinkage was the result of "unusual atmospheric conditions [which] set up wind patterns that compressed the sea ice, loaded it into the Transpolar Drift Stream and then sped its flow out of the Arctic."^[12] Also the total summertime cloud cover was lower than previous years enhancing the melting.^[13]

The NSIDC also reported that, for the first time in recorded history, the Northwest Passage opened to ships without the need of icebreakers.^[3][14] The main channel of this passage (Lancaster Sound to M'Clure Strait) opened as early as August 11. However, the Northeast Passage remained blocked by a narrow band of sea ice around Severnaya Zemlya.^[3]

Winter 2007/2008 Arctic ice growth[link]

Arctic Sea ice age in February 2008 compared to the average for 1985–2000 (NASA).

Extremely cold temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere in the Winter of 2007/2008 helped the Arctic ice pack to grow to more near normal levels in terms of surface area covered.^[15] The ice was also found to be 10 to 20 centimeters (3.9 to 7.9 in) thicker than the previous year in some areas. "But it's too soon to say what impact this winter will have on the Arctic summer sea ice, which reached its lowest coverage ever recorded in the summer of 2007," according to Gilles Langis, a senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa.^[15]

While the cold winter did allow sea ice to re-cover much of the Arctic during the Winter of 2007/2008, conditions were far from normal as "this" pair of NASA images (in the cited reference) reveals. The February 2008 ice pack (right) contained much more young ice than the long-term average (left). In the past, more ice survived the summer melt season and had the chance to thicken over the following winter. In the mid- to late 1980s, over 20 percent of Arctic sea ice was at least six years old; in February 2008, just 6 percent of the ice was six years old or older.^[16]

Summer 2008 Arctic ice shrinking[link]

The 2008 minimum was slightly larger than 2007.^[17] On August 27, both the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage were ice-free. This was the first time in recorded history that both passages were open at the same time.^[18] The North Pole could at that point have been circumnavigated.,^[19] although the icebreaker Polarstern was the only ship to actually make the circumnavigation.^[20] The Beluga Group of Bremen, Germany, announced plans to send the first ship through the Northern Sea Route in 2009, thereby cutting 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) off the voyage from Germany to Japan.^[21]

Summer 2009 Arctic ice shrinking[link]

The significant reduction in the extent of the summer sea ice cover and the decrease in the amount of relatively older, thicker ice continued in 2009. The extent of the 2009 summer sea ice cover was the fourth lowest value of the satellite monitoring record and more than 25% below the 1979–2000 average.^[22]

Despite the fact that the extent did not reach a new minimum in 2009 due to unfavorable wind conditions in August, it did set a new record for minimum ice volume.^[23]

Summer 2010 Arctic ice shrinking[link]

On September 19, 2010, 10 days later than the usual minimum, the arctic ice cover reached 4,600,000 km² (1,800,000 sq mi), its third lowest value since satellite monitoring began. The 2010 minimum was just 37,000 km² (14,000 sq mi) above that of 2008, and 2,110,000 km² (815,000 sq mi) below the 1979 to 2009 average minimum.^[24][25] For the first time, two yachts were able to make the circumnavigation in one season: The Russian "Peter 1"^[26] with captain Daniel Gavrilov arriving first, and the Norwegian "Northern Passage"^[27] with captain Børge Ousland.^[28]

See also[link]

Arctic Ocean Arctic shrinkage Extreme Ice Survey Global warming Iceberg

Ice drift Jurassic Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch Polar ice cap Polynya

Geography portal Global warming portal Sea ice Shelf ice Tabular iceberg Triassic

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ice in the Sea, chapter from Nathaniel Bowditch's American Practical Navigator.
• Cryosphere Today: current Arctic sea ice conditions.
• The Shrinking Arctic Ice Cap research summary, graphics and animations from NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
• Data source for sea ice picture.
• Everything you ever wanted to know about sea ice but were afraid to ask.
• Animation of the movement of sea ice, September 2003 through May 2004.
• NSIDC Sea Ice Index.
• Arctic summer time: The short summer of 2004. North Pole webcam view.
• Global Sea Ice Extent and Concentration: what sensors on satellites are telling us about sea ice.
• "Arctic ice 'disappearing quickly'", BBC News, 28 September 2005.
• "Ice-free Arctic could be here in 23 years" David Adam, environment correspondent, The Guardian, September 5, 2007, Retrieved September 5, 2007
• "Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts" Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times, October 2, 2007, Retrieved October 2, 2007.
• Video on polar ice changes around St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea
• The Arctic ice sheet True color map, daily updates during summer.

Mr. Freeze (surname pronounced "freeze", based on the German pronunciation) is a fictional character, a DC Comics supervillain who is an enemy of Batman. Created by Bob Kane, he first appeared in Batman #121 (February 1959).^[1]

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 "cold 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.

In the original Batman television series, Mr. Freeze was played in various episodes by George Sanders, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach. He was voiced in Batman: The Animated Series by Michael Ansara, and by Clancy Brown in The Batman. In the 1997 film, Batman & Robin, he was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time List ranked Mr. Freeze as #67.^[2]

Overview[link]

Originally called Mr. Zero,^[1] he was renamed and popularized by the 1960s Batman television series, in which he was played by several actors.^[3][4][5] His character was used because the series creators had originally wanted to use the character of Two-Face (aka Harvey Dent), but network executives thought the character would be too scary for the numerous children who watched the show; as a result, an alternative villain with a physical deformity and a more serious personality, Mr. Freeze, was substituted. Initially, the producers sought Clint Eastwood to play the role, but instead later went with other guest stars.

Over two decades later, a television adaptation of Batman revitalized him once again. Batman: The Animated Series retold Mr. Freeze’s origin in a landmark episode by writer Paul Dini, introducing his terminally ill, cryogenically frozen wife, Nora, which greater explained his obsession with ice and need to build a criminal empire to raise research funds.^[6] The episode was seen as groundbreaking for a Saturday morning cartoon and helped set the tone for the complex moral motivations seen constantly in the rest of the series. This backstory was also made canon in the comics and has been Fries' official origin in almost every incarnation of Batman since. This leads many fans to think of him as the most sympathetic villain and in some cases, merely as an antihero/antagonist, given that Batman's only reason for opposing him was disapproval of his vigilante, cowboy cop, vengeance-driven brand of justice.

Elements of this back story were incorporated into the 1997 film Batman & Robin, in which he was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.^[7]

Fictional character biography[link]

From the time of his first appearance in 1958 onward, Mr. Freeze was portrayed as one of many "joke" villains (see also Killer Moth) cast as stock enemies of Batman.^[1] Originally called Mr. Zero,^[1] the producers of the 1960s Batman television series renamed him Mr. Freeze (and portrayed Batman addressing him as "Dr. Schivell"),^[1] and the name quickly carried over to the comic books.

Nearly 30 years later, Mr. Freeze would receive another update on television. In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice", he was made into a more complex, tragic vigilante antihero character.^[6] This version of Mr. Freeze was enthusiastically accepted by fans, and has become the standard portrayal for the character in most forms of media, including the comic book series itself, which previously had the character casually killed off by the Joker. Freeze was resurrected in the comic after the episode aired.^[1]

Silver Age[link]

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.^[1]

Modern Age[link]

Post-Crisis, Freeze was revamped utilizing Paul Dini's backstory. Dr. Victor Fries is an expert molecular biologist. As a child, he is fascinated by freezing animals. His parents, horrified by his "hobby", send him to a strict boarding school, where he is miserable, feeling detached from humanity. In college, he meets a woman named Nora, whom he falls in love with and ultimately marries.^[1]

A year and a half after Bruce Wayne becomes the Batman, Nora has contracted a disease, while Fries works on a freeze ray. Fries' boss 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, but due to tampering from his boss, Nora is frozen and shattered and Fries becomes insane. Targeting those responsible for the death of his wife (who he talks to often), Fries becomes Mr. Freeze, Batman's first super villain (as opposed to the humans with no weapons he had been fighting). When Batman's operatives find Freeze, one is shot by his cold gun. Eventually, Batman catches Freeze and lets all of his operatives go, realizing he can only trust one person to help him out after his group's bickering amongst themselves and the fallout with Freeze,^[8] and decides to go visit the circus as Bruce Wayne.

Freeze's crimes tend to involve freezing everyone and everything he runs into^[1] so he hardly ever 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 . Freeze has at times shown a belief that Nora has reincarnated.^[9] In one of his notable team-ups, Freeze constructed a cryogenic machine for Hush so that Hush might take revenge on an old enemy.

During his time with the Society, 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 estranges herself from him.

The New 52[link]

Mr. Freeze has been announced to be a featured character of the crossover Night of the Owls. The Court of Owls sends Talons to kill almost forty of the most important citizens of Gotham, Mr Freeze being one of them. Red Hood, Starfire and Red Arrow choose to save him, and Red Robin is set to be part of it.^[10]

Batman Annual #1 introduces a new origin for Mr Freeze. Here, Victors fascination with cryonics began when he was a boy and his mother fell through the ice of a frozen lake, luckily the ice was able to keep her preserved long enough for rescue to arrive. In this new origin, Nora was never Fries's 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 on cryogenic stasis, hoping that a cure would be found in the future. Victor was a cryogenics scientist working for Wayne Enterprises. He also wrote a doctoral thesis on Nora. Eventually, Victor eventually fell in love with Nora and became dedicated in finding a cure. However, Bruce Wayne shut down the project, as he was feeling uncomfortable with Victor's fixation on Nora. Furious, Victor hurled a chair at Bruce, who barely dodge it. The chair hit a freezing chemicals tank, spraying its contents on Victor and causing his transformation into Mr. Freeze.

The Court of Owls used Freeze's formula to revive their Talons and then tried to kill him. Freeze barely escapes but is sent to Arkham. Escaping with the Penguin's help, Freeze decides to kill Bruce Wayne and take his wife Nora so that he 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. During their fight, Batman berates Freeze on his obsession over a woman he doesn't even know, saying that Nora is old enough to be Freeze's grandmother. Batman defeats Mr. Freeze by injecting him with the formula he was going to use to bring Nora back from suspended animation.

Powers and abilities[link]

Like most Batman villains, Mr. Freeze plans his crimes about a specific theme; in his case, ice and cold.^[1] He freezes areas around him using special weapons and equipment, most notably a handheld "Freeze gun". His refrigeration suit grants him superhuman strength and durability, making him a powerful villain in Batman's rogues gallery.^[1]

In the Underworld Unleashed storyline, the demon Neron grants Mr. Freeze the ability to generate subzero temperatures, no longer needing his freeze-gun or refrigeration suit. However, after his encounter with Green Lantern, Donna Troy, and Purgatory in Central Park, he reverted back to his original subzero biology. He then gained a new subzero armor and weaponry.^[11]

Animated abilities[link]

According to Batman: The Animated Series, Freeze understands how to reproduce his condition.^[12] Also his obsession with ice stems from personal tragedy, and his crimes are inspired by his desire to make the rest of the world as miserable as he is.^[13] Furthermore, since the serum Freeze was soaked in was intended to be used for cryo-preservation, his age progression has slowed drastically to the point he is virtually immortal.^[6]

In The Batman, Freeze has the ability of cryokinesis.^[14]

Other versions[link]

Robot Mr. Freeze[link]

This Mr. Freeze is a robot that is controlled by Doctor Thurman.^[15]

Justice League Adventures[link]

Based in the DC animated universe, Mr. Freeze is part of a group of ice-themed villains called the "Cold Warriors" that tried to overthrow a small African nation. The Cold Warriors appear in Justice League Adventures #12 (December 2002).

DC Super Friends[link]

Based in the DC Super Friends universe, Mr. Freeze is part of a group of ice-themed villains called the "Ice Pack" that encased a city in ice and snow. The Ice Pack appear in DC Super Friends #16 (August 2009).

Flashpoint[link]

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint, Mister Freeze attacks the S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City for the cure of his wife Nora Fries. However, Citizen Cold attacks and using his cold gun to freeze Mister Freeze's body. Mister Freeze tries to escape on robotic legs, but Citizen Cold freezes him to death and tells him that Nora is dead.^[16] Mister Freeze was a friend of Fallout and pursued revenge against Citizen Cold for murdering him.^[17] It is later revealed that the cure Mister Freeze was searching for was the radiation produced by Fallout.^[18]

In other media[link]

Television[link]

• In the 1960s Batman television series, Mr. Freeze was played by George Sanders in the first two-part appearance, Otto Preminger in the second two-part appearance, and Eli Wallach in the third two-part appearance.^{[3][4][5][19]} Sanders and Wallach put on German accents for the role, while Preminger used his own Austrian accent. While the George Sanders version wore the classic refrigerated suit, the Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach versions wore a "Freeze Collar" around their neck that went with Mr. Freeze's cooling suit. Before Mr. Freeze was on the show, he was always called Mr. Zero. The show's version of him continues to be campy like the comic books and is given an alias Dr. Schivel.^[1] In his first appearance "Instant Freeze", it is revealed that it was Batman who spilled the cryogenic chemicals on Dr. Schivel (portrayed by George Sanders) during an attempted arrest. Batman thus feels a certain amount of guilt for his condition. Mr. Freeze ends up stealing some famous diamonds from the Gotham City Diamond Exchange. When Batman and Robin try to stop him, he ends up freezing them with his freeze gun. In the next episode "Rats Like Cheese," Mr. Freeze kidnaps Paul Diamante of the Gotham City Eagles Team and offers to return him in exchange for Batman. Batman and Robin were able to apprehend Mr. Freeze. During this appearance, Mr. Freeze's hideout has "warm lights" so that his henchmen can interact with Mr. Freeze. In "Green Ice," Mr. Freeze (portrayed by Otto Preminger) escapes from prison and captures Miss Iceland from the finals of the Miss Galaxy Pageant. In the next episode "Deep Freeze," Mr. Freeze has led all of Gotham City to believe that Batman has given in to Mr. Freeze's bribes. Batman and Robin managed to find Mr. Freeze's hideout, rescue Miss Iceland, and defeat Mr. Freeze (who was placed in the same freezer that he placed Miss Iceland in after his Freeze Collar was knocked off). In "Ice Spy," Mr. Freeze (now portrayed by Eli Wallach) kidnaps Icelandic scientist Professor Isaacson in order to obtain an "Instant Ice" formula. In "The Duo Defy," Mr. Freeze finally obtains the "Instant Ice" formula and ends up building a large freeze ray. He is thwarted by Batman and Robin again. As Mr. Freeze and his henchmen are arrested by the police, he told the police officers that apprehended him not to touch the dials on his Freeze Collar.

• Mr. Freeze appeared in The Batman/Superman Hour voiced by Ted Knight.

• Mr. Freeze appears in The New Adventures of Batman episode "The Deep Freeze" voiced by Lennie Weinrib in a Russian-like accent. The Filmation series has Mr. Freeze make extensive use of his self made technology such as making certain parts of his hideout "warm corridors" to accommodate underlings.^[20] He and his henchman Professor Frost plot to steal the N-1000 (a superfast submarine) to pull of the Crime of the Century. When Batman and Robin raid his hideout, Mr. Freeze manages to freeze both of them but takes Robin with him and Professor Frost. When Mr. Freeze and Professor Frost managed to steal the N-1000, Mr. Freeze has Professor Frost steer it to the North Pole. When Batman and Bat-Mite catch up, Robin makes his escape while Mr. Freeze and Professor Frost continue to the North Pole. When Batman, Robin, and Bat-Mite catch up to Mr. Freeze and Professor Frost at the North Pole, Batman and Robin fire a beam from their device that reverses the polarity of Mr. Freeze's freeze gun so that it warms up. Batman and Robin managed to defeat Mr. Freeze and remand him to prison.

• Mr. Freeze appears in Batman: The Animated Series voiced by Michael Ansara.^[21] His appearance in the series was designed by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, at the request of series creator Bruce Timm.^[12] Mr. Freeze is introduced in the episode "Heart of Ice", which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program. In flashback, viewers see that while working for the company Gothcorp, Victor Fries had embezzled funds for an experiment in order to save his terminally ill wife Nora by cryogenically freezing her until a cure could be found. At the last moment however, Gothcorp CEO Ferris Boyle broke into the lab with guards, demanding an end be put to the experiment. When a panicked Fries grabbed a pistol from a security guard and aimed it at Boyle, the corrupt CEO kicked Fries into a table of chemical beakers filled with cyrogenic substance, leaving him to die. Fries survived, but was severely mutated by the substances and transformed into Mr. Freeze. As a result he must wear a cryogenic suit to survive. In the present day Freeze leads a band of henchmen and makes several raids on Gothcorp, stealing the parts for a freezing machine he wishes to build and use in his vendetta against Boyle. This leads to his first confrontation with Batman, whom he defeats easily and traps in a block of ice. Freeze traps Batman and leaves him in his hideout, confronting Boyle at the Gothcorp Humanitarian Party and freezing him up to the waist. Batman escapes, then confronts Freeze at the party, fighting him one-on-one until he breaks a thermos of chicken soup on Freeze's transparent head dome to cause it to shatter with the induced thermal shock, rendering Fries unconscious at being exposed to normal room temperature. Batman then presents evidence of Boyle's criminal actions to the press which involved his part in Mr. Freeze's origin and leaves him half encased in ice. Mr. Freeze is imprisoned in Arkham in a special cell that is kept at subzero temperatures, and the episode ends with him begging his wife for forgiveness.^[6] Freeze later appears in "Deep Freeze", in which he is taken from prison against his will and brought to an off-shore city called Oceana. There, he meets billionaire amusement park designer Grant Walker, who wants to become like Freeze so he can create a frozen world for selected residents. Mr. Freeze warns Walker that his condition is one he would not wish upon anyone, but agrees to help when Walker promises to cure Nora (whose cryogenic tank was in his possession). Batman and Robin arrive and try to reason with Mr. Freeze that if he were to help Walker, Nora would hate him. Freeze eventually turns on Walker, freezing him to a wall. Mr. Freeze overloads Oceana's power-core, which starts the destruction of the city as he instructs it's inhabitants to evacuate. Mr. Freeze stays behind to die with his wife, and they all disappear in the explosion, though the episode's end reveals that they survive, trapped in icebergs.^[22]

• In The New Batman Adventures, Mr. Freeze (again voiced by Michael Ansara) returns with a new, sleeker look, in which his head is mounted on four thin, robotic legs, and which crawl and lock into a suit. His personality is also darker and more deranged, director Dan Riba said in the Arkham Files DVD feature that he and Bruce Timm took the events of Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero into account. The movie ended with his wife being cured, but his criminal record and freakish appearance now prevent him from being with her.^[23] In the episode "Cold Comfort", Mr. Freeze learns that the serum that mutated his body is slowly destroying it. Although he has kidnapped many scientists to try and stop the process, they only succeed after the process has claimed all but his head. Freeze felt unable to return to Nora, who, believing her husband had died in the events of Subzero, married the doctor assigned to her case and left Gotham permanently. The trauma destroys whatever is left of Freeze's humanity, and he begins committing crimes in order to inflict on others the loss he's suffered by taking away the things they value most (like freezing an Ultrasaurus skeleton to freezing a painting that took years to complete). One of his targets is Bruce Wayne, and he almost kills Alfred Pennyworth at Wayne Manor. At his hideout, Freeze is confronted by Batman and Batgirl, and he reveals his true condition to them as well as his goal of destroying Gotham — and thus all Batman holds dear — by dropping a "reverse fusion bomb" that will freeze the city. Freeze boards a helicopter to drop the bomb, but Batman follows him and they engage in a duel in which Batman uses his grappling gun to hook Freeze to the bomb and drop it into the river, where an explosion creates a huge iceberg. Freeze is presumed dead, but the episode's end reveals that Freeze's head is missing from his frozen armor,^[13][24] and as revealed in Batman Beyond, Freeze escapes with his life.^[25][26]
  File:Mr. Freeze (future).jpg

  Mr. Freeze as he appears in Batman Beyond.

• In Batman Beyond (which is set 40 years in the future), Bruce Wayne still has one of Mr. Freeze's guns in the Batcave. His successor as Batman, Terry McGinnis, uses it to freeze Inque when she infiltrates the Batcave, and Inque destroys it in a later episode. The episode "Meltdown" reveals that the disembodied head of Victor Fries (again voiced by Michael Ansara) survives the events of "Cold Comfort" thanks to the cryogenics technology, which has granted him eternal life. Stephanie Lake (voiced by Linda Hamilton), a doctor working for Derek Powers, uses Mr. Freeze as a test subject for a process she hoped would be able to cure Powers' mutation (suffered in the series' pilot episode). She creates a clone body for him using his baseline DNA and transfers Fries' mind into it. Given a normal life, Fries tries to right some of the wrongs he has committed, creating a charitable organization with all his legitimate earnings from before he was imprisoned. However, the new body soon begins to revert to the same sub-zero biology. Lake and Powers betray Fries when he returns to their lab for help, hoping to learn more from a biopsy. He escapes, recovers an advanced suit of sub-zero armor, and becomes Mr. Freeze again. He seeks revenge by freezing Lake, freezing Powers (unintentionally revealing Powers' mutation into the villain Blight), and attempting to blow up a Wayne-Powers complex. Batman foils the plan while Freeze and Blight do battle. Mr. Freeze redeems himself by saving Batman from Blight. Later Batman attempts to save Freeze from the collapsing building, but Freeze merely laments: "Believe me, you're the only one who cares" and prevents Batman from saving him. Freeze presumably dies in the explosion. Later Terry admits to Bruce that he was right, Freeze was a villain. Bruce however states that Terry was right too, Freeze was also a good man.^[25][26]

• Although Mr. Freeze never appeared in the Justice League animated series, his freeze gun is used by the Thanagarian Kragger in the Batcave as seen in the episode "Starcrossed". Kragger attempts to use it on Superman, who blows the freeze charge back, freezing Kragger instead.^[27]

• Mr. Freeze appears in The Batman voiced by Clancy Brown. This version of the Mr. Freeze is a bank robber who is condemned to life in a cryogenic suit after an accident in a cryogenics lab while being chased by Batman.^[28] In a later episode, Mr. Freeze teams up with Firefly to put Gotham in a permanent winter.^[29] In "The Icy Depths", he competes against Penguin to claim an umbrella that is in fact a map to a sunken treasure.^[30] He was hired by Lex Luthor, along with Black Mask, Clayface, and Bane to kidnap Lois Lane and use her as bait for Superman. In the episode "Artifacts", set in 2027, Freeze's powers have increased to the point that he wears a special mecha suit. However, he loses an unhealthy amount of weight and becomes unable to walk, and now uses mechanical spider legs. After a near-death escape, Freeze places himself in cryogenic suspension, until someone wakes him up 1,000 years in the future in 3027. Once his suit is repaired, Mr. Freeze continues terrorizing Gotham. Eventually, law enforcement officers use methods saved for the future by Batman to defeat Freeze.^[31] In the Japanese dub of the series, Freeze is voiced by Tesshō Genda, who played Batman in the Japanese dub of Batman: The Animated Series.

• Mr. Freeze appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold voiced by John DiMaggio in a German accent. He first appears in his Silver Age appearance under the name "Mr. Zero" in the episode "Legends of the Dark Mite" where he is among the Batman villains in Bat-Mite's fantasy. Batman manages to defeat him by throwing a boomerang at his helmet which deflated him. Mr. Freeze makes a cameo in the teaser for "Sidekicks Assemble" as one of the villain holograms that Robin, Speedy, and Aqualad fight. Mr. Freeze later appears in "Chill of the Night!" with a design resembling the George Sanders depiction. He is among the villains at a weapons auction held by Joe Chill. In "Bold Beginnings!", Mr. Freeze has captured Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Plastic Man. They end up rescued by Batman and helped to fight Mr. Freeze and his henchmen. After Mr. Freeze is defeated, Aquaman remains behind to wait for the police and continue telling Mr. Freeze of his first team-up with Batman against Black Manta. Mr. Freeze also appears in the opening for "Crisis: 22,300 Miles Above Earth," where he is one of the villains at the Joker's celebrity roast, where they were literally roasting Batman. With help from Jeffrey Ross, Batman managed to break free from his death trap and defeat Mr. Freeze and the other villains present.

• Mr. Freeze appears in the Young Justice episode "Independence Day" Pt. 1 voiced by Keith Szarabajka. Mr. Freeze terrorizes a park in Gotham City until he is distracted and weakened by Robin and taken down by Batman. In "Terrors," Mr. Freeze is seen as an inmate at Belle Reve. He and the other ice villains collaborated with Icicle Sr. in a breakout plot. When Mr. Freeze was brought to the prison's warden Amanda Waller, he ends up freezing his own collar and then taking out the guards. He is defeated when Superboy shatters his helmet forcing Mr. Freeze to turn his powers on himself in order to survive.

Film[link]

• Mr. Freeze appears in the direct to video movie Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero voiced once again by Michael Ansara. Nora's tank is shattered and Mr. Freeze kidnaps Batgirl in order to perform a vital organ transplant and uses Batgirl to get it. Mr. Freeze makes a deal with a greedy old colleague of his to help cure his wife in exchange for gold. Batman and Robin thwart this plan and Mr. Freeze is then presumed killed in the explosion of his lair on an abandoned oil rig. Wayne Enterprises then finances Nora's surgery saving her life which Freeze overhears while watching in on researchers in the North Pole, bringing tears to his eyes. The events are set before The New Batman Adventures as part of the DC Animated Universe.

• Mr. Freeze appears in Batman & Robin played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. He serves as one of the movie's chief antagonists, alongside Poison Ivy. The film features a largely campy interpretation of the character, although it includes the animated series version's tragic origin. Throughout the movie, he spouts puns related to cold weather and temperatures (e.g., "You’re not sending me to the cooler!", "Allow me to break the ice", "Let's kick some ice", etc.). The film's characterization of Mr. Freeze, as well as Schwarzenegger's performance, was widely criticized.^[32][33]

• Mr. Freeze appears in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. He is seen with the "cold warriors" Icicle II, Killer Frost, and Captain Cold when they are among the villains trying to claim the bounty on Superman and Batman. After a brief fight with Batman, they are all defeated by Superman's heat vision.

Video games[link]

Mr. Freeze also appears in several Batman video games:

• He is a boss in Batman: The Animated Series, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega Genesis (in which Freeze was the game's final boss).

• Mr. Freeze appears in the video game adaptation of the movie Batman & Robin.

• Mr. Freeze appears in Batman: Chaos in Gotham.

• Mr. Freeze appears in Batman Vengeance, targeting a scientist named Isaac Evers, whom he blames for sending him a video promoting Prometheon gas in order to spite him, unaware that the real culprit was the Joker, who planned to use Freeze's invasion of the lab as a distraction for him to steal large quantities of the gas. Michael Ansara reprised his role as Mr. Freeze for Batman Vengeance.^[34]

• Mr. Freeze appears in Batman: Dark Tomorrow.^[35][36][37]

• He is also one of the main villains in the PC game Toxic Chill, in which Freeze pairs up with the Riddler in an attempt to change the very weather of Gotham. He is eventually betrayed and nearly killed by the Riddler, who sets off a volcanic eruption. Both are sent to Arkham Asylum, and are made cellmates. It is suggested that Freeze tortures the Riddler in Arkham as revenge for his treachery.

• Mr. Freeze appears Lego Batman: The Video Game with his vocal effects provided by Ogie Banks. He appears as an enemy of Batman and a follower of the Riddler.^[38] In it his design is based mainly on the animated series, and he uses his freeze gun to freeze enemies and water. The strength granted to him by his suit allows him to pick up objects others cannot.

• Mr. Freeze's cell, covered in frost and icicles, can be seen in the Penitentiary area of Batman: Arkham Asylum which can be scanned to unlock his bio.

• Mr. Freeze appears in DC Universe Online voiced by Robert Kraft^{[citation needed]}.

• Mr. Freeze appears in Batman: Arkham City voiced by Maurice LaMarche as both an ally to Batman and a boss battle. After the Joker poisons Batman he has the Dark Knight find Mr. Freeze. Batman searches for him in the GCPD building (literally the coldest place in Arkham City), only to find his lab swarmed by the Penguin's men, who reveal that Penguin is holding Freeze hostage in the Cryus Pinkney National History Institute. Batman saves Freeze from Penguin's men in the museum and asks Freeze for the cure to the Titan toxin, only for Freeze to reveal he needs his suit, which Penguin possesses. After the Penguin is defeated and Freeze recovers his suit, he gets revenge by locking Penguin in a display case. Freeze then tells Batman that the cure he made for the Joker degenerates too quickly and needs a restorative enzyme that has also bonded to human DNA, something that would take decades, only for Batman to reveal he know someone who has been exposed to that enzyme for centuries; Ra's al Ghul. Freeze tells Batman he only needs a sample of Ra's DNA to complete the cure, and Batman proceeds to track down Ra's using one of the warriors of the League of Assassins Penguin had somehow captured. When Batman returns to the GCPD with a sample of Ra's blood, Freeze creates two vials of the cure before locking one in a safe and destroying the other, demanding Batman save Nora from the Joker or he will never get the last of the cure. Batman fights Freeze to override the safe, which proves difficult as Freeze alters the environment around him to defeat the Dark Knight and uses his mind to strategically challenge Batman as well as seeker drones and his own freezing gun, though his powerful armor makes him move slowly. After he is beaten Batman opens the safe only to find a wall missing and the cure gone, realizing Harley Quinn stole the cure while he fought Freeze. Freeze gives Batman freeze grenades to help him retrieve the cure, and gives him Nora's location, begging him to save her. After Nora is saved, Batman find's Freeze with his frozen wife, Batman tells him to end his life of crime for Nora's sake. Freeze's boss battle was widely praised as a step up from the repetitive Titan-thug bosses from the previous game.

Web series[link]

In the third season of the Flash series Gotham Girls, a new villain is introduced: Dora Smithy, Mr. Freeze's sister-in-law. She dons his freezing equipment in a quest to wipe out Gotham's supervillain, due to a misunderstanding that Mr. Freeze's actions killed her only sister. As a result, there is an emphasis on Mr. Freeze himself throughout the season, and he is discussed several times, although he never actually makes an appearance.

Merchandising[link]

Mr. Freeze is also the name of two LIM roller coasters at two Six Flags parks (Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags Over Texas).^[39][40]

Lego's Batman line features two sets, The Batcave: The Penguin and Mr. Freeze's Invasion, which includes minifigure incarnations of Mr. Freeze, The Penguin, Batman, Robin, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne, a henchman, and three hench-penguins. The second set, Batman's Buggy: The Escape of Mr. Freeze, includes minifigures of Mr. Freeze and Batman.

Dark Horse comic books[link]

Mr. Freeze appears in the third Batman vs. Predator comic book, Blood Ties. His gang members are killed by the Predators, but he is spared since he is not visible to the Predator due to his lack of body heat.^[41]

In Batman/Aliens 2, Mr. Freeze is not seen, but his freeze gun is used to destroy aliens, and an alien cloned from Fries' DNA can be seen.^[42]

Miscellaneous[link]

• Freeze has made numerous appearances in the comics set in the DC Animated Universe.

• In Batman: Gotham Adventures issue #5 he was found shortly after the battle and back in action.^[43] He has made further appearances in Batman Adventures. The comic's writers intended Batman Adventures #15 to be Mr. Freeze's final appearance. Though the issue's ending is ambiguous, it does set up for his eventual fate, as revealed in Batman Beyond.^[44] Nora finally encounters Victor after her new husband is nearly killed by a robot he himself created in Freeze's image to attack him, hoping to prove to Nora that her first husband was a monster. The story ends with Mr. Freeze's head falling into a pond at the Arctic. Deleted material from the comic portrays Ferris Boyle and Grant Walker being killed by the Mr. Freeze robot. While the end of the story is left ambiguous, it was intended for Mr. Freeze to be taken by Powers Technology and put in storage. The company's owner, Warren Powers, father of Derek, a Batman Beyond' villain, states that the secret to immortality is locked inside that head.^[44]
• Mr. Freeze made two appearances in Justice League Adventures comics. In the first, he claims that Captain Cold has stolen his freeze gun design, but in the second they are working together, alongside other cold-based villains as part of a plan to conquer Earth for a race of cold-based aliens, although they turn against their 'ally' when he attempts to betray them only for them to be released by Batman.^[45]

• Mr. Freeze appears in the direct-to-video original animation DC Super Friends: The Joker's Playhouse (2010) voiced by Eric Bauza.

See also[link]

• List of Batman Family enemies

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mr. Freeze

• Mr. Freeze UGO profile
• Mr. Freeze at the Grand Comics Database
• Mr. Freeze at the Comic Book DB
• Mister Freeze on DC Database, an external wiki, a DC Comics wiki

Related information[link]