Warning: spoilers for Batman/Catwoman #4 and Batman: Urban Legends #1
Within the same month, DC Comics has given Nora Fries—wife and raison d’être of classic Batman rogue Mr. Freeze—two endings that differ to such a degree it’s jarring. The fourth instalment of the Batman/Catwoman series and Batman: Urban Legends #1, an anthology comic, both offer a brief, but definitive, look at what awaits the lamentable Mrs. Freeze. Though Nora Fries has spent most of her comics tenure in frozen stasis, her impact on the world of Gotham City has been a potent one.
The character of Mr. Freeze—originally introduced as Mr. Zero—has been around since 1959 when he appeared in Batman #121. Created by Bob Kane, David Wood, and Sheldon Moldoff, the character made several appearances in the Batman TV Series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. It wasn’t until the Paul Dini scribed Batman: The Animated Series episode “Heart of Ice” (season 1 episode 14) that Mr. Freeze got his complex backstory, which later became comic book cannon, and Nora Fries entered the picture. A terminally ill Nora Fries is cryogenically frozen by her brilliant scientist husband Victor. When a lab accident causes irreparable damage to his physiology—forcing him to remain in sub-zero temperatures for the rest of his life—he becomes an iconic member of Gotham’s supervillains to fund his research into a cure for his wife’s condition. Nora has for decades now remained an anchor point for his character, which made it all the more surprising for fans this month to see her active in not one but two separate Batman stories.
Published on March 30th (2021), Tom King’s and Clay Mann’s Batman/Catwoman #4, gives readers a brief glimpse of the fate of Nora and Victor Fries. When not locked away in Arkham Asylum, Victor Fries spends his time as his wife’s caretaker while he searches for a cure to her condition with dogged determination. Enclosed in its own continuity, and partially set in the future, King and Mann deliver some tragic irony with a single panel depicting Nora alive and well, while her husband floats in suspended animation behind her. Visually, it’s a startling transposition. Their roles reversed, it’s hard to call this a happy ending. At least, Mr. Freeze has found a modicum of peace in his icy slumber. For her part, Nora appears at ease by her husband’s side and references a time in the near past when both of them could be together.
In the pages of the Batman: Urban Legends #1 story titled “The Long Con”, from writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Ryan Benjamin, and starring the character Grifter, Nora appears as a member Penguin’s inner circle. Unfortunately, the story ends on the reveal of her murder, prompting Batman and Nightwing to investigate her death, with Grifter as the prime suspect. Casting Nora Fries as a throwaway villain whose purpose is to serve as the first thread in a larger mystery is a bit disappointing considering the character’s history. In both cases, the circumstances leading to her recovery remain untold, leaving readers to wonder what happened to Mr. Freeze, and why the turn to crime, respectively. King and Mann’s depiction of Nora may be equally fleeting, but at least she speaks and her appearance honors—albeit bitterly—her doomed love.
Painting him as a tragic figure, Paul Dini chose to broaden Mr. Freeze’s turn to villainy as the unsavory means to a necessary end. At the heart of his actions is the unwavering love he feels for his wife Nora. As a character, for the most part, Nora has remained a silent figure in the Batman mythos. It’s certainly odd timing for DC Comics to release two stories showcasing the character’s ultimate destiny that contrast so much. At least one of them sees Nora and Victor united.