#5 Batman Annual #1 (The New 52)

You've been waiting for it (probably) and here it finally is: Batman Annual #1 (The New 52)

And so we've come to another rather divisive comic. There are people who really like this comic, and there are people, like me, who hate it. I really, really hate it and it's weird because it isn't an all-round bad book. The artwork is good and in spite of it taking place during a crossover event, it is both integrated and self-contained.

Before I can get into exactly what I hated about it, let's give a little background. Mr Freeze's character had undergone radical changes over the years. He debuted as a character named Mr Zero, but then the Adam West Batman series called him Mr Freeze and show was popular enough for the change to stick. Several iterations of his origins have been told over the years but the most famous is the Batman: The Animated Series' Heart of Ice. Where Victor Fries (convenient name) steals resources from the company he works for, GothCorp, to restore his sick wife, who had been cryogenically frozen. But when GothCorp's CEO, Ferris Boyle, discovers what's going on, he causes a cryogenic accident that affects Fries' skin. Now he cannot survive in normal climate and must use a suit to survive.

Batman The Animated Series made an iconic Mr Freeze, and almost every other origin since has p*ssed all over it

This origin has been butchered in the past. Batman and Robin made Freeze a punning psychopath, wanting to hold the city to hostage to complete his cure (because robbing a bank is too conventional, I guess) and any sympathy for the character was lost because you were too irritated at every freeze-related pun and that fact his plan was ridiculously over-complicated.

Even the DCAU made some slip ups with Mr Freeze, having him descend into stealing hope and living for revenge, both of which made him a lesser character (in my opinion). There were also attempts to use Dini's origin in the mainstream DC Universe. I haven't read the issues so I'm not really qualified to comment on it. In September 2011 DC rebooted their line with the New 52. The idea that continuity is the reason people aren't reading comics is ridiculous anyway (I started reading comics with a number 2 issue) but I digress, it was a perfect opportunity to revisit Mr Freeze, and who better to write his origin that Scott Snyder, who’s work with both the Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne versions of Batman have received high critical acclaim.

Now let me summarize the story of the comic and expect a lot of rage this time.

We start in Lowell, Nebraska, 30 years ago, where Victor Fries and his mother are walking across I suppose a frozen lake (that's not smart guys) to a snowman building contest, his mother comments about using an apple as a Snowman's head (looks a bit small for a head, but…) suddenly his mother falls through a hole in the ice, leaving only the apple behind.

OK, first problem. HOW THE HELL DID SHE NOT SEE THE HOLE IN THE ICE?! Or, assuming she created the hole, HOW DID THE HOLE GET SO BIG? And most important rage question HOW DID THE APPLE SURVIVE? It's too close to the hole to have been thrown but with a hole that big, had it fallen out of her hand, it would've landed in the water. This may well be an art glitch, but…

Cut to Arkham Asylum where a psychiatrist asks Mr Freeze (current time) what had happened, Mr Freeze says that the ice preserved her until help arrived (personally I think she'd be dead, unless she got out and warmed up pretty damn quick) the psychiatrist brings up Nora, mentioning how the Court of Owls (one of the few references to said villains) stole his formula to use for their soldiers. Mr Freeze then requests a crayon, the psychiatrist replies that it's made of alcoholic wax so he can't freeze it (even though he couldn't anyway because he's NOT A METAHUMAN!) He takes the crayon, snaps the guard's neck, and (I'm not kidding here) REWIRES THE COOLING SYSTEM USING A CRAYON! (I knew Arkham Security was bad, but…) This causes a reaction where the entire facility starts to cool down (not gonna go into the lack of logic there, not enough time) Mr Freeze freezes a number of guards with a cooling pipe then inhales some of the coolant, he then uses that to freeze more of the guards. He then finds his suit (why do DC prisons insist on keeping their captive's equipment in the facility?)

 

The crayon is mightier than the sword, apparently

Cut to the Iceberg Casino (something from Detective Comics I assume, I'm not sure what was wrong with the Iceberg Lounge) the convenient truck Mr Freeze had stolen from outside Arkham crashes into the Casino, everyone evacuates. Mr Freezes is greeted by the Penguin, they are, for some reason, friends. Mr Freeze tells the Penguin to treat this as a robbery and to move money from his legitimate accounts. Mr Freeze anecdotes of how he used to freeze animals when he was younger (rather missing the point of why he did that in Arkham City's version of the origin) then he says he wants his gun and the Penguin agrees and Mr Freeze goes seeking revenge of the man who stole his wife from him. Bruce Wayne

At this point, I want to go into Mr Freeze's "suit". Artistically it looks nice but its function is to keep him cold, because he needs to be cold to survive. So WHY ON EARTH ARE HIS F*CKING ARMS EXPOSED!!!? Ignoring the belt thing with weird pockets and those arm bracelet things, he is not protected by the suit properly, which rather misses the point of the suit. I'm not sure whether or not Jim Lee was responsible for this redesign,but whoever is clearly forgot that kinda important part of Mr Freeze's Origin (and the fact they had to keep him cool in Arkham says that this part of his origin is still intact)  

 

The famous freeze suit (bangs head against table) nope, it still looks stupid

We cut to Wayne Tower Laboratories, 6 years ago (how this fits with Zero Year continuity, given that was also 6 years ago, I don't know) Bruce Wayne, who had only recently returned to the company joins Lucius Fox to meet up with Doctor Victor Fries. Fries comments on his progress in the slow-heating process of cyro-preserved individuals (several frozen bodies down in the lab) Bruce comments that he isn't comfortable with the cryonics field and wants Fries to move away from that field. Fries argues he can do both and for now the argument is allowed. As Bruce and Lucius leave Victor heads to a particular gurney containing a woman, he comments that he will find a cure for her.

In the Present, Mr Freeze enters Wayne Enterprises and approaches a gurney, commenting about how the formula used by the owls could be used on her, he wipes the steam from the glass and is annoyed to find that it isn't Nora. He is confronted by Nightwing and Robin. He fires, Nightwing dodges out of the way but Robin leans in the same direction for some reason, despite being on the other side of the blast and his hands are frozen. Mr Freeze then kicks Robin the neck, killing him.

OK, I'm lying, Freeze doesn't kill him. But being kicked in the neck and the krak sound effect, you'd hardly be blamed for thinking so. Nightwing knocks Freeze down, disarming him but then Freeze places his hand on the floor and somehow freezes Nightwing despite not being near him (OK, does he have meta-powers or not? If he does have meta-powers why does he need a gun? Why did he need to swallow cryogenic liquid to freeze the guards?) Robin (who survived the initial attack) attacks from above but Freeze grabs his hands, again calling into question his meta-status. Bruce Wayne gives a speech on the intercom telling Freeze to come to the penthouse, where they'll finish this.

 

Nice to see the Bat-family is here, maybe eventually the Batman will show up (also Freeze has powers here)

Cut back to the labs, where Fries thinks he has a cure for Nora and is about to administer it, but Bruce Wayne stop him. Bruce berates him from continuing to work the project, despite him having shut it down. Despite Victor’s pleading, stating Nora is the only person he's ever loved but Bruce says he's called the authorities. In anger Victor throws an office chair, Bruce dodges, but the chair hits a cryonic liquid container which bursts, and the liquid explodes upon Victor.

Cut to the hospital, where the Doctors explain his condition but I'm still not clear whether or not it gave him meta-powers. Victor wakes up, demanding to see Bruce Wayne. In the present, Mr Freeze enters the penthouse and sees Nora. No sign of Bruce Wayne. As Mr Freeze approaches Batman enters through a window (oh yeah, this is a Batman Annual, nice of him to show up, finally, 30 PAGES IN!) As a fight scene ensues, Batman remarks that he knows nothing of emotion as that requires compassion and all he is is ice and hate. Mr Freeze throws a freeze grenade (is that how he froze Nightwing? Technology villain, or meta-human, make up your damn mind!!) Freezing Batman in place, all be it briefly as Batman had thermal gauntlets which allow him to shatter it.

Freeze remarks that Batman has no right to stand between a man and a woman he loves. Batman responds that they both know the woman is not his wife (ok, I'll get to this later, I have a lot of words to say about this) he continues saying that the woman is Nora Fields born in 1943, diagnosed with an incurable heart condition and was the first to undergo cryogenic stasis. Victor never even knew her, she was in cryo-stasis when they first met. He's says that Freeze is just a madman reaching for the illusion of love in the only thing he cared about, ice. His love of Nora is an obsession. Batman gives a Freeze part of his own formula, which begins to warm him up, and brings him down.

 

Freeze is a creepy stalker, is the type of 'scary' Scott Snyder was going for?

Cut back to some years ago. Victor's mother is now bound to wheelchair, and slightly deranged by the sound of it. Victor kisses his mother before pushing her chair into the same hole in the ice.

OK, first comment. A 40-page Batman annual and Batman himself (as Batman, not including the 2-3 pages of Bruce Wayne) is in it for all of 8 PAGES! By cramming in a future fight with Mr Freeze and his origin, they took any time that could've been used for Batman. Nightwing and Robin's appearances in the comic is a filler fight; that need not have been in there at all.

I've complained a lot about how unclear it is whether or not Mr Freeze has powers, it's really frustrating, they don't go clearly one way or the other, with him using technology at some points, and using ‘powers’ at others. But my biggest issue is the issue that now Mr Freeze is now an madman obsessed with reviving someone he never knew (what he'd do if she ever was revived is actually disturbing) a lot of the tweaks to Freeze's origin, turn him away from one of the things that made him interesting. The tragic villain

The mistake that probably started it was with the fact that he was working for Bruce Wayne, rather than GothCorp. Part of the reason you sympathised with Freeze, is that you could understand his want for revenge and could shoulder some of the hate you had for Freeze onto Boyle, who was indirectly responsible. You can't do that with Bruce Wayne and they don't try. Instead making the accident Fries' own fault.

They wanted to make Freeze terrifying, it truly doesn't work. A terrifying villain needs a combination of both brains and brawn. Mr Freeze's attacks were all direct, demonstrating almost entirely physical prowess (there are two moments you might argue shows mental prowess, but he doesn't use this to attack the heroes) and you can't be scared of him (or I can't anyway). So what does that leave? An obsessed nut-job who clearly deserved to be incarcerated in Arkham.

 

Was there any reason he broke the guy's finger off?

They missed the point with the freezing the pets bit. In Arkham City he tries to freeze them and revive them, it was not for torturous purpose, it was just demonstrating an obsession with healing the sick. Here he mentions freezing specific parts of the animal and studying the effect. This is borderline psychotic. If they wanted to keep Freeze villainous whilst maintaining the tragic villain angle, they should've gone full Arkham City, by questioning roads he could've taken (like using his mind in medicine) without resorting to crime.

Then came the final page. That page shouldn't and needn't have been included. It just adds to the major problem I have with the comic, he was psychopath at a young age. It also brings a whole myriad of questions: did she survive a second dip? (I assume not but it's not very clear) How long after the accident is this? (Clearly not so long that the hole’s frozen over again) did the police find out? Did they ever suspect Victor (he was the only witness and the only person there)? If they did how did he get employed in Wayne Industries?

Why oh why did they bother adding this page?

THIS COMIC GIVES ME RAGE ISSUES

Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV are decent writers, Jason Fabok is a decent artist but there seems to be some miscommunication about Freeze's abilities and the undesirable changes to Freeze's origin that angers me. A lot of people actually like this comic, if you do, you can make your case for it, but at this moment, I hate this comic with a passion.

Rage Rating 89/100

Next time: Let’s see, what’s next on the list… Teen Titans #0 (The New 52)

If you thought they butchered Mr Freeze, just wait till you see what they did to Tim Drake

Batman Annual #1 and Batman Incorporated #8 was published by DC Comics, Batman and all related characters and trademarks are owned by DC Comics. Images used for the purposes of this review are under fair use. Star Wars is owned by LucasFilm

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