[7.7/10] One of the things I love about Mr. Freeze as a villain on this show is that they always give him a really interesting motivation. That’s what makes him better than a standard mayhem and madness baddie. His motivation is especially interesting here, as having lost all hope himself, he’s not interested in stealing a fortune or gaining revenge; he just wants the world to feel the same loss that he does. It’s a strange and obviously destructive way of grieving, but it makes him harder to reason with and harder to deter in a lot of ways, which makes for a more compelling villain.
My only big knock against this one is that it’s a little confusing in terms of the continuity. Granted, the proper watch order for the DCAU is anyone’s guess, but I’m doing my best to watch in order of production, and I can’t remember any episode where they resolved Mr. Freeze being stuck in an icicle underground after his escapade with the ersatz Walt Disney, let alone [spoiler[Nora being revived and running off with her doctor[spoiler]. Maybe that happens in SubZero? But that wasn’t released until after this episode, so who knows.
Either way, if you take the backstory as given, this is a cool episode. Mr. Freeze having not only lost the woman who moved his heart, but lost the body that would, in his mind at least, allow him to return to her, is a cool development, if you’ll pardon the pun. It adds an emotional dimension to his path of destruction, and adds an air of body horror and shock when he pops up as a head with mechanical spider legs.
I also like how the episode escalates his evil plots here. The destruction of dinosaur bones and a massive painting work well as an appetizer to his new motives of instilling hopelessness and loss in the hearts of Gotham. That builds nicely to him trying to go after Bruce Wayne, and his attack on Alfred (acknowledged as Bruce’s surrogate father) gives this one personal stakes and acknowledges the notion that having lost one family, Batman tried to build another.
I also appreciate how well it shows Freeze understanding Batman’s psychology. He doesn't just want to blanket the city in icy death; he wants to take away the thing that The Bat loves most -- Gotham. From there, the fight in the plane is cool, with Freeze being a particularly difficult out given his new robot body and head-twisting abilities, and Batman’s solution of strapping him to his own “reverse fusion bomb” being a cool method of neutralizing him.
Overall, this episode gives Freeze a really neat villain M.O., escalates his villainy nicely, and has a nice final confrontation for the climax.
Shout by SoNickBlockedParent2022-02-11T04:46:15Z
The plot of this one didn't do much for me, but it did feature a lot of voicework by the LEGENDARY Tress MacNielle so it's not all bad!