Heart of Ice (Batman episode)
| "Heart of Ice" | |
|---|---|
| Batman: The Animated Series episode | |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 14 |
| Directed by | Bruce Timm |
| Written by | Paul Dini |
| Original air date | September 7, 1992 |
"Heart of Ice" is the fourteenth episode of the American animated television series Batman: The Animated Series, first aired on September 7, 1992, written by Paul Dini, and directed by Bruce Timm. This episode features the first appearance in the series of Mr. Freeze. In the comics, Freeze first appeared in Batman #121 in February 1959.
The episode rocketed the series to fame, after it won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program.
Batman follows a strange trail of heists pulled at various GothCorp offices, all by the same man: Mr. Freeze, a strange figure clad in a powerful suit and armed with what seems to be a "freezing gun", a weapon that fires a beam capable of freezing anything into a thick sheet of solid ice. Batman pieces together the stolen items and discovers what the mysterious man is building: a massive cannon capable of casting a magnified ice beam, and that it is complete save for a single vital piece of equipment from GothCorp. Acting rapidly, he arrives at the GothCorp offices to witness the theft led by Mr. Freeze, only to be partially frozen under a sheet of ice after fighting with the thieves; as the perpetrators of the theft escape, they leave behind one of their own, his legs accidentally frozen by the mastermind behind the thefts. Batman chooses to help the man rather than chase Freeze.
After using a spacial bath to revive the man and melt the ice on his legs, Batman (who has himself developed a cold from the encounter) visits GothCorp as Bruce Wayne, hoping to learn who might have a grudge against it. CEO Ferris Boyle says the only person he can think of is dead: a former research scientist employed by the company whose funding was cut, and who apparently died in a laboratory accident. Later that night, Batman sneaks into the GothCorp security offices and finds a security tape of the accident. On the tape, a cryogenics scientist for GothCorp, Victor Fries, has placed his terminally ill wife Nora in cryogenic stasis until he can find a cure for her condition. Boyle then arrives and callously shuts down the project as it was draining his company's funds, essentially sentencing Nora to death. Fries begs Boyle to stop, but Boyle kicks him into a table of cryonic chemicals. As a horrified Batman watches the tape, Mr. Freeze (revealed to be none other than Fries, unable to live outside of a sub-zero condition) sneaks up behind him and captures him with his cold gun. Batman tries to reason with Freeze, but Freeze pledges to destroy the man who ruined his life even if anyone else gets killed in the process.
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