Secrets are a dish best served cold.
The GCPD is in for a strange (and chilly) ride after tonight’s episode introduced us to two new faces in Gotham’s underbelly. These newbies have given us plenty of #DCTV Secrets to talk about!
- Who is Mr. Freeze?
- Who is Hugo Strange?
Want to carry on the conversation? Jump on #DCTV in Twitter and see what clues others have found.
Don’t go any further if you don’t want to know any more. But of course you do and you will.
A Chilling Introduction
This week’s episode saw Gordon and Bullock searching for a new villain, aptly named “Mr. Freeze” by the Gotham Gazette. With a name like that, there must be a unique story behind it, right? Well, actually…there is!
Victor Fries made his comic book debut in BATMAN #121 as Mr. Zero. The name was appropriate because his character was, well, a zero. Although his name would eventually be changed to Mr. Freeze via the highly popular Batman show of the 1960’s, his character still remained more of a comic relief than an actual threat. But all that would change some 30 years later, thanks to another wildly popular TV show…
In the 1990’s, the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, reinvented Mr. Freeze with a powerful episode written by Paul Dini titled “Heart of Ice.” It told the simple story of Victor Fries, a cryogenics scientist at GothCorp who was desperate to save his terminally ill wife, Nora. Victor has Nora cryogenically frozen in order to buy time and research a cure. Eventually, a callous executive shuts down the program, claiming it’s draining money from the company. Seeing this as a death sentence for Nora, a desperate Victor attacks the executive, who pushes him into a lab table that unleashes a barrage of cryogenic chemicals that alter Victor’s biology—ultimately turning him into Mr. Freeze: a man hell-bent on destroying GothCorp and the individual who took Nora’s life. The episode changed Mr. Freeze’s status in the DCU virtually overnight. His new, complex backstory made him a tragic figure and an instant fan-favorite.
Gotham’s Mr. Freeze has all the hallmarks we’ve come to love over the years: Freeze Gun, cool super-powered suit and most importantly, a desperate willingness to do whatever it takes to save the life of the woman he loves—regardless of who or what gets in his way.
When You’re Strange, Faces Come out of Arkham…
As if introducing us to Mr. Freeze wasn’t enough, this week’s episode gave a nice two-for-one deal by revealing Hugo Strange as well!
Although his name is briefly whispered in episode 11, we finally got our first glimpse of Professor Hugo Strange in tonight’s episode.
One of Batman’s earliest foes, Hugo Strange made his comic book debut in DETECTIVE COMICS #36 in 1940. He was terrorizing the Dark Knight before the Joker and Catwoman were even on the scene!
Not a man of brawn, but a man of science; Hugo relies on his super genius-intellect and expert training in psychology, chemistry and biology to make Batman’s life miserable—preying on the mind and psyche of the caped crusader. His bouts of extreme psychosis schizophrenia make him highly dangerous.
Operating as a lone wolf, Strange’s mind teeters on edge of brilliant insanity. Should he ever fully snap, it could mean terrible things for the people of Gotham…
That’s why this week’s episode is so frightening. We learn that Hugo Strange is the head psychologist at Arkham Aslyum. Yep, the same place that houses Gotham’s criminal loonies has a criminally insane genius heading up its psych ward. If that’s not enough, we see that Strange is also running the show at the mysterious Indian Hill—an underground facility, funded by Wayne Enterprises, that has been performing experiments on dead bodies from the Gotham morgue. Their purpose? No one knows. But with Hugo Strange at the helm, things can get dangerous quickly.
The GCPD are about to have their hands full…
See you next week!
