Batman – Heart of Ice

• Title: Batman: The Animated Series – Heart of Ice
• wiki: link

In honor of Batman‘s 75th Anniversary we turn out attention back to the Dark Knight’s more memorable moments on the big and small screen with another episode from Batman: The Animated Series. Widely regarded as one of the best episodes of the series, “Heart of Ice” was the first episode of the series written by Paul Dini and the first directed by Bruce Timm. The episode also went a long way to establish Mr. Freeze as more than just a throwaway B-list Bat-villain and reinterpret the character as a tragic figure hellbent on revenge.

A series of robberies from GothCorp facilities lead Batman (Kevin Conroy) to his first encounter with the cold-hearted Mr. Freeze (Michael Ansara) which leaves the Dark Knight Detective with a head cold and several questions about the motives of the criminal. Snooping into the files of GothCorp’s CEO Ferris Boyle (Mark Hamill), Batman discovers the experiments of scientist Victor Fries and his attempt to save his cryogenically-frozen wife Nora. Boyle’s interruption of the experiment not only caused Feeze’s condition but also, Freeze believes, the death of his wife.

Several publications and polls have hailed “Heart of Ice” as the best of the series and it won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program. In terms of design and motivation the episode gave new life to a character than even Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t destroy in that Batman movie we don’t like to talk about. And, in classic comic tradition, the character’s comic origins have been retconned over the years closer to Timm and Dini’s interpretation of the character allowing their version to live on long after the show ended.