Welcome to the thirty-sixth edition of Adventure(s) Time, examining a beloved cartoon and a related issue of its tie-in comic.  This week, just in time for the holidays, we're looking back on Mr. Freeze's debut on Batman: The Animated Series.  Then, his often-overlooked return in the Adventures tie-in comic.

Where to begin when discussing what many consider the finest episode, perhaps even one of the greatest Batman stories in any medium? "Heart of Ice" was the fourteenth Batman episode produced, but only the third to air. Debuting in that first week of episodes set quite a bar for the show, exhibiting  the level of animation viewers could expect from the series. Viewers also experienced a haunting reinvention of a villain never considered much of a player in the Batman canon. In fact, Mr. Freeze had been relegated to only occasional comics appearances during this era.  (Reportedly, editor Dennis O'Neil simply disliked the villain.)

RELATED: When Dark Knight Returns Invaded Batman: The Animated Series

From the team of writer Paul Dini and director Bruce Timm, "Heart of Ice" opens with the first instance (one of very few during the run) of the title card actually moving, becoming a part of the narrative. We discover the snow covering the episode's title is falling within a snowglobe. The globe's housing a toy ballerina, held in the hand of a mystery figure with red eyes. A metallic, toneless...cold voice speaks.

This is the reimagined Mr. Freeze, holding a plastic representative of his lost love.  Her name will become permanently associated with this character. He's mourning his lost wife, Nora.

A startling reveal of dark red eyes clashes against the cool blue and gray of his Mike Mignola designed suit. There's an ongoing theme in the episode of contrasting cold with heat.  Not only demonstrated in Freeze's eyes, but also in the implied humanity of the ballerina trapped in the globe. Also notice the concept of Freeze waging his ice war in the midst of an August heatwave, and the revelation that the subject of his ire is a CEO named Ferris Boyle. (Boyle's last name a subtle heat pun worthy of Mr. Fries/Freeze.)

The villain attacks various GothCorp operations, stealing hardware necessary to create a freeze cannon. Previous interpretations played up Freeze's German accent, or the punny joke about him loving "ice" (diamonds), the character essentially remaining a cipher. This story structure, however, continuously reveals "cold" aspects of Freeze, such as him leaving one of his henchmen to die. Eventually, we have the revelation of why this man is seemingly dead to emotion.

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The story has become so accepted as canon, anyone with only a passing familiarity with Batman could likely recite it. Victor Fries, a scientist employed by GothCorp, works without permission on a project to save his ailing wife. Boyle discovers Fries' unsanctioned (and costly) project and orders it shut down, apparently killing the cryogenically frozen Nora. In the ensuing struggle, Boyle knocks Victor into a table of chemicals, resulting in the condition requiring Fries to exist only in subzero temperatures.

Batman, suffering a summer cold, unravels these bits of the mystery while circumventing Freeze's attacks. The unveiling of Freeze's origin comes in the form of security footage uncovered by Batman, who reacts in utter horror at the undeserving fate of both Victor and Nora. (His "My God!" exclamation perhaps a first for children's television.)

The revelation adds a new layer to the story, with Batman's sympathy for Freeze's situation reflecting the audience's view. Yet, this doesn't temper his insistence that justice should be served, not vengeance. Notice another hot vs. cold battle -- Batman's ability to deaden his outrage over these moral injustices makes him "cold" in a way Freeze isn't.  Conversely, the villain's quest for revenge is very much a burning fire within him.

The final conflict between heat and cold comes in the climax, when a thermos of Alfred's scalding chicken soup cracks Freeze's armor. (It is the best way to fight a cold. And even that line is so well executed you can't hold it against the episode.)

The ultimate irony is that Freeze isn't dead to emotion at all -- his every action's motivated by the love he still feels for his wife. The best characters have these deep contradictions programmed into their DNA. With this episode, Mr. Freeze is elevated from gimmick villain to a genuinely compelling character with Shakespearean undertones.

And, incredibly, the story is served by animation on par with the narrative. One of the few episodes directed by series co-creator Bruce Timm, "Heart of Ice" was sent overseas to the highly regarded animation firm Spectrum for completion. This was a studio made up of former employees of another high-end studio, TMS. (In its way, an early Image Comics of Japanese animation.)

Spectrum's work on this episode became something of a legend amongst the Batman crew. As Bruce Timm has stated, the president of Spectrum was personally airbrushing frost on the edges of Mr. Freeze's dome onto every cel of the animation, one example of the team's commitment to doing the best possible job.

Apparently, the crew spent so much time and money perfecting their work, they had to shut down business, but what an amazing testament to their talent this episode is. Even Batman's sneezes look like something out of Disney feature animation here.

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As mentioned a few weeks ago, Freeze made his animated return in "Deep Freeze", which cast him as a reluctant ally of an absurd Walt Disney parody. A strange fit tonally with his debut, the episode has its fans and is fairly enjoyable in its own right. Less known would be Paul Dini and the animators' direct follow-up to "Heart of Ice." It's found in the pages of 1994's Batman Adventures Holiday Special.

(Here's a look at Bruce Timm's original cover. Notice the way Freeze's chin forms the shadow on Batman's cowl.)

It's commonly known that this special, produced by the crew of the animated series, was adapted into the 1997 episode "Holiday Knights." A collection of vignettes set around the season, one worthy story didn't make its way into the adaptation.  Most likely, there were time restraints, but by the era of "New Adventures" Batman, the continuity for this vignette didn't exactly work, either.

Written by Paul Dini and penciled by Glen Murakami, "White Christmas" opens with Batman investigating Mr. Freeze's escape from Arkham. This bewilders his doctor, as Victor is actually a model inmate. Batman's only clue is Freeze's recent interest in the weather, asking the Arkham staff if snow was predicted for Christmas Eve.

No snow until January was the report, one contradicted by the blanket of snowflakes covering Gotham this night. Batman scours the city, locating a frozen police car not far from the Gotham Cemetery.

While Murakami was doing a Bruce Timm riff on the pages leading up to this reveal, his images of Mr. Freeze transform the art into a Mike Mignola homage. Timm-style Batman attempts to stop Freeze from using his canon to create the snowstorm.  He soon finds himself smacked into a very specific gravestone.

More than just a cute bit, the sequence serves as a reminder of the contrast between Batman and Freeze. Batman experienced his own tragedy, knows the quest for vengeance that fuels Freeze, and possibly understands the desire to shut off all emotions. His commitment to moving past those dark urges, however, is what makes him a hero.

The fight resumes, the freeze cannon explodes, and Batman has an opportunity to k.o. his injured opponent with a piece of his own machinery. The Dark Knight can't bring himself to do it, however. He gives Freeze a chance to "end this quietly," asking why he'd choose to do this on Christmas Eve of all nights.

We discover Victor and Nora were married on a snowy Christmas Eve ten years prior. On his knees, prostrate before his wife's tombstone, Victor explains how much she loved the snow -- that he didn't want Nora to be sad on this night.

With Michael Ansara's voice acting, a Shirley Walker score, and any halfway decent animation studio, this would've been a classic moment for the animated series. We'll never see that, but the story remains its own holiday gift for fans who followed the show over to the Adventures titles.

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The Wrap-Up

Design-y

The painted still of Mr. Freeze, holding the snowglobe in the seconds before his eyes open, is of course iconic.

"Heart of Ice" also brings us a fantastic collection of anime-style gadgets and gear in the Batcave.

Continuity Notes

"Heart of Ice" ends with Victor Fries as a prisoner in a multistory prison facility. It's most likely the Stonegate Penitentiary of the show's canon.  Yet, "White Christmas" establishes him as an Arkham Asylum inmate. (Also where we meet Freeze in his next animated appearance, "Deep Freeze.")  None of Freeze's actions really fit even the show's loose definition of insane, so Stonegate would seem to be a better choice.

Nora's fatal illness is explicitly listed as "inoperable cancer" in "White Christmas," which doesn't seem to match other descriptions of her ailment.  The animated film Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero even claims she can be cured with a blood transfusion from Barbara Gordon.

1997's Paul Dini and Mark Buckingham Mr. Freeze one-shot made this story Freeze's comics-canon origin.

Hey, I Know that Voice

Michael Ansara was probably best known as Star Trek's Commander Kang when cast as Mr. Freeze.  However, Bruce Timm has stated his role in an Outer Limits episode inspired his casting.

Mark Hamill makes his Batman debut as the voice of Ferris Boyle. This role helped him to land the part of the Joker when the decision was made to replace Tim Curry.  Arleen Sorkin seems to have an uncredited role as the voice of Boyle's secretary. That means there's a Hamill/Sorkin pairing that predates Joker and Harley.

Approved By Broadcast Standards & Practices

Bruce Timm has remarked that Freeze pointing his gun directly at the viewer at the end of Act Two was a big censor no-no.  It passed through, somehow.

Batman's "My God!" exclamation was technically against FOX Kids' censorship rules at the time, but also escaped unchanged.  Toon Disney reruns later censored the line.

Battle of the Chilling Conclusions

"Heart of Ice" is consistently listed as the top episode of this series for a reason.  Its early place in the rotation was a signal of Batman's refusal to be the dumbed down kiddie show previously seen on network television. Making the story more about the villain than the hero, and providing an easily dismissed villain with an ingenious new origin, was a brave choice, signifying what viewers could expect from the better episodes of this series. (The earliest issues of Adventures took this structure to heart. Kelley Puckett often made Batman the antagonist of stories, the person standing in the way of the real star.)

Contrasting "Heart" with any other Freeze tale seems unfair in a way. For several years, even the producers of the series were reluctant to try another episode starring Mr. Freeze.  "White Christmas," however, is touching in its own way, and even more deserving of an animated adaptation than the other stories in the Holiday special.  Batman and Mr. Freeze bonding over loss on a lonely Christmas Eve. The despondent Victor Fries risking everything to provide his late wife a final holiday gift. A Mignola-esque graveyard...it could've been a classic.  In fact, I'd argue it might even have an even more poignant ending than "Heart of Ice. " It's certainly a tragic, but also sweet, way to close Mr. Freeze's story.

That’s all for now. Special thanks to the World's Finest crew, who even have a page specifically devoted to "Heart of Ice."  If you have any episodes of an animated series you’d like to see paired with its tie-in comic, just leave a comment or contact me on Twitter.