The following contains spoilers for Batman One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze #1, now on sale from DC Comics.
In Batman lore, it's safe to say Mr. Freeze is one of Bruce Wayne's most sympathetic villains. Since being introduced in the '50s, he's become a tragic criminal, robbing to garner funds and tech to save his wife, Nora. It's in these moments that his human side as Victor Fries comes to life, spurred on by the "Heart of Ice" episode from Batman: The Animated Series in the '90s.
This arc compounded just how torn Batman and his crew were when it came to taking Freeze down because no matter what, they wanted him to cure Nora's illness and take her out of stasis. However, in Batman: One Bad Day -- Mr. Freeze #1 (by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Scalera, Dave Stewart, and Deron Bennett), a big shift has occurred in the rogue, revealing he's not the good husband many assumed he was.
Batman: One Bad Day Suggests Mr. Freeze's Marriage is Toxic
This story dives into Mr. Freeze's history, making key retcons along the way. Batman arrests Freeze, but at the behest of Robin (Dick Grayson), he offers Victor a lab at Lex Corp to work on Nora. However, a problem arises when his intentions suddenly become unclear after the issue reveals that he was emotionally abusive to her before she fell ill.
He accused her of infidelity, while she accused the insecure cryogenics doctor of drowning himself in work and neglecting her. Freeze even hated her friends, lying to her and preventing them from coming to see her in the final days. No matter what, he wanted Nora all to himself, so he kept her isolated before putting her in the ice chamber until he could heal her. Still, there was an air of distrust and hatred he kept chilling in his paranoid, selfish heart as he refused her wishes to die peacefully -- opting to keep her as this trophy wife
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Batman: One Bad Day Exposes Freeze's Real Motives
After Freeze trashes the lab, suggesting he can't cure her, Batman and Robin hunt him down. They engage in a brutal fight just outside Gotham, where Robin finds Nora's cell. There, Bruce and Dick finally get Victor to admit he never really wanted to cure her. He only wanted to use this crusade of science as a facade, so he could secretly enjoy his criminal affairs, gaining agency, power and control in a way he never could as a mere human.
He says he was sick and tired of Nora going out, spending his money and living life without him while he was holed up working. It's an unhealthy, misogynistic take -- far from the hopeless romantic the books and other mediums painted. Victor simply wanted time to stop when she wasn't with him, so he came up with this icy prison for her, delaying her final breath or the cure just so he wouldn't have to share her with the world. Ultimately, it's hard to have the same empathy and compassion for Victor, but hopefully, he can make amends one day with his beloved, bring her back to the light permanently, and win fans back who were rooting for this couple.