Batman Beyond, Season 1, Episode 5: Meltdown
An episode that features a returning villain from Batman: The Animated Series, something that the Batman Beyond series as a whole kept relatively at a minimum. This is definitely a facet I appreciate, keeping returning characters as something genuinely special; a true return of some of our past favourite villains... and in this case, it's one of the best characters to come out of the DCAU in general -- Mr. Freeze.
And... and honestly, it's been nearly 20 years since I watched this episode for the first time, but I still have no idea how I feel. On one hand, it is admittedly a beautiful swan song for the poor tragic villain, where he attempts to atone for his sins, but the circumstances of his rebirth was all a lie and he ended up succumbing back to the good old standby of vengeance, and ends up getting a bittersweet fate as he ultimately perishes at the end of this episode. Mr. Freeze's story was always a bittersweet one, with the DCAU really loving to ramp up the tragedy in poor Freeze's life -- particularly in his last few outings. So thematically, this episode definitely fits. But throw in the fact that Mr. Freeze's story is honestly treated more as an after-note in what's essentially Derek Powers' huge debut as Blight, and... and I dunno. Blight is the main villain of this show, so at least it's not some random schmuck, but I honestly always felt an undertone of disappointment in this episode. Like they brought back one of the most tragic and badass villains basically to slap him around a bit and kill him off.
That said, though, this episode's a pretty well-written and well-paced one. Derek Powers is losing more and more control of his radiation powers, with his skin constantly flaking off and threatening to expose his spooky rad-skeleton face to board meetings, and Batman beating up random dock operations isn't helping at all. But then Powers and one of his researchers, Dr. Stephanie Lake, ends up deciding to experiment in transferring Powers' mind into a new body... but to do this, they needed a guinea pig.
Said guinea pig, someone whose DNA is "as equally fractured" as Powers' DNA? Mr. Freeze, apparently. He was last seen reduced into a head in a jar walking around in spider-legs in Batman: The Animated Series, and apparently he's alive in Wayne-Powers' basement. And... and I dunno. Would the episode feel better-paced if we get the revelation that Mr. Freeze's return to life is all just an experiment? Or is getting Powers and Lake's scheme out of the way end up really emphasizing the tragedy of Victor's subsequent efforts to be good?
Whatever the case, Victor Fries ends up finding himself in a brand-new human body, and seems to be a good person, dedicating his new life to giving back to the community, and Dr. Lake seems pretty close with him. Old Man Bruce, of course, is cranky and paranoid, and is convinced that Victor will be planning something evil and fall back to vengeance. While Terry ends up obeying the order to shadow Victor, he's way more optimistic about Victor's redemption... even moreso than Victor himself. An incident where Batman saves Victor from an angry young man whose family is implied to be killed by Mr. Freeze in the past ends up causing Victor to apologize and setting up the Nora Fries Foundation to help all that he has wronged in the past. Apparently even supervillains have savings!
And while the episode doesn't explore it too deeply, it's an interesting conundrum. Victor is clearly sorry, and his time as Mr. Freeze has always been implied to be driven by a zealous insanity. Old Man Bruce scoffs at this attempt at reparations, noting that it's "blood money", and... and he has a point, but Terry noting that Victor genuinely trying to change and be
a better man is also equally valid.
Things go south pretty quickly for poor Victor, though, as his body starts reverting back to his old self, requiring cold to stay alive. Dr. Lake, the sadistic bitch, wants to autopsy Victor's organs, so he shoves the hurting and pained Victor into a glass cell and straight-up plans to cook him alive with high temperature. Victor escapes, but this betrayal by the people he trusted ends up causing him to go straight back into vengeance mode.
Decked out in a badass, futuristic and more armoured Mr. Freeze suit (a.k.a. a new character model), we can't help but cheer for Mr. Freeze when this dude just really only wanted to atone for his sins in peace, but gets betrayed and near damn well killed. We get a brief argument between Terry and Bruce on what Victor would do... and what Victor does is use his ice-suit to create gigantic icebergs inside a Wayne-Powers facility, and straight-up just murder Dr. Lake in a surprisingly uncensored death scene. Like, it's not brutal or anything, but there's no mistaking Dr. Lake as anything but dead.
Powers would be, too, if he wasn't secretly Blight, so he bursts out in his full radioactive-skeleton form and starts just fighting with Mr. Freeze while the latter is planning to blow up the factory and half of Gotham City. Blight, out of revenge, ends up fighting Mr. Freeze, and it's a fun little bit of a three-way fight between Batman, Freeze and Blight. We get a fun little detail that Batman doesn't recognize that Blight is Powers since his artificial face has fallen off, and while Freeze is sympathetic, he is trying to blow up the city.
The fight ends up with Blight (who finally name-drops his supervillain moniker) about to kill Batman... when Mr. Freeze comes to his senses and uses an ice blast to knock Blight away out of the building. Batman manages to stop the reactor explosion... but not the collapsing building. Batman's attempt to rescue the damaged Mr. Freeze is rebuffed, with Freeze putting up a massive ice wall to separate the two of them, with Mr. Freeze telling Batman that he was "the only one who cared about him". Which makes me curious... does Mr. Freeze even realize that this is a different Batman? Whatever the case, though, after this one final redemptive act of saving Batman from Blight, Freeze allows himself to be trapped in the collapsing building and die in the resulting explosion.
And it's... it's an interesting ending. I do really love how Bruce and Terry admits that each other is right -- Mr. Freeze is simultaneously both evil and good, and there's a very interesting, complex person underneath all that. And I just really wished the episode wasn't trying to do too much. It is still honestly a pretty entertaining watch regardless, with a pretty emotional and busy script, and a far, far more engaging story than either Inque or Golem. They really do try to shoot high with the darker, more melancholic tones in this series, and I definitely approve. Part of me will always grumble about how this episode killed off one of my favourite supervillains ever, but I will also readily note that this is a pretty well-done episode.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Mr. Freeze was last seen (and reduced to a head) in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Cold Comfort". This is his only appearance in Batman Beyond, and his final chronological appearance in the DCAU.
No comments:
Post a Comment