BATMAN AND MR. FREEZE: SUB-ZERO (1998)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

Whereas MASK OF THE PHANTASM came out when the 1993-95 BATMAN teleseries was on hiatus, SUB-ZERO is set as a prequel to THE NEW BATMAN ADVENTURES, which stressed the ensemble of Batman and Robin, as well as more guest-starring appearances for Batgirl. Allegedly the DTV film could have debuted earlier than 1998, but the producers chose to distance their work from 1997's BATMAN AND ROBIN. That movie was notable, among other demerits, for bollixing the character of Mister Freeze as established by the 1993 cartoon show.

It's worth mentioning here that Mister Freeze, originally just a one-shot foe from a fifties Batman comic, got upgraded to a major foe thanks to the 1966 teleseries. That said, only the first live-action Freeze episode was better than average, and his future appearances in that series, other cartoons, and other comic books were nothing special. The 1993 series gave the villain a relatable if monomaniacal obsession: to restore the life of his cryogenically frozen wife Nora.

At the start of SUB-ZERO Freeze is hiding out in the Arctic with his frozen inamorata. He's made some effort to forge a family of sorts, having adopted (unofficially one presumes) an Inuit boy, Koonak, and making two polar bears into pets. However, an accident damages Nora's containment chamber. Freeze, desperate to try anything that will revive Nora quickly, abducts his former medical colleague Belson for his expertise. Belson says that Nora needs an organ transplant, but that the waiting list for possible donors with the right blood type is a long one. Freeze chooses not to wait, and after some research elects to capture a Gotham City resident with the needed organ. And Belson, badly in need of money, is willing to commit murder to please his new partner.

Said resident is none other than Barbara Gordon, and Freeze abducts her while she's on a date with Dick Grayson. The brief dust-up between the frigid fiend and the two mufti-clad crusaders is almost all the hero-villain action SUB-ZERO offers for its first half (aside from a separate scene with a costumed Batgirl clobbering some hoods). Batman and Robin must depend on detection to ferret out Freeze's current lair, an abandoned oil platform off Gotham Harbor. In that lair Barbara repeatedly seeks to escape, with Belson scamming her with the story that they only want a transfusion. 

The lack of superhero action in the movie's first half is in no way a debit, because the second half delivers a great slam-bang climax. Batman and Robin come to Barbara's rescue, Belson and Freeze fall out, and lots of fires burst out everywhere, imperiling the frosty malefactor's life. He does survive for one later episode, "Cold Comfort," which provided a creditable finish for the character. If I had to carp at something, I'd probably say that Belson's heel-turn from respectable doctor to medical murderer takes place a bit too conveniently for the plot. Also we don't really see the relationship between Freeze and Koonak, so when the boy tries to free Barbara, there's no emotional impact, and he doesn't end up being anything but another body to rescue. But of the four DCAU Batman films, SUB-ZERO is the cream of the crop.