Sunday, October 23, 2011

Mr. Freeze and humility

I've been playing a lot of Arkham City when I've had a little free time here and there, and it's reminded me of a bit of weirdness surrounding one of my favorite Bat-villains, Mr. Freeze. Why "Mister"? Freeze legitimately has a doctorate. Intellectual supervillains are typically more than happy to lord their advanced degrees over society and its protectors--Doctor Octopus, Doctor Light, Doctor Double X, Doctor Sivana, Doctor Phosphorus--even when they don't actually have those degrees (I'm looking at you, dropout Doom). Looking through Wikipedia's list of fictional doctors, the only other villain who does the same is Marvel's Mister Hyde, and he took his name from a story.

Is Victor Fries the most humble supervillain in the DCU? Is this just another part of his tragic life story? Was his doctorate revoked? If so, why is Doctor Light allowed to keep his?

Curioser and curioser, the politics of comic book academia.

2 comments:

Don said...

I vote for humility, at least outside of his Arnold incarnation. And at least past his DCAU incarnation. Not too familiar with him prior to that except I understand he was much less tragic and sympathetic.

So, is Arkham City as good as all the reviews say? Should it be on my "After I emerge from Skyrim like a butterfly from a chrysalis" list?

CalvinPitt said...

I settled on his discarding the "Doctor" because it's part of Victor Fries' life, and Victor died in that accident.

I don't know if it's a response to the fact all his knowledge didn't save his wife, so the title is a mark of that education means nothing, or that Fries was capable of many feelings, whereas Freeze isn't, so they're separate entities.

I really only know about the animated version, though, no idea if eitehr version works for the comic Freeze.