| Nora Fries | |
|---|---|
Cover art of Detective Comics #1014 (October 2019). Art by Doug Mahnke.
| |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | As Nora: Batman: The Animated Series: "Heart of Ice" First comic appearance: Batman: Mr. Freeze (May 1997) As Lazara: Batgirl #70 (January 2006) As Mrs. Freeze: Detective Comics #1014 (October 2019) |
| Created by | (As Nora): Paul Dini (writer) Bruce Timm (artist) As Lazara: Andersen Gabrych (writer) Pop Mhan (artist) As Mrs. Freeze: Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Doug Mahnke (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Species | Homo magi (current) Human (originally) |
| Partnerships | Mr. Freeze |
| Notable aliases | Lazara Mrs. Freeze |
| Abilities | As Lazara:
As Mrs. Freeze:
|
Nora Fries is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Entertainment. She was created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for Batman: The Animated Series, in which she is depicted as the terminally ill wife of Dr. Victor Fries, who cryogenically freezes her and becomes the supervillain Mr. Freeze to find a cure for her condition. Nora is later adapted into the mainstream comic book canon and revived as a supervillain under the aliases Lazara and Mrs. Freeze.
Nora Fries made her live-action debut in the 1997 film Batman & Robin, portrayed by Vendela Kirsebom. She has also appeared in the second seasonofGotham portrayed by Kristen Hager, the 2018 Arrowverse crossover event Elseworlds, portrayed by Cassandra Jean Amell, and Batwoman portrayed by Jennifer Higgin when her aging started to continue rapidly.
After marrying Victor Fries, a GothCorp cryogenics researcher, Nora is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Victor uses the company's equipment to cryogenically freeze his wife until a cure can be found. However, GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle cuts the funding and confronts Victor in the latter's laboratory to personally shut down the project, which subsequently leads to Victor being transformed into Mr. Freeze. In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice", Nora is stated to be dead following the lab's destruction. However, the episode "Deep Freeze" reveals that Nora is still alive within her cryogenic chamber.
As of the film Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, Victor retrieved Nora's chamber and brought it to an Arctic cave until a submarine crew accidentally damages it. Victor murders the crew before bribing an old colleague into helping him kidnap Barbara Gordon as she shares Nora's rare blood type. After Batman intervenes and rescues Gordon, Nora is eventually cured by Dr. Lyle Johnston of Wayne Enterprises.
InThe New Batman Adventures episode "Cold Comfort", Nora is said to have waited for the presumed dead Victor for some time before eventually marrying her doctor Francis D'Anjou. This subplot is expanded upon in volume two of The Batman Adventures tie-in comic series, in which D'Anjou stages his abduction and death to frame Victor and make Nora hate him. After D'Anjou is defeated and arrested by Nightwing, Nora reunites with Victor in the Arctic Circle, revealing she never truly loved D'Anjou, before Victor gets in a fight with Batman and the former's head is lost in the Arctic Ocean. After talking to the incarcerated D'Anjou and Victor's adoptive Inuit son Koonak, Nora returns to the Arctic Circle to find Victor. As of the sequel comic series Batman: The Adventures Continue, Nora died after her terminal illness returned.
Nora is an attractive and gentle girl. She meets Victor Fries in a strict boarding school and later marries him. Shortly after their marriage, Nora falls terminally ill. Victor discovers a way to put Nora into cryostasis, hoping to sustain her until a cure can be found. In time her husband will become one of Batman's well-known enemies, Mr. Freeze.[1] Over time she falls to pieces in her ice state, but Freeze puts her back together again.
Freeze helps Nyssa al Ghul by creating a machine for the Society that can also be used to capture Batgirl. In return, Nyssa has offered to help him restore his wife using the Lazarus Pit. Though Nyssa has told him the pit needs to be adjusted for Nora, Batgirl convinces Freeze that Nyssa has no intention of reviving her at all, and he throws Nora into the pit himself.[2]
Because of all the years of being altered and broken, Nora absorbs the pit's alchemy, acquiring the powers to conjure flame and reanimate the dead. She becomes a supervillainess, calling herself Lazara. Mr. Freeze manages to stop her by freezing her once again.[3]
Nora's history was revised as of DC Comics' 2011 reboot of its continuity, The New 52. Nora Fries is now Nora Fields, a woman born in 1943 and placed in cryostasis by her parents at age 23 due to her being diagnosed with incurable heart disease. Her case was taken on by Wayne Enterprises employee Victor Fries, who fell in love with her, becoming obsessed to such a degree that he began believing that she was his wife. The project was terminated by Bruce Wayne, and in rage, Victor threw a chair at him. Wayne dodged the chair, which hit a freezing chemical tank and left Fries's body permanently ruined due to the blistering cold while also causing him to become Mr. Freeze.[4]
Sometime later, Mr. Freeze escapes his cell and tries to steal Nora's body and flee Gotham while also vowing to kill Bruce Wayne. Batman intervenes and ultimately tells Freeze the truth concerning Freeze's "wife" with Freeze reacting angrily, saying that it's all lies. The two later engage in a fight with Batman eventually emerging as the victor and stopping Freeze.[5]
This version of Victor and Nora's relationship has been acknowledged as far more disturbing than previous adaptions, to the point of actually bothering Batman, who comments to Freeze that Nora is old enough to be his grandmother.[4]
The Nora from New 52 had been retconned, thereby making her history more similar to the animated series and post-Zero Hour. She was the wife of Victor Fries (having a career as a talented ballerina) but discovered she had an incurable type of cancer. She had wanted to live the last years of the life of her own free will, but her husband forced her into the cryogenic storage.
Several years later due to the events in "Year of the Villain", Lex Luthor gives Mr. Freeze a vial that would cure and furthermore revive his frozen wife. Mr. Freeze had to kidnap several women who matched his late wife's characteristics, in both mental and physical states, going as far as modifying their DNA to hers to experiment with the vial before reviving his wife. In the end, it worked, and his wife came back to life cured. She soon took up the name Mrs. Freeze.[6]
Nora and Victor's backgrounds and the beginnings of their romance serve as the premise of the DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults novel, Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story, written by Lauren Myracle and with art by Isaac Goodhart, released in November 2020.[7] Nora's full maiden name is Elinor Grace Faria in this version.
After emerging from the Lazarus Pit, Nora Fries becomes Lazara. Lazara is a supervillainess who can summon fire and raise the dead. She blames her husband Victor Fries for her transformation.
In Rebirth, she is given same chemicals that caused Mr. Freeze's transformation, leaving her to survive in Sub-zero temperatures.
Nora Fries appears in Batman & Robin, portrayed by Vendela Kirsebom. This version suffers from an advanced form of the fictional illness, MacGregor's Syndrome.
Nora Fries appears in Batman: The Enemy Within. This version's body is kept in the Pact's hideout, of which her husband Mr. Freeze is a member.
Nora Fries appears in the Batman: Arkham franchise:
|
Batman characters
| |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batman family |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Supporting characters |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Recurring antagonists |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Alternative versions |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Other media |
| ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
