Absolute Batman #8: Not Ice to Meet You [Mr. Freeze]

One of the interesting facets of the superhero mode of storytelling is its readiness to accept and mold to different genres. While Daredevil and Green Lantern both fit under the general umbrella of superhero comics, they can be interpreted in radically different genres at any given time. For example, a creative may tell a gritty procedural story in which the titular hero investigates a crime or mystery against the backdrop of a vibrant world. On the surface level, that description could fit either title to a t, showcasing the similarities between the two. However, the excitement and specificity come in when you elevate Daredevil to a pulp noir with a dash of martial arts mysticism, or Green Lantern is given the aspects of a planet-hopping space opera. In either regard, the form is influenced by the parameters of the secondary genre, altering the shape and scope of the superheroic story. 

Absolute Batman #8 – written by Scott Snyder with art by Marcos Martín, coloring by Muntsa Vicente, and lettering by Clayton Cowles – continues the two issue interlude that pits Bruce Wayne against the Absolute Mr. Freeze. Bruce successfully snuck into V-Core, a company working in tandem with the secretive Ark-M project based on the outskirts of Gotham. There, he met Victor Fries Jr., who revealed his parents had placed him in a cryohold while they searched for a cure to his rare illness. That resulted in contact with a mysterious, ancient bacterium that warped the man into a grotesque ice ghoul. The shift in physiology allowed Fries to get the drop on Bruce, still injured from his fight with Black Mask, and place the vigilante into a cryotank. 

As Bruce’s body temperature drops and he’s exposed to the horrors of the ice, his mind flashes back to the confrontation with his friends before the mission. At the memorial for their dead childhood friend, Matches Malone, Waylon (aka Killer Croc in the main universe) rips into Bruce’s death wish as Batman, breaking down the rationales that the vigilante hides behind. The memory is enough to push Bruce into escaping the tank and into his bat-suit. Batman attacks Victor and manages to hold him off long enough to escape, taking his friends’ critique to heart. The issue ends on a cliffhanger, as he unsuccessfully tries to warn the group of Victor’s plans for the city. 

Snyder’s script continues the fluid momentum from the previous issue, trading the more logical and systematic approach of Bruce’s infiltration for a more chaotic and action-focused attack. It’s made clear from the first pages of this issue that this Bruce is not accustomed to the monstrous and grotesque, taken by surprise at the form Victor shifts into. As a result, the latter fight is calculated but looser, as Batman must alter techniques to grapple with the unique physiology. It’s a great change of pace compared to the first arc, which kept the fights and foes in the realm of the realistic. We’ve seen the Absolute version of the urban vigilante, and now Snyder is showcasing the resourceful superhero side to the character. 

The writer’s superpower comes out in this issue, as he manages to maintain a consistent level of humanity even as the otherworldly percolates in this gritty pulp crime drama. Interpersonal drama, like the clash between Bruce and his friends, specifically Waylon, gets almost equal page real estate in the issue, grounding the story while allowing the twisted visage of Mr. Freeze to loom that much larger. It plays to the strengths seen in Snyder’s work, which understands that a genre story can’t be divorced from the realities of character and human stakes. Including the moment of Waylon to beat down Bruce in the past lays the bedrock for Batman to rise up in the present. It’s a cathartic beat that showcases the attention to detail that Snyder puts into developing Bruce as a character and selling the changes to the established canon in this new universe. 

Bruce and Batman alike are defined by their connections to other people in their lives, as Bruce grows up with his mother and friends. Batman is in the field and an equal partner with Pennyworth from the get-go. Understanding those altered perspectives allows the creative team of the book to branch out into the new, as this Batman learns to navigate the more colorful rogues in his gallery. Bruce makes a tactical retreat and ignores the impulse to sacrifice his life in an attempt to defeat Freeze because of those relationships. It’s a compelling facet to the story that proves to be rich and fertile soil for stories down the line (especially with the implications from the cliffhanger). 

Martín’s art continues to match that changing aspect of the book, shifting gears from last issue’s quieter approach to a much more explosive style this time. He renders the action sequences with a deft pencil, putting a sense of supermassive gravity into how Batman moves and fights. The brutality established by regular artist Nick Dragotta is there, but Martín finds his own approach to it, trading in the panel-dense pages for splashes and full-body images. Even as the hulking figure of Batman draws the reader’s eye, Freeze stands even taller and thinner, contrasting with the anatomy of this dark knight. 

That mismatch of bodies allows for fascinating blocking and composition decisions. Freeze rarely stands upright, always confined to awkward hunches or unnatural spans across wide panels. It creates an unsettling effect that conveys the unnatural and eerie way the figure would move in three-dimensional space. The horror is a result of what should and should not be, showcasing the power of the distortions from the natural world. Freeze as a character is a byproduct of that notion, so it would only make sense that his body and form obey that twisted logic as well. 

A primary factor in the abnormal look of Freeze throughout the issue is Vicente’s coloring. Playing on a contrasting style of simple, single-color backgrounds, the colorist can invoke the horrors that plague the body. His icy blue skin is accented by the darker veins carrying whatever element is causing the chilling effect. That imagery is then put against a series of stark red and orange backdrops, immediately making the blue pop in a sickly way. Even the beady blue pupils in his bulging red eyes stand out against the simple backgrounds, resulting in a figure that doesn’t belong in the frame. That juxtaposition is the core tension of the Freeze character, and Vicente concisely cuts right to it.