‘Tis the Season To Be Freezin’ #1: A Change of Heart

I am loving all of these anthology comics that DC has been putting out lately. The variety of stories centered around specific seasons and holidays is genius, and we’ve been able to see a lot of B and C-list characters brought in for the fun. This time around it’s the Blue Snowman, a classic Wonder Woman villain from the 40’s and a longtime personal favorite of mine.

If you’re unfamiliar with the character, Blue Snowman (real name Byrna Brilyant) was a stuttering schoolteacher from Fair Weather Valley who used their deceased father’s brilliant “blue snow” formula to extort money from the town. They also have the distinction of being part of one of DC’s earliest supervillain teams, Villainy Inc., alongside Wonder Woman’s other major rogues from the time period. They went unused by DC for over sixty years and only recently had a resurgence in the comics, having appeared in a half dozen stories this year.

The Blue Snowman’s appeal for me has always been how they pushed gender norms and gender identity. A lot of classic Wonder Woman villains did this: Doctor Poison and Hypnota are a few notable examples. But Blue Snowman is also goofy as hell, so I was hesitant when Crystal Frasier had Byrna come out as gender-fluid in DC Love Is A Battlefield since they aren’t exactly a positive example of gender-fluidity. But I have to say, I’m pretty happy that their queerness has stuck, and I really hope we get more gender-fluid representation down the line.

As for the story itself, “A Change of Heart” is a fun little adventure with Harley Quinn and Blue Snowman teaming up to save Poison Ivy. It’s by no means a classic, and I felt like Harley definitely stole the spotlight with “B.S.” just sort of… being there as a tag-a-long. But I’m never one to reject issues featuring classic and underutilized Wonder Woman rogues (where’s Queen Clea, DC?).

The art by Eric Battle is very stylized and expressive. The action scenes in particular are a real standout. I’m not a huge fan of some of the close-up shots of Harley or Byrna, but as a whole the art felt very mid-00’s to me which was only bolstered by Eva de la Cruz’s colors. I love that DC gets a bit more experimental with these short stories.