The animated DC Universe original series, Harley Quinn, is one of the best DC Comics adaptations of all time, and that’s not a joke or an exaggeration. It’s clever, charming, violent, and features some of the best writing on TV right now.
The series follows Harley Quinn after she breaks up with the Joker, and in this version, they actually use the Joker! Cool, right? She assembles a crew composed of supervillains including Dr. Psycho, Clayface, King Shark in a quest to join the Legion Of Doom. Eventually Joker conquers the city, lots of people die, and then Harley and her BFF Poison Ivy get the upper hand and take down the Clown Prince Of Crime.
[Mild spoilers for the Harley Quinn series]
In season 2, the President declares that Gotham is no longer part of the United States Of America, and the Injustice League takes over the city. The evil organization then divides Gotham into territories governed by The Penguin, Riddler, Bane, Two-Face, and Mr. Freeze. Harley gets in an altercation with the League and is frozen in ice by Freeze. Months pass, she breaks out, kills Penguin and captures The Riddler, taking two of the five kingpins of “New New Gotham” off of the board.
Harley Quinn’s Mr. Freeze Origin Reboot
That brings us to the 4th episode of this season, “Thawing Hearts.” In this episode, Harley Quinn and her superfriends storm Mr. Freeze’s mansion in order to kill him, thus securing revenge for when he imprisoned her in ice earlier this season. He kicks their ass, freezes them, and then reveals his “evil plan”. He wants to save the love of his life. Oh no!
His true crime, as it turns out, is loving his terminally ill wife Nora (she has a rare blood disease) too much. He cryogenically froze her in order to buy time and find a cure. Fans of Victor Fries will quickly realize that this episode is the Harley Quinn version of “Heart Of Ice,” the emmy-award winning episode of Batman: The Animated Series which reimagined Mr. Freeze so perfectly that his new origin was quickly adapted to the Batman comics as well.
RELATED: THE BATMAN DIRECTOR MATT REEVES DIGS DEEP INTO BATMAN RETURNS, THE DARK KNIGHT, AND HIS NEW BATMAN
To quickly recap “Heart Of Ice,” Victor Fries was a GothCorp employee who attempted to use that company’s resources to cure his wife Nora’s condition. The CEO of GothCorp interrupted the process, seemingly killing Nora and causing an accident which altered Fries’ physiology, rendering him unable to survive out of a sub-zero environment. He tries to get revenge on GothCorp, Batman subdues him and Mr. Freeze ultimately ends up in Arkham.
