City of Crime: The Ballad of Mr Freeze's eternal love

[lucean]

As I was thinking about the current theme of the week, I recalled two scenes which I have been hoping to post for a while now, both from David Lapham 's superb City of Crime. However, as I looked at both of them, I realized that the context is kind of required and thus going against the theme of the week, but decided to post them anyway with the context leading to those moments of beauty, beginning with Mr Freeze 's wedding plans. This contains two pages from Detective Comics 803, seven pages from Detective Comics 804 and six pages from Detective Comis 805.

A quick gathering of the events leading to this in the epic story. Batman, torn by guilt over a death he could in no way prevent, stumbles across a room filled with dead pregnant girls while helping people escape from a burning house. The room hits the news and a mother comes forward claming that her missing, pregnant daughter maybe was among those dead and demands the police to find the truth. Bruce, still torn, meets with the mother and tells her that he will find her daughter. Turns out that the operation is linked to shady conspiracy connecting every level of Gotham City, but that is for the larger story. For this part, the reader only needs to know that Penguin and Ventriliquist were running the pregnant girl operation and get orders to bury leads, which basically means killing all the girls held in similar rooms across Gotham. They have the perfect man for the job, but surprisingly things go wrong.





Unfortunately for Penguin, not only does Batman find the same room and get the same information, but the conspiracy takes steps to eliminate Penguin, of course failing, but that is another story. Instead let's see what are Mr Freeze 's intentions and find them to be purely honorable.



Freeze has that covered, of course, the frozen staff of the place. He's just considerate like that.

Batman's investigations lead him to Arkham to Dr Lovely, who was overseeing Freeze's therapy and has now killed himself in order to avoid repercussions for providing Freeze to the bad guys to help with his own financial difficulties. The good doctor had chosen a regression method for Freeze, basically intending to remove Freeze's obsession with Nora and rebuild the psyche after that. Unfortunately it seems to have had little side-effects.

Meanwhile, Scarface, and of course the Ventriliquist, determines to remove the problem from the game. We rejoin Mr Freeze staring at something with tears running from his eyes as the narration tells us 'Dearly Beloved'.









I can not say enough of Bachs work here. Just look at the top-most panel in that last page, how the ice almsost gleams in that image and how he works with the shadows, the rain and the details. It is simply stunning to look at.





As Batman takes care of the attackers, in an awesome badass manner of course, and finds that they dissolve in to mud after being defeated, Freeze manages to rise to his feet and stumble away.





And Freeze turns the temperature down, because things weren't bad enugh for the priest and the girl yet.









I hope you find that last scene as purely awesome as I did. Next from the storyline shall be the song of a simple man who learns the great joy of flight.

Comments

[lucean]

I had the similar reaction when I read in single issues, and the two-month pause for WAR CRIMES didn't really help, but when I read it in trade, I was simply blown away by it. As said, I do think that it is a story that sharply divides opinions, as I noticed when I posted it in S_Dv1. As I mentioned above, I think it is because it is such a brutal story and in many ways quite unique in what it did, again for better or worse.

Yet at the same time I think it's one of the most awesome things about Bat-comics and the character himself. There are so many different types of stories and epics told and can told with him, many of them so character defining, and people can have so many opinions while still all liking the same character. You can have a story like this with him and then something the Brave and Bold.

That probably didn't a lot of sense, just wanted to at least try to say it shortly for once.

[thehefner]

I think I know what you're trying to say, and it's a point I've been hearing a lot recently, between the Morrison Batman stuff and B:TB&TB. It really is one of the greatest things about the character and his world. But of course, there are certain takes I greater prefer over others. As long as those I prefer can still exist and be available in some form now and again, hell, I'm happy. Assuming that makes any sense. :)