34 Years Later, DC Officially Lets 2 Classic Villains Win With The Fairytale Ending They Deserve

Between DC Comics stories like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Batman: The Imposter, and Batman: Dark Patterns, Gotham City has made a name for itself as a wretched hive of scum and villainy, making Star Wars‘ Mos Eisley look like a paradise in comparison to the cesspool that no sane person should willingly choose to reside in. As both a root and a byproduct of this, Gotham is where you’ll typically find some of the most heinous and evil DC Comics villains, such as Victor Zsasz.

In fact, while the DC Comics crossover event Batman: Bad Seeds has posed some ridiculously high stakes, it’s realistically only a Tuesday in Gotham. What’s truly phenomenal about this event is how it carves out an adorable date night for the saddest couple in DC Comics history; “Two hearts of ice at the end of a lovers’ quarrel,” per Batman, and the most empathetic antagonists in Batman’s whole rogues’ gallery.

Detective Comics is a core Batman: Bad Seeds issue, and it’s easily the most climactic issue of the event thus far. However, it’s also stealthily a beautiful love letter to Victor and Nora Fries and all the strife they’ve endured since Nora’s prognosis.

Deliberately or not, this issue coincidentally marks the 100th issue since Nora made her first appearance as Mrs. Freeze in Detective Comics .

The Fries’ were absent for all of Matt Fraction’s Batman run until issue , where Batman spelunked below Gotham and met with them in the Kingdom of Cold in order to thwart the prehistoric flora that Batman: Bad Seeds had wrought. Here, Batman permits the Fries’ to achieve what Mister Freeze has always desired on behalf of Nora, and what Mrs. Freeze had desired ever since she was revived and bore her husband’s same blue hue: a brand-new ice age.

Therefore, Batman finds himself needing to be a “marriage counselor to psychopaths” as they journey to Gotham’s surface to trigger the Engine of Eternal Winter with 20 minutes to spare until sunrise, when Gotham will suddenly become inhospitable due to the successful terraforming of Poison Ivy’s ancient superbloom. Heartwarmingly, the Engine of Eternal Winter can only be activated via the combination of Victor and Nora’s blood because, as Victor states, “An eternal winter could only begin… with my eternal beloved.”

The prickly, conflicted lovers technically save the day with a cryokinetic pulse that flash-freezes Gotham and all the hostile plant life that inhabited it, and it’s incredibly poignant; Nora, once a prima ballerina, dances again, and Victor, being able to safely remove his helmet, embraces her. But Batman: Bad Seeds has not concluded yet.

DC Comics solicitations have revealed that Poison Ivy will become an Arkham Towers patient when the dust settles, and the Fries’ obviously won’t be enjoying their eternal winter forever. The solicitation for Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunrise reads as follows:

At sunset, Poison Ivy unleashed an attack that transformed Gotham City into a prehistoric nightmare. If she isn’t stopped by the first light of dawn, the city will be lost forever… along with all who dwell there. With the clock ticking, Batman and his allies will put it all on the line to save the day before everything changes forever at sunrise.

The superstar creative team of Matt Fraction, G. Willow Wilson, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Cliff Rathburn proudly presents the Earth-shattering conclusion to Batman: Bad Seeds in an oversize special that shows the only thing more impossible to survive than this night in Gotham… is the day.

At sunset, Poison Ivy unleashed an attack that transformed Gotham City into a prehistoric nightmare. If she isn’t stopped by the first light of dawn, the city will be lost forever… along with all who dwell there. With the clock ticking, Batman and his allies will put it all on the line to save the day before everything changes forever at sunrise.

The superstar creative team of Matt Fraction, G. Willow Wilson, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Cliff Rathburn proudly presents the Earth-shattering conclusion to Batman: Bad Seeds in an oversize special that shows the only thing more impossible to survive than this night in Gotham… is the day.