# Nora Fries
**Nora Fries** is a fictional character in [DC Comics](https://www.edgepedia.org/dc-comics)' Batman stories, the terminally ill wife of the cryogenics expert Victor Fries, better known as the villain [Mr. Freeze](https://www.edgepedia.org/mr-freeze). Created by [Paul Dini](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-dini) for the episode "Heart of Ice" of *Batman: The Animated Series*, she first appeared on television in 1992, entered the comics in *Batman: Mr. Freeze* (1997), and has since been revived, renamed, and reimagined across DC's main continuity, including stints as the super-villains Lazara and Mrs. Freeze.[1](https://dcuguide.com/Nora_Fries) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103359/faq/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Created by | Paul Dini, with Bruce Timm, for *Batman: The Animated Series*[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103359/faq/) |
| First appearance | Television: "Heart of Ice" (aired September 7, 1992); comics: *Batman: Mr. Freeze* (1997)[3](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/) |
| Role in Mr. Freeze's origin | Victor Fries, an expert in cryogenics, froze his terminally ill wife in suspended animation to buy time for a cure; the loss and obsession that follow define his villainy[4](https://www.dc.com/characters/mister-freeze) |
| Supervillain identities | Lazara (after a Lazarus Pit revival, *Batgirl* #69–#70, 2005–2006); Mrs. Freeze (*Detective Comics* #1014, 2019)[5](https://www.dc.com/blog/2021/01/04/fury-and-frost-five-chilling-facts-you-dont-know-about-mr-freeze) • [6](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mrs._Freeze) |
| Alternate names by continuity | Nora Smithy (DC Animated Universe), Nora Fields (New 52), Nora Fields Fries (Rebirth)[7](https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries) |
## Origin in animation
Nora Fries did not begin in comics. The 1992 *Batman: The Animated Series* episode "Heart of Ice", written by Paul Dini, gave the previously one-note ice-themed villain a new identity, Victor Fries, and a new motive: he had cryogenically frozen his terminally ill wife, Nora, while searching for a cure for her condition, and the corporation funding his work shut the experiments down, causing the lab accident that made him unable to survive above freezing temperatures.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103359/faq/) • [4](https://www.dc.com/characters/mister-freeze) The character was created for the series and pre-emptively introduced into mainstream comics before her animated debut aired.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103359/faq/)
The episode earned the animated series an Emmy, and viewers responded strongly to the sympathetic backstory. The 1997 film *Batman & Robin* adapted Mr. Freeze's backstory not from the comics but from "Heart of Ice", and the comics themselves then adopted the animated origin as canon, starting with *Batman: Mr. Freeze* in 1997.[8](https://www.dc.com/blog/2022/07/18/from-comics-to-movies-to-myth-how-dc-media-changes-the-comics) In the film's script, Nora's illness is named MacGregor's Syndrome, a name that has carried into later media.[9](https://cemp.ac.uk/scriptzone/script.php?id=72&type=download)
## In the comics
**Lazara.** Nora's first major comics storyline gave her agency of a destructive kind. In *Batgirl* #69–#70 (December 2005 and January 2006), Mr. Freeze threw his wife into a Lazarus Pit, the [League of Assassins](https://www.edgepedia.org/league-of-assassins) device that restores the dead. The woman who emerged was not the person Victor remembered: she resented what he had done to her, gained the Pit's powers, and became the flame-wielding villain Lazara before Victor froze her again.[3](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/) • [5](https://www.dc.com/blog/2021/01/04/fury-and-frost-five-chilling-facts-you-dont-know-about-mr-freeze) DC's own retrospective notes that since her introduction Nora has been revived more than once, never to good results.[5](https://www.dc.com/blog/2021/01/04/fury-and-frost-five-chilling-facts-you-dont-know-about-mr-freeze)
**The New 52.** The 2011 continuity reboot removed the marriage. The character was renamed Nora Fields and first appeared in *Batman Annual* #1 (July 2012) as a young woman with an incurable heart disease who had been cryogenically frozen by [Wayne Enterprises](https://www.edgepedia.org/wayne-enterprises) in the 1940s; Victor Fries, attempting to cure her, developed an obsession rather than a relationship, and the shutdown of his research by Bruce Wayne set him on the villain's path.[3](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/)
**Rebirth and Mrs. Freeze.** [DC Rebirth](https://www.edgepedia.org/dc-rebirth) restored Nora as Victor's frozen wife. In the 2019 "Year of the Villain" storyline, *Detective Comics* #1014–#1016 by writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Doug Mahnke finally cured her: [Lex Luthor](https://www.edgepedia.org/lex-luthor) provided a serum in exchange for Mr. Freeze's support, and the procedure changed Nora into a form similar to her husband's, adapted to subzero conditions.[6](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mrs._Freeze) • [10](https://www.dc.com/blog/2019/11/11/first-look-mrs-freezes-chilling-arrival) Restoring her required Victor to abduct several innocent women for experimentation, which put Batman on his trail.[10](https://www.dc.com/blog/2019/11/11/first-look-mrs-freezes-chilling-arrival)
The revival cost Victor more than he expected. Nora took joy in destruction that he regarded only as a necessary evil, and, equipped with her own cryo-suit and freeze weaponry, she took the name Mrs. Freeze and launched a murderous crime spree.[10](https://www.dc.com/blog/2019/11/11/first-look-mrs-freezes-chilling-arrival) • [11](https://www.comics.org/issue/2042129/?display=grid) Batman and Mr. Freeze teamed up to stop her,[11](https://www.comics.org/issue/2042129/?display=grid) and Nora left her husband to pursue her own criminal career, later joining the WildC.A.T.s.[6](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mrs._Freeze) Reviewers of the arc noted that the story finally moved the couple's long-static status quo forward rather than returning Nora to her coma-like frozen state.[12](https://dccomicsnews.com/2019/12/07/review-detective-comics-1016/)
## The DCAU version
Within the [DC Animated Universe](https://www.edgepedia.org/dc-animated-universe) continuity, Nora remained a largely silent figure on screen; she was the linchpin of the character revamp but never spoke in her animated appearances.[13](https://dcau.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries) • [14](https://www.gabbinggeek.com/2025/02/06/slightly-misplaced-comic-book-characters-case-file-514-nora-fries/) The direct-to-video film *[Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero](https://www.edgepedia.org/batman-and-mr-freeze-subzero)* (1998) centered on Victor's attempt to save her, and the tie-in comic *The Batman and Robin Adventures: Sub-Zero* was her first DCAU comic appearance in May 1998.[3](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/)
The animated tie-in comics then took her story in a different direction. In *The New Batman Adventures* era she was thawed, cured, and remarried a doctor, Francis D'Anjou, a change continued in the tie-in comics.[3](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/)
## Other media
Nora has appeared widely outside the comics. In the [Arrowverse](https://www.edgepedia.org/arrowverse), her known illness is MacGregor's Syndrome, and she used her husband's freeze gun after a breakout from [Arkham Asylum](https://www.edgepedia.org/arkham-asylum).[15](https://arrow.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries) She appears in the animated series *[Harley Quinn](https://www.edgepedia.org/harley-quinn-tv-series)*, credited there as "Nora Freeze", a spelling used consistently in that show.[16](https://harleyquinn.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Freeze)
In video games, the Arkhamverse version of Nora appears in *Batman: Arkham City* and the *Arkham Knight* downloadable story "In From the Cold"; the 2024 game *Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League* introduced a separate character, Victoria Frias, a gender-bent Victor Fries who used the Mrs. Freeze name after freezing an entire Earth, created by [Sefton Hill](https://www.edgepedia.org/sefton-hill), Ian Ball, and Martin Lancaster.[6](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mrs._Freeze) • [17](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries_%28Arkhamverse%29)
## Why the character matters
Nora Fries began as a plot device: a frozen woman whose existence justified her husband's crimes. Her later history shows DC repeatedly testing what happens when she wakes up. Each revival has changed her relationship to Victor: the Lazarus Pit made her a resentful stranger, the New 52 dissolved the marriage entirely, and the Rebirth cure turned a devoted wife into an independent villain. The animated tie-in comics are the notable exception, keeping her affection for Victor intact after her cure.[5](https://www.dc.com/blog/2021/01/04/fury-and-frost-five-chilling-facts-you-dont-know-about-mr-freeze) • [3](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/)
The underlying problem is structural. Mr. Freeze's tragedy works as a closed story, and each new appearance of the character requires writers to decide what, if anything, remains of the wife he froze; since 1992 the answer has ranged from "still frozen, awaiting a cure" to "dead", "remarried", "a fire-wielding villain", and "an ice-wielding one".[3](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/)
## References
1. [Nora Fries, DCU Guide](https://dcuguide.com/Nora_Fries)
2. [Batman: The Animated Series FAQ, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103359/faq/)
3. [Nora Fries character record, Grand Comics Database](https://my.comics.org/character/41569/)
4. [Mister Freeze, Official DC Character page](https://www.dc.com/characters/mister-freeze)
5. [Fury and Frost: Five Chilling Facts You Don't Know About Mr. Freeze, DC.com (2021)](https://www.dc.com/blog/2021/01/04/fury-and-frost-five-chilling-facts-you-dont-know-about-mr-freeze)
6. [Mrs. Freeze (disambiguation), DC Database](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mrs._Freeze)
7. [Nora Fries, Batman Wiki](https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries)
8. [From Comics to Movies to Myth: How DC Media Changes the Comics, DC.com (2022)](https://www.dc.com/blog/2022/07/18/from-comics-to-movies-to-myth-how-dc-media-changes-the-comics)
9. [Batman & Robin screenplay, SciFiScripts via CEMP](https://cemp.ac.uk/scriptzone/script.php?id=72&type=download)
10. [First Look: Mrs. Freeze's Chilling Arrival, DC.com (2019)](https://www.dc.com/blog/2019/11/11/first-look-mrs-freezes-chilling-arrival)
11. [Detective Comics #1016 issue index, Grand Comics Database](https://www.comics.org/issue/2042129/?display=grid)
12. [Review: Detective Comics #1016, DC Comics News (2019)](https://dccomicsnews.com/2019/12/07/review-detective-comics-1016/)
13. [Nora Fries, DC Animated Universe Wiki](https://dcau.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries)
14. [Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #514: Nora Fries, Gabbing Geek (2025)](https://www.gabbinggeek.com/2025/02/06/slightly-misplaced-comic-book-characters-case-file-514-nora-fries/)
15. [Nora Fries, Arrowverse Wiki](https://arrow.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries)
16. [Nora Freeze, Harley Quinn Wiki](https://harleyquinn.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Freeze)
17. [Nora Fries (Arkhamverse), DC Database](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Nora_Fries_%28Arkhamverse%29)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Film characters and fictional worlds › DC Comics characters › Batman characters and elements*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license