Dr. Victor Fries was an accomplished cryogenicist whose beloved wife Nora was stricken with a fatal degenerative disease. Fries placed her in suspended animation while searching for a way to cure her. But GothCorp's CEO Ferris Boyle stopped funding the research—and Nora's life—and pulled the plug, triggering an accident that transformed Fries' body into a cold-blooded form that must always be kept at subzero temperatures; at normal room temperature he will die. Wielding several freezing weapons, he wears a protective cryogenic suit in his quest to somehow restore his wife to full health and avenge her fate—which he partly holds Batman responsible for.