Nora Fries
Encyclopedia
Nora Fries is a fictional character
from DC Comics
and a supervillainess enemy of Batman
known as Lazara. She is the wife of villain Mr. Freeze
, and is introduced in Batman: The Animated Series
.
researcher working for GothCorp, Nora is diagnosed with a terminal illness
. Fries uses the company's equipment to cryogenically freeze his wife until a cure can be found. GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle cuts the funding and later goes into Fries' laboratory to shut down the project personally with some security guards. According to “Heart of Ice” and “The Batman Adventures Holiday Special”, Nora is presumed dead after the resulting scuffle, which destroys the lab. Nora is still alive within her chamber, however.
Victor, who has by then become Mr. Freeze, eventually retrieves Nora's chamber and keeps it in his cave in the Arctic
until Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
, when Nora's chamber is broken. No longer frozen, Nora does not have long to live. In desperation, Freeze bribes an old colleague into helping her. This leads to Freeze hunting down Barbara Gordon
, one of the few women on hospital records with Nora's rare blood type. Freeze plans to use Barbara for a fatal organ transplant
to save Nora, but Batman intervenes. Nora is ultimately cured by Dr. Francis D'Anjou of Wayne Enterprises
.
According to The New Batman Adventures
episode "Cold Comfort", Nora waits for the missing and presumed dead Freeze for some time before she decides to marry her doctor. This subplot is expanded in Batman Adventures, a comic series based on Batman: The Animated Series.
The web cartoon Gotham Girls
also reveals that Nora has a younger sister named Dora Smithy. Dora is very close to Nora and hates Victor Fries for keeping her sister in a coma
. Nora's campaign against costumed vigilante
s and villains results in her becoming one herself in the series finale.
By the time of Batman Beyond
, Nora is not seen; however, when Mr. Freeze (whose frozen body slows his aging to an almost immortal
level) returns to his normal human self of Victor Fries in the episode "Meltdown", he starts a Nora Fries Foundation in memory of his wife.
Nora Fries has never had a voice actress; in her only appearances in the animated series, she is always unconscious (usually floating in the cryogenic tank) and, she is only seen awake in photographs and in issues of Batman Adventures. Jason Hall, who wrote her appearances in Batman Gotham Adventures #51 and Batman Adventures #15 establishes Nora as being a scientist herself. Nora's personality and reason for her devotion to Victor is further developed in that issue. Nora feels guilty over the fact that Victor neglects his condition while tending to her own, which results in his body deteriorating to only a head. Nora's new husband, Francis D'Anjou, is jealous of Nora's lingering feelings for Victor and hides all of the letters that Victor writes her. Once Nora finds out that Victor still cares, after finding one of the letters, she tries to pursue him. Nora is shown to be deeply in love with Victor and tries to make their relationship work, but Victor's criminal past keeps it from happening.
During a later appearance, D'Anjou is abducted by Grant Walker — a man who had forced Freeze to subject him to the same treatments as he had undergone — to research a cure for his condition, forcing Nightwing
and Batgirl
to team up with Mr. Freeze to stop Walker after Batman is incapacitated. After Walker is defeated, Nightwing and Batgirl remotely deactivate Freeze's body to stop him killing Walker, but Freeze simply ejects his head and escapes.
, hoping to sustain her until a cure can be found. In time her husband will become one of Batman's well known enemies, Mr. Freeze. Over time she falls to pieces in her ice state, but Freeze puts her back together again.
by creating a machine for the Society that can also be used to capture Batgirl
. In return, Nyssa helps him restore his wife using the Lazarus Pit
. Because of all the years of being altered and broken, Nora absorbs the pit's alchemy, acquiring the powers to conjure flame and reanimate the dead.
She becomes a supervillainess, calling herself Lazara.
, Nora Fries becomes Lazara. Lazara is a supervillainess who can summon fire and raise the dead. She blames her husband, Victor Fries, for her transformation.
) has yet to find a cure, although he has managed to cure the first few stages of the disease where nobody else is even close.
At one point in the movie, Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman
), who is infatuated with Mr. Freeze and his powers, pulls the plug on Nora’s machine in an attempt to kill her and have Freeze to herself. She fails, as Nora lives, and Batman has her sent to Arkham Asylum
so that Mr. Freeze can continue his research for a cure during his imprisonment there, simultaneously convincing Freeze to give him the cure for Stage One MacGregor's Syndrome, of which Alfred
is currently dying. Freeze also uses this opportunity to exact his revenge on Ivy for trying to kill his wife.
entitled "The Big Chill". In the episode, she is briefly shown in pictures in her husband's car before the accident that turns him into Mr. Freeze. Not much else is known about her.
as they speak, causing Victor to go into a rage and promise Strange he will rescue his beloved Nora before he returns to kill Strange. Nora's biography states that she was a gifted dancer.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
and a supervillainess enemy of Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
known as Lazara. She is the wife of villain Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze, real name Dr. Victor Fries , is a DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Batman. Created by Bob Kane, he first appeared in Batman #121 ....
, and is introduced in Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
.
History on Batman: The Animated Series
After marrying Victor Fries, a cryogenicsCryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
researcher working for GothCorp, Nora is diagnosed with a terminal illness
Terminal illness
Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as...
. Fries uses the company's equipment to cryogenically freeze his wife until a cure can be found. GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle cuts the funding and later goes into Fries' laboratory to shut down the project personally with some security guards. According to “Heart of Ice” and “The Batman Adventures Holiday Special”, Nora is presumed dead after the resulting scuffle, which destroys the lab. Nora is still alive within her chamber, however.
Victor, who has by then become Mr. Freeze, eventually retrieves Nora's chamber and keeps it in his cave in the Arctic
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
until Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero is a 1998 direct-to-video animated feature film based on Batman: The Animated Series and is a sequel to the episode Deep Freeze. It won the Annie Award for Best Home Video Animation. It was produced by Warner Bros...
, when Nora's chamber is broken. No longer frozen, Nora does not have long to live. In desperation, Freeze bribes an old colleague into helping her. This leads to Freeze hunting down Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and in related media, created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino...
, one of the few women on hospital records with Nora's rare blood type. Freeze plans to use Barbara for a fatal organ transplant
Organ transplant
Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
to save Nora, but Batman intervenes. Nora is ultimately cured by Dr. Francis D'Anjou of Wayne Enterprises
Wayne Enterprises
Wayne Enterprises is a company in the DC Universe, owned by Bruce Wayne and run by his business manager, Lucius Fox. It was founded by merchant ancestors of the Wayne family in the 17th century as a merchant house, although the company changed when the heir of Judge Solomon Wayne, Alan, utilized...
.
According to The New Batman Adventures
The New Batman Adventures
The New Batman Adventures is the successor to Batman: The Animated Series produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Although bearing different character designs and animation styles, both shows take place in the same continuity, with TNBA set two years after BTAS. The series aired on The WB from...
episode "Cold Comfort", Nora waits for the missing and presumed dead Freeze for some time before she decides to marry her doctor. This subplot is expanded in Batman Adventures, a comic series based on Batman: The Animated Series.
The web cartoon Gotham Girls
Gotham Girls
Gotham Girls is an American Flash animation series about the females of Gotham City, created and produced jointly by Warner Brothers and Noodle Soup Productions in 2002...
also reveals that Nora has a younger sister named Dora Smithy. Dora is very close to Nora and hates Victor Fries for keeping her sister in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
. Nora's campaign against costumed vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
s and villains results in her becoming one herself in the series finale.
By the time of Batman Beyond
Batman Beyond
Batman Beyond is an American animated television series created by Warner Bros. Animation in collaboration with DC Comics as a continuation of the Batman legacy...
, Nora is not seen; however, when Mr. Freeze (whose frozen body slows his aging to an almost immortal
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
level) returns to his normal human self of Victor Fries in the episode "Meltdown", he starts a Nora Fries Foundation in memory of his wife.
Nora Fries has never had a voice actress; in her only appearances in the animated series, she is always unconscious (usually floating in the cryogenic tank) and, she is only seen awake in photographs and in issues of Batman Adventures. Jason Hall, who wrote her appearances in Batman Gotham Adventures #51 and Batman Adventures #15 establishes Nora as being a scientist herself. Nora's personality and reason for her devotion to Victor is further developed in that issue. Nora feels guilty over the fact that Victor neglects his condition while tending to her own, which results in his body deteriorating to only a head. Nora's new husband, Francis D'Anjou, is jealous of Nora's lingering feelings for Victor and hides all of the letters that Victor writes her. Once Nora finds out that Victor still cares, after finding one of the letters, she tries to pursue him. Nora is shown to be deeply in love with Victor and tries to make their relationship work, but Victor's criminal past keeps it from happening.
During a later appearance, D'Anjou is abducted by Grant Walker — a man who had forced Freeze to subject him to the same treatments as he had undergone — to research a cure for his condition, forcing Nightwing
Nightwing
Nightwing is a name that has been used by several fictional characters in the DC Comics Universe. It was conceived as a Kryptonian analogue to the character of Batman, with Nightwing's frequent partner Flamebird based on Robin...
and Batgirl
Batgirl
Batgirl is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, frequently depicted as female counterparts to the superhero Batman...
to team up with Mr. Freeze to stop Walker after Batman is incapacitated. After Walker is defeated, Nightwing and Batgirl remotely deactivate Freeze's body to stop him killing Walker, but Freeze simply ejects his head and escapes.
Falling ill
Nora is an attractive and gentle girl. She meets Victor Fries in a strict boarding school, and later marries him. Shortly after their marriage, Nora falls terminally ill. Victor discovers a way to put Nora into cryostasisCryopreservation
Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...
, hoping to sustain her until a cure can be found. In time her husband will become one of Batman's well known enemies, Mr. Freeze. Over time she falls to pieces in her ice state, but Freeze puts her back together again.
Lazara
Freeze helps Nyssa al GhulNyssa Raatko
Nyssa Raatko is a fictional character, an assassin and terrorist created by Greg Rucka and Klaus Janson for the Batman series of comic books.-Fictional character biography:...
by creating a machine for the Society that can also be used to capture Batgirl
Cassandra Cain
Cassandra Cain is a fictional character in the , one of several who has served as Batgirl, an important character in the Batman comic book franchise. Cassandra's backstory presents her as the daughter of assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva, she was deprived of speech and human contact during her...
. In return, Nyssa helps him restore his wife using the Lazarus Pit
Lazarus Pit
A Lazarus Pit is a fictional natural phenomenon in the . They are primarily found in the Batman titles and are commonly used by Ra's al Ghul for their restorative powers.-Fictional history:...
. Because of all the years of being altered and broken, Nora absorbs the pit's alchemy, acquiring the powers to conjure flame and reanimate the dead.
She becomes a supervillainess, calling herself Lazara.
Powers and abilities
After emerging from the Lazarus PitLazarus Pit
A Lazarus Pit is a fictional natural phenomenon in the . They are primarily found in the Batman titles and are commonly used by Ra's al Ghul for their restorative powers.-Fictional history:...
, Nora Fries becomes Lazara. Lazara is a supervillainess who can summon fire and raise the dead. She blames her husband, Victor Fries, for her transformation.
Batman & Robin
Nora Fries is played by supermodel Vendela Kirsebom Thomessen in the movie Batman & Robin. She is cryogenically frozen throughout the movie, and the only lines she has are in her and Mr. Freeze's wedding video. In this film, her disease is the fictional MacGregor's Syndrome. Batman reveals that she has the most advanced stages of this disease, for which Mr. Freeze (Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
) has yet to find a cure, although he has managed to cure the first few stages of the disease where nobody else is even close.
At one point in the movie, Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
), who is infatuated with Mr. Freeze and his powers, pulls the plug on Nora’s machine in an attempt to kill her and have Freeze to herself. She fails, as Nora lives, and Batman has her sent to Arkham Asylum
Arkham Asylum
The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, commonly referred to simply as Arkham Asylum, is a fictional psychiatric hospital in the DC Comics Universe, usually appearing in stories featuring Batman...
so that Mr. Freeze can continue his research for a cure during his imprisonment there, simultaneously convincing Freeze to give him the cure for Stage One MacGregor's Syndrome, of which Alfred
Alfred Pennyworth
Alfred Pennyworth is a fictional character that appears throughout the DC Comics franchise. The character first appears in Batman #16 , and was created by writer Bob Kane and artist Jerry Robinson. Alfred serves as Batman’s tireless butler, assistant, confidant, and surrogate father figure...
is currently dying. Freeze also uses this opportunity to exact his revenge on Ivy for trying to kill his wife.
The Batman
Nora also appears in the episode of The BatmanThe Batman (TV series)
The Batman is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. It ran from 2004 to 2008, on the Saturday morning television block Kids' WB...
entitled "The Big Chill". In the episode, she is briefly shown in pictures in her husband's car before the accident that turns him into Mr. Freeze. Not much else is known about her.
Batman: Arkham City
Nora Fries appears in Batman: Arkham City, once again in cryostasis. Mr. Freeze asks Batman to find her location in Arkham City, in exchange for developing a cure for the poison The Joker infected Batman with. The player can find Nora and relay her location to Mr. Freeze in a side mission, aptly named "Heart of Ice". Mr. Freeze's interview tapes recount him first meeting Nora at a reform school and marrying her soon after, only to realize Nora had a fatal illness and little time left to live. Freeze worked for weeks, literally without food or sleep for up to a week at times. Nora began trying to stop Victor's crusade until she agrees to be frozen, after which a tired Fries oversleeps. His experiment is discovered by Ferris Boyle, who claims that everything in Victor's test, including Mrs. Nora Fries, was legally his, causing her husband to attack Boyle. Boyle knocks him into his cryogenic chemicals and leaves him to die, after which Victor becomes Mr. Freeze and plans to murder Boyle and reclaim his wife. While he failed to killed Boyle due to Batman's interference he thanks the Dark Knight for exposing Boyle and returning him his beloved Nora. Dr. Hugo Strange, Arkham City's warden, reveals Nora is being delivered to the JokerJoker (comics)
The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...
as they speak, causing Victor to go into a rage and promise Strange he will rescue his beloved Nora before he returns to kill Strange. Nora's biography states that she was a gifted dancer.
External links
- Nora Fries at the DC Database
- Nora Fries at the DC Animated Universe Wiki