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Killer Frost: Comic Book Origins

Killer Frost: Comic Book Origins
VOICE OVER: Rebecca Brayton
Written by Andrew Labelle

Have comic books ever seen a villain this cold yet still so smokin' hot? Welcome to WatchMojo and today we will explore the comic book origins of DC's Killer Frost.

As with most comic book characters there are often re-imaginings and different versions to a character's past. We have chosen to primarily follow the storyline which unfolded in 1978's Firestorm: The Nuclear Man Vol01 # 03, 1984's Fury of Firestorm Vol02 #21 and 2013's Justice League of America Vol03 #7.2.


Special thanks to our users hjcg214, Stevon H. Valenzuela and Tristan Brown for suggesting this idea, check out the voting page at http://WatchMojo.comsuggest/Supervillain+Origins%3A+Killer+Frost
Written by Andrew Labelle

Supervillain Origin: Killer Frost


Have comic books ever seen a villain this cold yet still so smokin’ hot? Welcome to WatchMojo and today we will explore the comic book origins of DC’s Killer Frost.

As with most comic book characters there are often re-imaginings and different versions to a character’s past. We have chosen to primarily follow the storyline which unfolded in 1978’s Firestorm: The Nuclear Man Vol01 # 03, 1984’s Fury of Firestorm Vol02 #21 and 2013’s Justice League of America Vol03 #7.2.

Three women have carried the mantle of the surprisingly terrifying villain Killer Frost over the years. The first was a scientist named Crystal Frost.. Crystal was hopelessly infatuated with her college Dr. Stein and through no fault of Stein’s believed that he was as in love with her and she was with him. Unbeknownst to Crystal, Stein was one half of the being Firestorm, the fire based hero born from the combination of separate personalities. Those being Dr. Stein and high school student Ronnie Raymond.

When Stein and Crystal were assigned to an Arctic research base to perform experiments on temperature, Crystal used it as an opportunity to bring herself closer to Stein. When he rejected her advances however, Crystal stormed away and, distracted, accidently locked herself in the lab’s Thermofrost chamber. Stein and the rest of the team discovered Crystal far too late to save her from the effects of the chamber and when she was finally let out, they discovered that she had been transformed. Crystal was now a being of icy flesh with the power to absorb heat and project it back as cold.
Angered by her rejection and how the team had treated her, she attacked her former colleagues and the first Killer Frost was born.

Before she was able to finish Stein off however, Ronnie Raymond felt Stein’s peril from across the world and activated his Firestorm power. Transporting his essence across great distances, Raymond combined with Stein, formed Firestorm and fought Killer Frost. During the battle Firestorm realized that in order for her to use her powers, Frost must absorb heat. With his nuclear power, he changed the atoms in the room around them, and converted it into a new Thermofrost unit. Trapping her inside it meant that Frost had no heat to absorb and thus could no longer use her powers.

Crystal would return to battle Firestorm throughout the years, but her demise came in 1984 when she tried to directly absorb Firestorm’s nuclear powered heat. The fusion power within him proved to be too much for Crystal and she was ultimately destroyed by it.

In 1985 Killer Frost would return, this time as another scientist named Louise Lincoln. After attacking Firestorm, this new Killer Frost revealed that she had been a friend of Crystal Frost and to honor her friend’s memory, continued the work on thermodynamics that Crystal had left unfinished. Turning herself into the new Killer Frost, she swore revenge on Firestorm, holding him responsible for Crystal’s fate.

Over the years Louise Lincoln continued to battle the heroes of the DC universe. Lincoln’s long-standing reign as Killer Frost would go un-challenged for many years, but in 2005 she discovered that she had cancer. She came up with a plan to trick Firestorm into manipulating the atoms in her body and destroy the cancer cells. Her scheme worked but only temporarily, as Firestorm, realizing what he had done, quickly reversed the process and her cancer returned, making her dangerously ill and crippling her powers. Dude, that’s cold.

Of course this wasn’t the last we would see of Killer Frost. Lincoln returned again to take on Firestorm, this time employing the help of none other than the super villain Mr. Freeze. We never learn how she was able to cure her cancer, but it might have something to do with Freeze, who is revealed to be Killer Frost’s new lover. The pair of villains were still no match for Firestorm and his allies however, and the two are defeated with the help of Batman who had been tracking the frozen couple. After their failure to kill Firestorm, Frost dumps Freeze and it is clear that she was only using him to help her get revenge.

In 2013, after DC’s New 52 reboot, Killer Frost’s origin was changed and a woman named Caitlin Snow became the modern iteration of Killer Frost. A woman with a twisted fascination for cold, Dr. Snow was a researcher for S.T.A.R. Labs who was sent to Arctic Lab #72 following the suspicious death of one of the lab’s previous researcher’s, Dr. Lincoln. Snow’s fascination for all things frosty motivated her to work around the clock, continuing Lincoln’s research into thermaodynamics.

As soon as the project was completed, Snow’s fellow scientists reveal themselves to be spies for the super villain terrorist organization known as H.I.V.E sent to steal S.T.A.R. Labs’ technology. With her job finished, the H.I.V.E. agents tried to dispose of Snow inside her own creation, the Thermodynamic Ultraconductor Engine. The device didn’t kill Snow however, instead it transformed her into… Killer Frost duh duh duh! After brutally killing the H.I.V.E. agents, Snow discovered that, despite her cold personality, she needed to feed off heat in order to survive. As a result, she was now forced to kill in order to stay alive, by stealing the heat from other people and using it to feed herself. She returned to the civilized world and became a villain, needing to murder to stay alive while seeking a cure to her condition at any cost. Her rampage brought her into conflict with Firestorm. Upon discovering that his nuclear power may be the key to unlocking a cure for her condition, she became obsessed with the hero, and constantly fought him just so she could gather data on his powers.

Killer Frost may only be one of a number of ice powered villains in the DC universe, but her unique personality and motivations have made her a favorite villain among DC comic book fans. Over the years all of Killer Frosts identities have appeared in throughout DC animation and live action as she continues to gain in popularity.

Are you a fan of comic book’s most notorious literal ice maiden? For more chilling videos published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
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