God thank Dan Jurgens for thinking of bringing a lady to life as a science fiction character when he wanted to produce a science fiction film out of a comic book character.
Dr. Caitlin Snow was created as a young, curious, hardworking physicist in order to dispel the stereotype that science and comic books are predominantly male-centric. Dr. Snow was a S.T.A.R. Labs agent assigned to one of the company’s Arctic outposts to continue work on the Self-sustaining Thermodynamic Ultraconductor Engine.
What we are going to look at is how this seemingly bright woman became one of the DC Universe’s most feared villains.
KILLER FROST: The Journey
If the tale of chilly (pun-intended) Killer Frost was to be summed up, one could say that a genius STAR Labs physicist met industrial sabotage in unfathomed ways, leading her to exist as less human, more heat-vampire with a need to steal warmth for survival. The struggle to be the good person one has been all their lives having frankly, predatory cryogenic powers, to say the least, is the conflict story that even an immersed reader would struggle to take sides on.
Her struggle is truly expressed in her admission, “The only way I could feel warm, the only way to melt the ice in my veins… was to kill.” Survival instincts aren’t only human, after all? Her character arc though, is undoubtedly one of the most *chef kiss* beautiful of all in the DC world, as she ended up joining the Justice League of America! Curious how THAT happened, let’s talk all about it.
A young woman who went by the name of Caitlin Snow was a brilliant, genius scientist. Assigned to work on an admittedly underfunded S.T.A.R. Labs outpost in the Arctic Circle, Dr. Snow was diligent and kept in mind the hard work that her senior Dr. Louise Lincoln had been putting into the Self-Sustaining Thermodynamic Ultraconductor Engine which had now become the subject for her work-development. She was warned against it by her colleagues, for reasons unbeknownst to her at that point.
Her success in completing the Engine gave her results she could not have imagined….in a bad way. Her colleagues revealed themselves to be H.I.V.E. agents who had a hand in killing Dr. Lincoln, to preserve H.I.V.E.’s interests in the energy business and never make the Engine public.
Dr. Snow ended up being held captive in the Engine as it was working, and in a state of panic to escape, she ended up ripping out the coolant system’s wire. As a result, she got drenched in the coolant which entirely infused into her biology. Realizing she now had superpowers that essentially made her a heat-seeking vampire, she managed to escape but only after completing the vengeance she sought, that is, killing the H.I.V.E. agents.
Dr. Snow had to, however, continue her search for sources of heat to survive. In that quest, she ended up attacking a Norwegian camp station conducting research. In a helicopter that she stole from them, she flew to her hometown and met Firestorm, who she had to battle. Throughout the duration of the fight, it kept coming upon her that Firestorm’s powers were temporarily healing her. Deciding upon her unwarranted savior being Firestorm, Dr. Snow was now completely invested in confronting him and recreating the Firestorm Matrix.
Now going by the name of Killer Frost, she was captured a little while after and forcibly made a part of the Suicide Squad in Belle Reve. Killer Frost, however, saved the world from Eclipso, a reform that gained her Batman’s trust and faith. Batman got her parole from Belle Reve, eventually making her a part of the new Justice League of America. Trust wasn’t what she got from all of her teammates at the new place, as she was mistaken to be a rogue felon and remained unforgiven for her past by the likes of Black Canary, and even Lobo who himself had a dark past.
The only non-judgemental eyes on her were Batman’s and Ryan Choi’s. Ryan was the new Atom, and Caitlin’s immediate connection with him in their expertise – the field of science – led to an enviable friendship and bond. Romantic feelings – come on, you cannot tell me you were not expecting that – aside, they promised each-other help, above all. While Caitlin needed a cure for her condition, Ryan was trying to find his mentor Ray Palmer who was lost.
The adventures of the Justice League of America were often life-threatening, to say the least. It was on one of these adrenaline-pumping life gameplay, that Caitlin finally confessed to Ryan. Love and feelings came to light in the most human way in the superhero world, and there began a slow but steady relationship. The inability to be physically intimate because of Caitlin’s condition drove her to frustration, though.
When Prometheus attacked the team, it was this frustration that led to her systematic downfall, as she believed him and allowed herself to be led to a room she did not know was at freezing temperatures. Before her body could shut down completely, however, Ryan and Black Canary rescued her. But, she was so drained of energy and heat – in need of stability – that her heat vampirism caused her to almost drive Afterthought to death.
Scarred by these happenings and wanting a permanent cure, she came up with a deal. With who you might wonder, who was at the other end of it? THE Queen of Fables. Ultimately though, Caitlin was unable to sacrifice the world for her own sake because, at the end of the day, the good in her remained as she could love, feel, and care.
Dr. Snow ended up reneging on her deal by seeking help from the Justice League of America to defeat The Queen of Fables. The cost of the Queen’s defeat was Caitlin’s cure, which no one complained about, however, another good came out of this happening where Caitlin had an awakening. She made the careful decision to re-evaluate herself, gauging her needs to be a result of a chronic condition rather than something that required a permanent cure.
KILLER FROST: The Villain’s First Appearance on Page
Killer Frost is exquisitely portrayed in all her alluring villain-glory for the first time in The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, Issue 19. She showed up with her allies, Hyena, Black Bison, Typhoon, and Plastique right when Ronnie and Jason are about to escape from the warehouse that Ronnie’s mother was kept in after her kidnapping. Multiplex, the super-villain who had done the deed of kidnapping, was at that point knocked out by Firestorm. Jason’s dad and Tonya who are later seen as driving to the scene, realize that Ronnie and Jason have walked headfirst into a trap set out by the enemies.
In the altercation, when Firestorm attempts to shield Ronnie’s mother from Killer Frost’s deadly blast of ice-shards, he is thrown out of a window and into the water near the warehouse. Even as he recovers and just about saves Joann from Hyena’s clutches, Killer Frost strikes again and freezes him. A firestorm, of course, cannot use his transmutation powers anymore, and helplessly watches Killer Frost slowly suffocating Ronnie’s mother with ice. Multiplex meanwhile, regains consciousness and arrives to demand more power from Firestorm.
Meanwhile, General Eiling is seen to have released mediums to end Firestorm, unbeknownst to anyone. Joann is freed from the ice trap but Multiplex is more powerful by then. However, Jason manages to shrink Multiplex’s masks causing breathing difficulties for his duplicates. Once again, right as they are about to escape, they are surrounded by the other villains from Multiplex’s ‘rogue gallery’, and the last we see is an explosion ripping through the area right when Jason’s dad and Tonya arrive.
Firestorm lay motionless on their car after the explosion and the crash from the warehouse window this time around seems to have killed him. Dan Jurgens does a wonderful job of showing how as powerful as Firestorm is, he CAN NOT handle multiple enemies at once, probably because of his inexperience.
The fact that he doesn’t realize that, is what makes the reader aware of the very human nature of this whole ‘act’. Ronnie and Jason together seem to fall short of ways to counter them because they do not KNOW how to. It can be safely said that Killer Frost is the first one to realize that and exploit it, and boy you DO need to read the comic to see why we can say that!
Aesthetically, the enemies aren’t supposed to be the highlight in this comic, but Jurgens makes the efforts to bring them all up with meticulous detail, yet not overshadowing the hero of the comic. While we only see so much of Killer Frost, she has her moments throughout and apart from the above factors, it is perhaps the sheer hard work of Jurgens, and the artist’s Ray McCarthy and Karl Kesel that makes Frost command the attention of the reader on-page.
That, with Hi-Fi’s brilliant colors, and lettering by Travis Lanham is the cherry on the cake. The cliff-hanger in this Issue leaves not just the heroes, but the villains – including Frost – in a place no one would know until the next Issue is read.
KILLER FROST: DC vs. The Flash
For a large part of the comic universe, Killer Frost is embellished as a villain and a true force for pure evil. There is a bend in her character arc when she joins forces with the new Justice League of America, but the stint is relatively small compared to her anti-hero era, put up against the likes of Firestorm and The Flash.
The comic leads us to believe that Killer Frost is the psychic superpowered entity who was wronged by her fellow scientists at the Arctic outpost she was stationed for her work as a S.T.A.R. physicist. Frost remains essentially, an independent being in full control of her actions. No outside force actually compels her to commit ‘bad actions’, and she makes a conscious choice to do those.
The Flash credited to CW however, changes all these to a great extent, wherein the tale revolves around a heroic scientist, a member of the S.T.A.R. Labs, and Team Flash, who fights for good on the heroes’ side from the beginning. This minute change then side-tracks to Frost misusing her powers, mysteriously making her an evil entity ‘Khoine’ who overpowers the good, sentient scientist persona in her. That essentially is an alteration of the facts on how she was born, something that, unlike the comics, the show never reveals.
The hard deviation comes in the aspect of relationships. Killer Frost debuted with the Firestorm comic series but never had any romantic connections with The Nuclear Man, and remained the epitome of an antithesis to one who was known as the Master of Fire. CW alters this to make her the representative of the good side except when she is taken control of and has a romantic interest in her otherwise nemesis. To be honest though, the show probably always meant for Dr. Caitlin Snow to embrace her alter-ego, and this connection makes sense in that aspect.
KILLER FROST: The Powerhouse
Let’s face it – reading the Killer Frost will actually make it glaringly obvious that she is one of those characters who have well-balanced superpowers and weaknesses. Above all, Dr. Caitlin Snow is a genius, being the youngest of her rank at S.T.A.R. Labs, solving complicated equations in surprisingly short times, and operating heavy, difficult-to-handle machinery.
Her eventual new state as Crystal Frost is as primal as it could be, not being made of ice but still encased in permafrost from the organic ice-like cells that her changed genetics cause her to generate. The cryokinesis enables this woman to literally throw shards of sharp ice at her opponents, quite enough to send them to the heavens up above, or hell down below – as is deserved. Dr. Snow, ironically and somehow still not so, can create a powerful ice storm that would have her opponents meet the fate she desires.
Apart from being allergic to cinnamon to the extent that her swellings could kill her – an issue which only antihistamine can cure for Dr. Snow – all these superpowers have the one fallback that turns out to be Killer Frost’s weakness. Her inability to survive unless she absorbs heat from other sources on a regular basis even in areas where temperatures remain cold for too long or all the time will eventually lead her to death as her body stops functioning. That makes her immune to overheating, however, so every cloud has a silver lining, one may say?
KILLER FROST: DC’s Overview and an Analysis
If Ice is the most reputed arctic hero in the DC universe, Caitlin Snow as ‘Killer Frost’ comes pretty close to outdoing them. Technically, Dr. Snow is not the first but the third character to take that name. Crystal Frost was the first form that Frost took when she was the lover of Firestorm’s Professor Martin Stein.
Eventually becoming the murderous Killer Frost as a result of attempting to escape from captivity she was placed in, this latest incarnation appeared in a 2013 story arc broadly about Firestorm. Rightfully given her own origin in Justice League of America, Issue 7.2, which was a ‘Forever Evil’ tie-in issue, the Caitlin Snow that is known today still remains vastly different.
The TV version of the character played by Danielle Panabaker in CW’s ‘The Flash’, who turns out to be a resourceful genius scientist with a tragic past is more familiar. Her dark side emerged with the show’s progression and was called ‘Killer Frost’, the essence of the comic book is lost herein.
This allows Caitlin to become a conflicted, albeit beloved hero to the extent that in 2016 when Justice League vs. Suicide Squad happened in the comics, Caitlin was chosen by Batman to be in the new Justice League of America, where she dropped the moniker “Killer” and went by ‘Frost’. Even her old foe Firestorm has come to regard her as a trustworthy comrade in ‘Tis the Season to Be Freezin’.
Whether or not, Killer Frost has been done justice given the layers that her character has had is something that remains to be determined. Her moments of glory on the page have been quite impactful since her first-ever alongside Firestorm, where she did not outdo the hero but she did get pretty close with the descriptive aura that the brilliant writing brought out. CW’s series might have shown her in a light deviating from the comic’s plot, however, the representation remains exquisitely detailed.
Killer Frost’s morally ascending transition from being an absolute villain to the hero that she is finally seen as is remarkable, to say the least. The sketch of the character, so vastly different as she is in the Suicide Squad and then the new Justice League of America is a clear projection of wanting to be good for the goodness in the world that only sees her as the inheritor of a devilish legacy.
In Dr. Caitlin Snow from the comics, we see a wronged individual willing to make changes. If CW’s series is to go by, she is an individual overpowered by villainous energy but fighting to overcome it. Either way, an individual must not miss out on the subtle hints at mending the human psyche and pointing out that our choices and deeds truly make us who we are.