Red Hood Has Finally Chosen The Perfect Villain As His New Nemesis

Warning: spoilers for Task Force Z #1 are ahead.

The villains of DC Comics reflect the personal challenges of the heroes they fight, and this has never been more true for Red Hood and his unexpected nemesis, Mr. Freeze. With his fishbowl costume and glowing red goggles, Mr. Freeze may not seem like an obvious choice for a Red Hood villain because of his association with Batman. That said, Mr. Freeze’s recent fights against Red Hood in Batman: Urban Legends and Task Force Z #1 have helped usher in a new era for Jason Todd. Mr. Freeze’s appearance in Task Force Z #1, in particular, demonstrates why he is perfectly tailored to counter Red Hood’s strengths and weaknesses. Jason Todd’s hotheaded nature and impulsivity are directly antagonized by Mr. Freeze’s calculating personality and icy methods. In this way, Mr. Freeze’s role in Red Hood’s story proves that Infinite Frontier isn’t interested in judging Jason Todd for being emotional, a welcome departure from his previous comics. Instead, Infinite Frontier views Red Hood’s sensitivity as an opportunity to explore his flawed heroism, achieved through his fights against Mr. Freeze.

Red Hood has a spotty history with villains, perhaps because he was killed by one of Batman’s greatest enemies, the Joker, more than thirty years ago in Batman: A Death in the Family. Since his resurrection, Jason has been stuck either in a loop of torment by the Joker or fighting recycled Batman villains whose conflict often never feels personal enough to carry much meaning. Now, with Jason back as a member of the Bat-Family, there has never been a better time for him to fight a villain who engages with his qualities in Infinite Frontier. Sporting a new suit and weapons in Task Force Z #1 from Matthew Rosenberg, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, and Adriano Lucas, Jason Todd has officially entered a new era for his character that aims to celebrate his individuality, rather than criticize it.

From their fight in Task Force Z, Mr. Freeze directly challenges Red Hood’s sense of emotion and passion to refreshingly personal effect. While Jason often acts on impulse in his desire to do good, Freeze’s methods are based on promoting inaction. By freezing people in place, Mr. Freeze counters Red Hood’s instincts as a hero. This makes Jason’s fight against him more than just an exercise in might and battle strategy, but a complex confrontation of his own personality.

More importantly, Mr. Freeze’s new role proves that Jason Todd can still have a challenging and personal villain who isn’t the Joker. In fact, Mr. Freeze is a more effective villain for Red Hood because his methods and philosophy invites readers to reflect on Jason Todd’s character as he exists in the present, as opposed to once again calling back to his death as Robin in Batman: A Death in the Family. Jason Todd deserves to be seen beyond his Joker victimhood, and Mr. Freeze evidences the creative possibilities that lie beyond recycling the past.

With Mr. Freeze, Red Hood finally gets a villain who should continue to make regular appearances in his stories, just like the dynamic between Batman and the Joker, because he poses both a logistical and emotional challenge to him. The Joker remains a Batman villain because the problems at the heart of their conflict can never truly be resolved. In this sense, Batman will never truly be able to defeat the Joker unless he ceases to be himself, a fact that has allowed the Joker to remain relevant in comics for several decades now. And while the Joker represents Batman’s struggle between chaos and order, Mr. Freeze engages with Red Hood’s inescapably emotional nature, bringing him beyond the scope of a one-off villain. He may be physically defeated from time to time, but the problems that Freeze brings out in Red Hood remain constant, and should be returned to in the future.

In addition, from a strategy standpoint, Mr. Freeze poses an immense challenge to Red Hood’s fighting style because he cannot be defeated by brute force alone. As Task Force Z #1 shows, the combined strength of a zombie-fied Bane, Mr. Bloom, Arkham Knight, Sundowner, and Man-Bat is not enough to even get close to Freeze. Strategy has never been Jason’s strongest suit, and the challenges that Mr. Freeze poses has the potential to force Red Hood to reconsider his reckless methods in later stories. Considering that Red Hood has proven to be a better student of Batman than some fans have previously thought, Jason is certainly capable of outsmarting Mr. Freeze.

Mr. Freeze is a perfect villain for Red Hood because he brings out Jason Todd’s most heroic qualities, clearing up common misconceptions about his character, while also leaving room for him to grow. While Red Hood has killed in the past, he has never been a cold-blooded killer because he has always been motivated by his emotions. Freeze, on the other hand, is literally a cold-blooded killer because he only acts in his own self-interest: to find a cure for his wife’s illness. This emphasizes how Jason Todd’s suffering has not desensitized him to the evils of the world, but galvanized him to protect everyone in a selfless manner. Thus, by fighting Mr. Freeze, Red Hood can find redemption from the fact that his past sins were never committed from a place of callousness.

The dynamic between Red Hood and Mr. Freeze is ultimately one of passion versus detachment, providing DC Comics with the opportunity to explore everything that makes Jason Todd unique. Though Mr. Freeze was originally a Batman villain, he poses a greater personal challenge to Red Hood that merits greater exploration. While his icy methods are an obstacle that Jason has yet to properly counter, Mr. Freeze’s lack of feeling proves why Red Hood’s emotions should have never been demonized in the first place. With Infinite Frontier providing more expansive opportunities for DC’s characters, Mr. Freeze is integral to taking Red Hood beyond the limits of his own reputation.

About The Author

Jules Chin Greene
(246 Articles Published)

Jules Chin Greene is an editor, filmmaker, and animator based in Los Angeles. She has a B.A. in English and Cinema Studies from Oberlin College, where she was awarded Excellence in Critical Writing for her thesis on Indigeneity and Anti-Imperialism in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In her free time, she enjoys roller-skating and horror movies. You can find her on Twitter at @JulesChinGreene.

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