Chillin' On A Sunday Afternoon

One detail I forgot to mention, upon yesterday's return to blogging, is I received ZILCH-O entries for my 100th. post contest.  Still, I remember when I ran my "Action Attraction" podcast that contest entries can be a bit slow in coming, if you try to create it around a gimmick.  So, since I STILL want to commemorate that milestone posting, with you fellow readers, I have an alternate idea.  By Valentine's Day, your address to write to is still ocean1212w@gmail.com.  All you have to do is just send me a quick e-mail about how you want in on the contest.  That's it!  I'll still aim for 3 winners of various comic-related prize packages, but hopefully with enough entries, I can simplify matters by just taking the names I receive, doing a random paper drawing, and those three I pick out of a storage space walk away as winners.  And if I only just receive THREE entries, then you three people win by default!  So make sure that if you still want in on packages containing weird comics, comics magazines, and a few graphic novels, then please send some confirmation letters to the aforementioned email account by 02/14/2015!  Thanks for continuing to support this endeavor of mine!

To ease my re-entry into regular weekend blogging, I decided to choose another "softball" subject, and while this topic was formulating for me into this past weekend, taking a walk outside in this FRIGID day only cemented the appropriateness of spotlighting a few various "Ice/Snow" based characters.  I did walk into this entry with three key exemptions I wanted to make, because they would be TOO obvious:

1. Iceman- I love Bobby Drake as much as the next comic fan, but considering Iceman was a figure of my comics formulation years as a cast member of "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends", and because I think ANY X-Man gets their fair share of commentary, he was placed out of the running.
2. Captain Cold- Geoff Johns' initial "Flash" run helped place the Rouges into the comic fandom spotlight, and with his recent exposure on the CW "Flash" television series, I think Leonard Snart is not hurting for any additional attention, and hence could be exempt from the conversation.
3. Mister Freeze- Go ahead... Bombard me with ALL of the ice puns Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered in "Batman and Robin", but even with THAT unusual piece of comic book cinema, it's not like Victor Friese's reputation and popularity would be hurt with my not nominating him for this list.

Alright, are we "cool" about the exclusions?  Let's talk about some Arctic personalities!

JACK FROST/BLIZZARD- "Tales of Suspense #45" gave us one of our first ice-themed villains in the Marvel Age of comics in the 1960's in Gregor Shapenka, better known as the THREATENING persona of Jack Frost.  Resembling a slightly more jagged Iceman in body structure, Gregor's main goal in professional life was achieving immortality with the study of cryonics.  And the best way to do that?  Why, get a high profile job at Stark Industries... which probably pays WELL enough to fund any scientific pursuits your little heart desires... and STEAL TECHNOLOGY AND PLANS.  Faster than you can say "soup kitchen", Gregor is caught, fired, and decides to create a suit that allows him to take revenge on society via cold manipulation.  Later realizing that "Jack Frost" is "Jack... er... word I can't say on here" of a villainous name, Gregor altered the look of his costume, and bequeathed the name "Blizzard" onto himself.  A bad encounter with Arno Stark, AKA Iron Man 2020, ended Gregor's career... and essentially life.  But the name of Blizzard carried on to two latter criminals, ensuring that the Marvel Universe won't be lacking for a "cool breeze" of criminality!

ICE- Tora, Tora, Tora Olafsdotter!  She who provided much innocent humor foils in the Giffin/DeMatteis "Justice League" era of books!  She who was best friends with Beatriz Costa/Fire!  She who ENDURED a relationship with the then-boar-headed Guy Gardner of the American branch of the Justice League!  Oh, you managed to die, come back to life, and even SURVIVE through a universal reboot in the post "Flashpoint" DC Universe!  I WAS going to shoot off at the mouth, and surmise Tora's first appearance was in the debut of the Global Guardians in the "Super Friends" comic.  (And to be fair, I DID just read their debut, recently, and there WAS a purposely Scandinavian ice-powered female in the team!  It was later revealed that both Fire AND Ice would retroactively have ties with the Global Guardians, causing me to cross my "i's" and dot my "t's" prematurely.)  So in all continuity reality, Tora's debut was in "Justice League International #12".  Her polar powers are fairly extensive, not just limited to ice blasts, and ice slides, but being able to create constructs wholly out of ice, and taking a page from Storm in being able to effect atmospheric conditions of a battle to a more arctic clime!  But to go into her history?  Er, yeah... She was part of the "BWAHAHA!" era of the League, was killed in a REALLY weird crossover, was resurrected in a questionable fashion, figured into the "Blackest Night" and "Brightest Day" events, and currently resides as part of the current Justice League International. 

POLAR BOY- Thank you, chosen profile picture, for not ONLY telling my readers the civilian name of this 30th century hero, but ALSO his particular power!  All you need to know is that Brek was introduced in "Adventure Comics #306", and his career with the Legion began in failure... which would actually become a minor triumph!  You see, Polar Boy wanted to be part of the Legion, but his cold manipulation powers proved to be too unpredictable for the Legion's tastes, so his membership drive was rejected.  But instead of fading into obscurity, Brek took life's "lemons", and made them into lemonaide, being the founding member and LEADER of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, a team of heroes that were Legion membership rejects, but STILL wanted to help in the cause of universal justice.  The Substitute Legion even proved to be valuable help to the Legion-proper in many cases, and in due time, Brek earned his "stripes", and was granted membership into the Legion-proper!  Not bad for an initial dream career reject!

KILLER FROST- Oh, to savor the frosty affections of ANY version of Killer Frost.  Y'see, the identity of Killer Frost is probably the MOST generational of all of this blog's entries, carrying over into FOUR INDIVIDUAL WOMEN!  The one shared factor between all of them is an intense rivalry/hatred towards that famed Nuclear Man of the DC Universe, Firestorm.  We first have Crystal Frost, who debuted in "Firestorm #3", then we carry over to Louise Lincoln who popped up in "Fury of Firestorm #21", then we pass the snowball to Loren Fontier... whose first appearance I see no results for from my EXTENSIVE RESEARCH... on Wikipedia, and finally end off with Caitlin Snow, who we first met in "Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #13".  Does that latter name sound SLIGHTLY familiar?  Like maybe you heard it in an aforementioned CW television series?  Hmm...  The unique piece of Killer Frost's powers is that her power source is based on HEAT absorption.  Namely, the more heated an environment, the more ice she is able to generate, regardless of her identity.  And she can actually be incapacitated by being FROZEN!  Another shared trait of all Killer Frosts is one of their favorite delivery systems of her frosty fury; a crisp kiss, delivering a massive chill.  A trip down nostalgia road reveals that the first time I personally encountered Killer Frost was in the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" event, where she was spellbound into cooperating with Firestorm... and even to consider him her "lover"!  I don't think I envied the fusion of Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond so much until that point!

COLDSNAP- You all know me.  I HAD to shoe in some Rob Liefeld crazy content into a general theme topic!  And the master of poorly planned anatomy has not failed us for some cold comfort character creation!  "Brigade #1" introduced the younger of the Brieros brothers.  (Don't ask me what their first names where.  Heck, I'm lucky enough to have even remembered the family name, PERIOD!)  Coldsnap and Seahawk carried on the stereotypical brother spats while in the team, and in his initial appearances in the Brigade miniseries, he wore a primarily white and blue costume, with a backpack unit with hoses attached to wrist control units, which shot out controlled bursts of ice.  That connective/support unit was destroyed in the launch of Brigade's "regular series", and that resulted in Coldsnap becoming physically subdued by his body shifting into an ice-like structure, which resulted in the frosty behemoth you see in the illustration.  At that point, Coldsnap's purpose on the team was playing the role of the "muscle", but also being the "woe is me" voice of self-defeat that was better portrayed with Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing.  But just in case you grew weary of a whiny "Ice Hulk", don't worry: when the "Extreme Sacrifice" crossover occurred, that problem character was nipped in the bud.  But... that's another story for another day...