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| Killer Frost | |
| Aliases: | Killer Frost |
| Continuity: | DC Universe |
| Notability: | Antagonist |
| Type: | Supervillain |
| Gender: | Female |
| Race: | Altered human |
| Location: | Hudson University, New York City, New York |
| Associations: | Black Lantern Corps Secret Society of Super-Villains |
| Status: | Deceased |
| First: | Firestorm, Vol. 1 #3 |
| Final: | Firestorm, Vol. 2 #1 |
Killer Frost is a fictional comic book super-villain whose real name is Crystal Frost. She is featured in comic books published by DC Comics and is associated with the Firestorm line of comic titles. She also appeared in issues of Justice League of America, Volume 1. Killer Frost made her first appearance in Firestorm, Volume 1 #3 in June, 1978.
Biography[]
When Crystal Frost was a student at Hudson University, she fell in love with one of her professors, Martin Stein. Stein however, rejected Frost's affections. Crystal was devastated and her low self-esteem eventually developed into a hatred of all men.
After college, Frost became a scientist working on the Mohole scientific project in the Arctic. At this time, she was reunited with Stein. During their research, Crystal was accidentally locked inside a thermo frost chamber, and as a result was transformed into a psychotic killer with the ability to project waves of freezing cold. From this point forward, she began calling herself Killer Frost.
Her first mission as a super-villain was to kill Professor Stein. By this point however, Stein was one-half of the fusion hero known as Firestorm. Firestorm used his nuclear based powers to defeat Killer Frost and she was sent to prison.
As a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, Killer Frost fought up against the Justice League of America. The Society was defeated and Killer Frost was placed under arrest. Killer Frost went to trial for her crimes. At the district Federal courthouse, judge Martha Roberts ordered that Frost be released from her special containment tube, so she could certify her ability to generate waves of cold. Frost escaped and went on a rampage, transforming the entire New York City area into a frozen wasteland. Firestorm reluctantly accepted aid from his teammates in the Justice League of America. [1] They tricked Killer Frost into letting her guard down, whereupon the android known as the Red Tornado activated a thermafrost device, which siphoned all of the heat from her body, incapacitating her. [2]
For several months, the appellate courts debated over how to handle the peculiarities of Frost’s incarceration. Warden Jacoby of the Concorde Federal Penitentiary in upstate New York designed a special cell for Frost – one that kept the temperature below freezing denying Killer Frost the ability to absorb heat. During the course of her isolation, a side-effect of her specialized imprisonment caused a rapid deterioration of her internal body chemistry. That combined with the process that actually transformed her into Killer Frost was now slowly killing her.
One night, a malfunctioning power transformer at the prison allowed Frost the chance to escape. She killed the warden and took off in search of Martin Stein. She eventually tracked Stein down at a subway station in Manhattan and attacked him but Stein turned into Firestorm and got away. [3]
Shortly thereafter, Frost consulted with an old college friend of hers, Louise Lincoln. She allowed Louise to conduct some tests on her, and Lincoln discovered that Frost's powers were slowly killing her. She had days, maybe hours to live. Killer Frost became even more insane and began terrorizing innocent civilians on the George Washington Bridge. Firestorm arrived and was shocked to see Killer Frost quickly aging from the fatal illness, right before his eyes. He realized that the only way to save Frost's life was to let her completely absorb the nuclear heat from his body. Killer Frost kissed Firestorm and a corona of nuclear energy burst forward from both of them. Seconds later, Killer Frost was gone – consumed by the atomic conflagration. [4]
Abilities[]
- Cryokinesis: Killer Frost had the ability to generate extreme temperatures of cold from her body. By absorbing heat from the atmosphere, she could freeze molecules of moisture that hung in the air creating a variety of effects. Primarily this was used to freeze others in place or to create a sheen of ice over an intended target. Her powers were so strong that she actually succeeded in freezing all of New York City at one point. Killer Frost could also use her powers to summon gusts of super-cold air, with which she would use to hurl frozen objects (usually ice daggers) at specified targets. She would often use hand gestures while doing this, to make it appear as if she could project ice directly from her fingertips. This was not necessary however, and was done mostly for theatrical effect.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Crystal Frost was created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Al Milgrom.
- Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
- Contrary to others who share her power set, heat did little damage to Killer Frost. In fact, heat was essential to her continued existence. Attacking Killer Frost with a heat based-weapon would only serve to strengthen her.
- One of Killer Frost's trademark tactics was to create a block of ice around a target's feet securing them into place, and then kissing them, absorbing all of the heat from their body until they froze to death.
- Green Arrow, Volume 3 #55 erroneously credits Killer Frost I with making an appearance. In fact, the Killer Frost that appears in that issue is Killer Frost II.