First Appearance of Mr. Freeze: Batman #121 (1959) Value

Mr. Freeze first appeared in Batman #121, cover-dated February 1959, under the name Mr. Zero (Wikipedia). CBR describes him there as a once-benevolent scientist whose freeze gun exploded, leaving him needing a special refrigerated suit to survive.

The name Mr. Freeze came from television. When the 1966 Batman series revived the character, the producers renamed him Mr. Freeze and redesigned the costume (CBR). George Sanders, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach each played him (Wikipedia).

The comics followed in Detective Comics #373 (March 1968), the first issue to call him Mr. Freeze; it established that Zero and Freeze were the same man (CBR). PriceCharting values for Detective Comics #373, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Ungraded: $62.97
• 4.0: $115.40
• 6.0: $180.00
• 8.0: $400.00
• 9.2: $480.00
• 9.8: $2,795.00 (a CGC 9.8 sale in February 2025)

PriceCharting values by grade, retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Ungraded: $1,184.40
• 4.0: $2,563.00
• 6.0: $4,510.00
• 8.0: $15,633.57
• 9.2: $38,778.38

PriceCharting shows lower grades selling once or twice a month and 8.0 and above only a few times a year, so high-grade prices rest on few sales. Batman #121 costs roughly 19 times Detective Comics #373 ungraded ($1,184.40 against $62.97), because #121 is the true first appearance.

The version most people know comes from Batman: The Animated Series. The episode "Heart of Ice", written by Paul Dini and directed by Bruce Timm, aired September 7, 1992 and won a Daytime Emmy for writing (Wikipedia). In it, cryogenics scientist Victor Fries puts his terminally ill wife Nora into suspended animation while he looks for a cure. GothCorp's chief executive Ferris Boyle shuts the experiment down, Fries is knocked into the cryogenic chemicals, and afterward he can only survive at sub-zero temperatures. DC then brought this origin into the comics (Wikipedia).

Captain Cold. The Flash's ice-gun villain debuted in Showcase #8 (June 1957), created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino (Wikipedia), about 20 months before Mr. Zero appeared in Batman #121.

• Batman (1966 TV): George Sanders, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach
• Batman: The Animated Series (1992): voiced by Michael Ansara
• Batman & Robin (1997): Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Gotham: Nathan Darrow

Maurice LaMarche has also voiced him in animation and games (Wikipedia).

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the title, issue number, date and publisher; reprints and facsimiles say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode that did not exist in the cover year means a later edition.
• Paper: decades-old newsprint tans at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and replaced covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service such as CGC can detect them.

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. On Batman #121 the character is named Mr. Zero, so do not look for "Freeze" on the cover; the issue number is what identifies it. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo, and there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market.