Arkham fans, get ready to ring in the new year with the first batch of Batman: Arkham Origins story DLC – and don’t forget to bring a jacket, because it’s going to get cold.
The official Arkham Twitter account has been teasing new story DLC coming sometime this year, and hints indicate it will heavily involve cold-hearted rogue Mr. Freeze. One image shared on the social networking site depicts a Wayne Fountation Humanitarian of the Year Award (complete with giant, heart-shaped diamond) encased in ice, promising “All-new STORY DLC coming in 2014!”
Another tweet featured an invitation to the event itself, to be held at Wayne Manor to honor “Gotham’s greatest,” to be held on New Year’s Eve.
This would seem to suggest that the story DLC centers around a meeting between Batman and Mr. Freeze – perhaps, say, as the icy villain crashes the gala in order to steal that big honkin’ diamond?
Mr. Freeze was first introduced in 1959’s Batman #121. Originally known as Mr. Zero, Freeze was little more than a run-of-the-mill hood with an ice ray and a penchant for temperature-related puns until more than 30 years later; the 1992 Batman: The Animated Series episode “Heart of Ice” recast the villain as Victor Fries, a scientist who suffered an industrial accident while tending to his terminally ill wife. The accident leaves Fries unable to survive in anything other than sub-zero temperatures; he turns to a life of costumed crime as Mr. Freeze in order to finance his research to save his ailing wife. That backstory has since become the prevailing origin for the character, translating into the comics and other media featuring the character.
As Arkham Origins looks at Batman during his early years of crimefighting, it’s a safe bet the DLC will showcase the first meeting between the caped crusader and Mr. Freeze. Like most modern interpretations of the character, Arkham City seemed to preserve the Animated Series origin of the character for the Arkham-verse, so expect that to play a role in Origins as well.