Victor Fries is a cryogenics engineer who kidnapped citizens of Gotham and froze them to find a means of freezing his terminally ill wife Nora Fries so she could be brought back when a cure is found. When Nora dies, Fries attempts to commit suicide with his freeze gun, but this only mutates his body so it can only survive subzero temperatures. Declared dead, he is brought to a secret facility underneath Arkham Asylum and begins working for Hugo Strange.