Ferris Boyle

Ferris Boyle is an antagonist in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice". He is the ruthless, greedy CEO of GothCorp, and the man responsible for turning Victor Fries into Mr. Freeze.

He is voiced by Mark Hamill, who would later voice the Joker in the DC Animated Universe, as well as Chucky in the 2019 remake of Child's Play.

History[]

Boyle was Victor Fries' employer and CEO at GothCorp cryogenics lab. He hypocritically claims to be a humanitarian, but in fact views his employees as mere objects to be used to make him more money.

When Boyle learned that Victor was using the CC100 cryotube to freeze his wife Nora Fries, knowing that it is costing him millions to run the project, he orders it shut down. Victor tries to fight them off, but Boyle kicks him into a table full of coolant chemicals, rendering him dependent on a sub-zero suit to survive

A year later, executives at Gothcorp are being frozen to death and Boyle discovers Freeze in the old cryogenics lab where Nora is being kept so that Ferris can use her to gain a profit. Batman shows up when Victor starts freezing Boyle and when Victor accidentally blasts Nora's capsule whilst firing his freezing ray at Batman, supposedly killing her (although she survived), he freezes Ferris Boyle and prepares to kill him. Batman stops and apprehends him, however, while exposing Boyle's crimes to the public. He is then presumably imprisoned.

In Other Media[]

Ferris Boyle was the CEO of GothCorp. He appears to be compassionate, but is really ruthless.

HistoryEdit[]

Boyle promoted GothCorp as "the People Company", creating an image of a softer, more compassionate corporation than people expected. He was even nominated for Gotham City's Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year. It was, however, all an act: underneath, Boyle was greedy, ruthless, and cold-hearted. A year before his nomination, he became infuriated when Dr. Victor Fries, a GothCorp scientist, was using company equipment without authorization (or as he later put it to Bruce Wayne, "wasting [his] money"). Boyle confronted Fries in his lab with two security guards and ordered him to shut down his unauthorized "project". Fries pleaded that the "project" was actually a stasis tube preventing his terminally ill wife, Nora, from dying, and that shutting it off would kill her. Boyle was not moved in the slightest, and ordered his guards to disconnect the equipment. In desperation, Fries seized a gun and ordered them to stay back. Boyle, exercising some of his old charm, appealed to Fries to be reasonable, and promising that they could work things out without violence—causing Fries to lower the gun, just long enough for Boyle to kick him in the chest, sending him crashing backwards into a table of unstable chemicals. Boyle and his guards fled the scene, and presumed that Fries and his wife had both died. He gave a mental shrug, and went on with the business of running his company.

In fact, Fries had survived, though his body chemistry was radically altered. Believing Nora dead, Fries began a campaign of vengeance against GothCorp and Boyle, culminating on an attack on the building where Boyle was to accept his humanitarian award. Boyle was shocked to recognize his assailant as the presumed-dead Victor Fries. Boyle was reduced to begging for his life as Freeze slowly froze him in ice from the feet up, until Batman arrived and subdued Freeze. Having saved Boyle from being murdered, Batman then handed over to Summer Gleeson a videotape of the tragic accident, and didn't bother to free Boyle from the ice, simply saying to him "Good night, humanitarian" in a disgusted tone.

Although the tape would technically be incontrovertible proof of Boyle's crimes, it is unknown if it actually did send Boyle to prison, since Batman would later state that any evidence found by him had no legal providence.

It is said that after the incident, Boyle lost everything and he blames Victor for ruining everything and he tried to get his revenge; however, he was killed, although ironically not by Freeze, but a replica of him designed to frame the real Victor Fries by Nora's jealous new husband.

AppearancesEdit[]

Batman: The Animated Series[]

• Season 1
  • "Heart of Ice"