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Winter is coming – an Endless Winter!
Back in July during the dog days of summer, DC revealed a teaser for a December event titled 'Endless Winter.' A month later, they followed with two more teasers - this time featuring Batman and Wonder Woman in some new, cold-weather garb.
The Batman image reads, "You can't bury the past forever."
Wonder Woman's reads "We thought he was dead but he's back."
A creative team and synopsis have not been released for the event yet, but Newsarama wanted to put our detective hats on to speculate what 'Endless Winter' could entail.
The first question we had to ask is – what DC franchise will this event connect to?
Newsarama learned early on that the event would most likely focus on the Justice League, and the subsequent Batman and Wonder Woman teasers help substantiate that theory.
The literal Endless Winter
Looking into DC's deep history, there is actually a villain called Endless Winter - last seen in the Justice League: Cry for Justice, a 2011 limited series just before 'The New 52' reboot.
Delores Winters first made her appearance back in the Silver Age's Action Comics #20. Winters was a rising movie star from the '40s that used sexual favors in order to secure top billing. She was kidnapped by Ultra-Humanite to switch bodies, but the doctor who did the procedure secretly preserved Delores' brain. Delores teamed up with the doctor to come back to life with the use of more body-switching and cosmetic surgery.
Delores eventually found a new body of her own by 'organ-napping' from various lesser know meta-humans, including Justice League member - Icemaiden. She used a skin graft of Icemaiden where Delores obtaining the Justice Leaguer's unblemished skin and ice powers - resulting in Delores changing her name to 'Endless Winter'.
Delores Winters' new lease on life didn't last long however, as she met her demise once again in the fifth issue of Justice League: Cry for Justice. Her body - remember, that of a fallen JLer named Icemaiden - was taken by the League and put into storage.
So could Delores Winters/Endless Winter turn and be the titular star of DC's 'Endless Winter' event?
Endless Winter's MO is stealing the minds, limbs, and bodies of her prey. Could she do this to the Justice League as she uses their abilities to return? It's in line with the 'burying' motif of the teasers, but the images also mention that the character who died was a man. This doesn't mean Delores won't be involved, but if so she may not be the primary antagonist.
The proverbial Endless Winter
The two most popular cold-themed villains in DC's roster are Mr. Freeze and Captain Cold.
Captain Cold was last seen in Joshua Williamson's Flash run - with a 25th Century version of him, called Commander Cold, coming to the present day and even helping Barry Allen. But in The Flash #82, a Perpetua-powered version of the modern Captain Cold stepped up and killed Commander Cold.
There have been a few alternate versions that have popped up in Williamson's run to keep the Captain Cold role active in the title, but Commander Cold does fit the taglines from the teasers as he did die.
It should also be mentioned that Flash's Williamson is stepping up to write DC's ongoing Justice League series beginning this month for a 'Death Metal' tie-in. Since he's already familiar with Captain/Commander Cold and we have substantiation that this 'Endless Winter' event is Justice League related, could 'Endless Winter' simply be Williamson's second arc on the Justice League title following this current one?
Moving over to Mr. Freeze, while he's not dead at the moment, he was put on the shelf recently.
In Peter J. Tomasi's Detective Comics, Mister Freeze was finally able to revive his wife Nora, but in a tragic twist of fate, he turns on him and traps him in cold storage as he kept her for years. So not dead, but... that's not quite a life, is it?
If that wasn't enough, the recently announced Gotham Knights game will have a level with Mr. Freeze taking over and freezing all of Gotham City. Sounds like an endless winter, and a big bit of possible synergy with the comics of DC and the games of DC.
Endless questions
While it's not out of the realm of possibilities for a swerve from DC, these three seem the key suspects to part of DC's 'Endless Winter' event - or it could be all of them, and maybe even a few more cold-based characters.
Stick with Newsarama for more on DC's 'Endless Winter' as it unfolds.
