Image courtesy of DC Comics.
Real Name[]
Leonard Snart
Known Aliases[]
"The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero"
First DC Appearance[]
Showcase #8 (June 1957)
First Story Appearance[]
Black and White
Weapons[]
A freezing gun that can lower any object's temperature to absolute zero (or probably as close as one can get to absolute zero on Planet Earth): Snart is highly experienced with his gun and can use it to freeze people (though almost always in suspended animation, as Snart is not a heartless killer) form ice slicks and shapes, make objects so brittle with cold (like say, a bank door) they shatter, and so on.
Powers[]
None, though years of battling the Flash have trained Snart's reflexes to a fine edge: he is a swift and crack shot with his freeze-gun.
Current Status[]
Active
History[]
Snart probably wishes he never had anything to do with the Teen Titans: he has enough trouble in his life as it is to deal with some annoying kids, especially ones who are friends with Bart Allen. But as the way of the criminal mind goes, Snart is willing to take risks if it lets him net a payday, and if he fails, well...he'll get back to it eventually. He always does.
It was perhaps inevitable the man known as Leonard Snart would become a criminal: he and his sister were raised by an abusive father. Snart's only refuge was to go spend time with his grandfather, who worked in an ice truck. When his grandfather died, Snart decided he'd had enough and left his father and sister (who was highly skilled in figure skating, Snart believed she could escape through that), immediately heading into a criminal career as Snart joined up with a group of small-time thieves. In planning out a robbery, each was issued a gun and a visor to protect their eyes against the flashes of gunfire (This visor design would later be adapted by Snart into his trademark costume). Unfortunately, the Flash (at the time Barry Allen) came along and stopped the gang, and Snart was imprisoned. A man to hold a grudge, Snart not only decided to continue in a life of crime but to try and do something about the Flash. Snart read an article that theorized that the energy emissions of a cyclotron could interfere with the Flash's speed. He designed a weapon to harness that power and broke into a cyclotron lab, intending to use the device to charge up his experimental gun. As he was finishing his experiment, a security guard surprised Snart. Intending to use his gun only to scare the guard, he inadvertently pulled the trigger and discovered that his weapon had been altered in a way he had never imagined: the moisture in the air around the guard froze, turning him into a human ice cube. Intrigued by this twist of fate, Snart donned a parka and the aforementioned visor and declared himself as Captain Cold - the man who mastered absolute zero, and swiftly began a criminal career, constantly clashing with (and usually losing to, despite his gun) Barry Allen. Despite his wishes, his sister eventually followed him into a life of crime, donning high tech ice skates to become the Golden Glider, as the two battled Barry Allen, forming a deep enmity between the speedster and the siblings.
Allen's death in the Crisis finally ended the sibling's feud with the Flash (or so it seemed), and as Wally West replaced his uncle Cold and the Glider retired and became bounty hunters, occasionally even working WITH West. Unfortunately, Cold was one of the Flash Rogues sacrificed to revive the demon Neron (along with Weather Wizard), and after he was brought back he returned to a life of crime...a decision that was solidified when his sister, driven over the edge by her brother's death, began arming various thug boyfriends of her with copies of her brother's freeze gun and calling them 'Chillblaine'. It was the fourth Chillblaine where Lisa Snart made her last mistake: he was smarter and more vicious then the others, and he rewarded her gift with death as he froze and shattered her. Cold tracked Chillblaine down and engaged him in a battle of ice, which Cold won as he killed Chillblaine to avenge his sister's death. Once again a Rogue (and eventually their leader), and with no one left to care about, Cold has devoted himself to crime, the Rogues, and every now and then a good time. Despite all this, he is not wholly bad: indeed, after avenging his sister, Snart was reduced to weeping at a table in the hotel room he was staying in, remarking "My heart's not always made of ice."
Captain Cold, in the Legendsverse, confronted the Titans when he teamed up with another (minor Rogue) Peek-A-Boo and the Titan villain Warp in an attempt to rob a bank in Jump City (perhaps he was in Florida on vacation and needed to pay his bills...). Unfortunately, Bart Allen (then Impulse) showed up to help, and Snart was defeated along with his teammates. However, that turned out to be the warmup for the Titans, as right after stopping that robbery they first met the villain/monster Aberration. In a bit of irony, the Titans were forced to ultimately ask Cold for help, as Aberration proved to be weak against the cold, and more specifically Snart's gun. For helping them the Titans arranged for Snart to get a 'final confrontation' with Wally...which Snart lost. Prison didn't hold him long though, and Snart was swiftly back on the streets, though one would assume he'll probably go to California next time. Kids, nothing but trouble.
Oh yes, one last thing. Don't call him "Mister Freeze." HE HATES THAT.