Several supervillains have found ways to harness the cold to stop opponents in their tracks. One of the earliest to utilize this technique was Icicle. The first version of the character was Dr. Joar Mahkent, a scientist who uses a special cold ray gun to fight superheroes and commit theft.
Creators Robert Kanigher and Irwin Hasen introduced Icicle in All-American Comics #90 (October 1947). Joar was a noted European physicist who traveled to the US with his newest discovery, but tragedy struck when the luxury liner he was traveling on froze solid in Gotham Harbor. The Golden Age Green Lantern investigated the phenomenon and found Mahkent shot in his stateroom, apparently the victim of racketeer Lanky Leeds.
Later when Green Lantern encountered a costumed villain calling himself Icicle, with a weapon that could freeze the moisture in the air, Alan Scott thought that Lanky had stolen Joar’s invention. During a later altercation, Green Lantern was finally able to unmask Icicle learning that it was the doctor not Lanky that had become Icicle. He discovered that Joar had actually killed Lanky and used his cold ray gun to mask Lanky’s face as his own.
Icicle continually showed up as a thorn in Green Lantern’s side and eventually joined the Injustice Society to fight the Justice Society of America. One of his more sensational crimes with the Injustice Society involved stealing the Washington Monument. Later he was a founding member of the Crime Champions of Two Earths with Wizard, Fiddler, and villains from Earth-One when Fiddler found a way to travel between Earths. Icicle stole millions from Earth-Two, escaping Doctor Fate and Hourman, but was unable to evade the Doctor Fate on Earth-One.
He died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event when he and other supervillains tried to invade Krona’s laboratory. Since then, Icicle was mentioned in Batman: Hush in an anecdote about Bruce Wayne witnessing a fight between him and Green Lantern. He was also identified as one of the superpowered individuals entombed below the Hall of Justice.
