Detailed explanation of powers/abilities
Mr Freeze:
Like most Batman villains, Mr. Freeze plans his crimes about a specific theme; in his case, ice and cold. In darker incarnations of the Batman mythos, Mr. Freeze's obsession with ice stems from personal tragedy, and his crimes are inspired by his desire to make the rest of the world as cold and miserable as he is. He freezes areas around him using special weapons and equipment. His refrigeration suit grants him superhuman strength and durability, making him a powerful villain in Batman's rogues gallery. Some interpretations also suggest that because he has been soaked in the serum he intended to use for cryo-preservation, his age progression has slowed drastically.
In the Underworld Unleashed storyline, the demon Neron grants Mr Freeze the ability to generate sub-zero temperatures, no longer needing his freeze-gun or refrigeration suit. Unlike most villains granted superpowers by the demon, however, Freeze's new abilities prove temporary.
According to Batman: The Animated Series, Freeze understands how to reproduce his powers. Upon being offered enough money to bankroll large scale research into Nora's condition, Freeze turns the wealthy, terminally ill Grant Walker into another "Mr. Freeze"-like being (on the theory that the "Mr. Freeze condition" would arrest the disease). However, Walker reveals that he wants to use his new abilities to turn the world into a frozen wasteland, leaving him and a few chosen followers to live eternally in Oceana, his underwater "World of Tomorrow". Freeze imprisons him in a block of ice Oceana collapses around him. For two years, Walker remains in the iceberg, driving him insane. Although he does not reappear in the animated series, the "second Mr. Freeze" reappeared in the comic book Batman: Gotham Adventures (based on the cartoon of the same name). In his last appearance, he breaks into the Wayne Foundation and kidnaps all of the scientists working to cure the original Mr Freeze. With Batman out of action due to a concussion, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Robin save the scientists, with the help of Mr. Freeze. Walker is eventually caught after a short fight with Freeze, and then sent to Arkham.
Ice Man:
Currently an Omega-level mutant, Iceman's powers have evolved considerably over the years. Apocalypse considers Iceman to be one of the twelve most powerful mutants on Earth.
Iceman is able to lower his body temperature without causing harm to himself, reaching negative 105°F within a few tenths of a second. He is able to freeze any moisture in the air around him into unusually hard ice to form ice-slides and various projectiles and shields. He can travel rapidly along these ice-slides or ice-bridges by causing ice to form rapidly beneath and behind his feet, pushing him along the slick surface. He is also able to summon moisture from the air and create a flood. Iceman is immune to sub-zero temperatures and has thermal vision: the ability to detect objects visually by how much heat the objects generate. According to the laws of thermodynamics, cold is defined as the absence of heat. Therefore, Iceman does not actually emanate cold, but rather absorbs and dispels heat. Since heat is a form of energy, Iceman's power can be defined as a psionic ability to manipulate thermal energy.
Over the years, his mutant physiology has gone through radical changes. First, he was able to fashion an armor of densely packed snow around his human form when lowering his temperature; later, this became an armor of solid ice. Under the mind control of Emma Frost, his powers were used to a greater potential than he ever had, including being able to deposit his bodily mass into a river and reconstitute his entire mass a great distance away in a matter of minutes. He was also able to transform his body into pure organic ice (similar to the organic steel of Colossus). In normal human form, he had the strength, agility and durability of a typical athletic male of his size. In his ice-form, his strength and durability were enhanced. When Frost gave up her mind control, Iceman was not able to duplicate what she had done with his own powers, although she had "unlocked" him, leaving him with somewhat enhanced powers, including the organic ice form.
At one point, Iceman suffered a severe chest injury and was stuck in his ice-form, afraid of what would happen if he changed back, and went to Emma Frost for help. She merely taunted him, unwilling to help, teasing him that his own self-esteem issues were the only thing holding him back from becoming one of the most powerful mutants on Earth. She hinted that his powers were rooted in the psionic manipulation of energy, and not in manipulation of moisture in the air as previously believed. She was finally able to push Iceman to the point where he lashed out, becoming somewhat malicious, causing her severe pain, and threatening to torture and kill her by slowly freezing the blood flow into her brain. He soon realized what she had been talking about, and he transformed back into his human form, healing the chest wound in the process. From that point forward, Iceman used his organic ice form instead of his ice armor. Sporadically, he would augment his organic ice form with razor sharp adornments to his shoulders, elbows, knees, and fists.
Among his new-found abilities, Iceman is also able to reconstitute his ice-form if any part of it is damaged or even if it is completely shattered, without permanent harm to himself. He is able to temporarily add the mass of a body of water to his own to increase his mass, size and physical power. His strength and durability in his ice-form are enhanced beyond normal human levels. He can survive not only as sentient ice, but as sentient water and vapor. Drake has developed the ability to transform his body from a gaseous state back to a solid, although it is taxing both physically and mentally (X-Men #190 & 193, 2006). He has the capacity to manipulate all forms of moisture and possesses all of the abilities to generate projectiles, slides and shields that he had always possessed, but they have been augmented greatly.
In House of M #8, it first appeared that Iceman was among the many millions of mutants who lost their powers due to the magic of the Scarlet Witch, having returned to his normal human form and noticeably sweating. However, while repelling an attack of anti-mutant protesters, Iceman's powers reactivated (X-Men #178, November, 2005). It was revealed that Iceman did not lose his powers, but had subconsciously shut them down out of fear due to the aftermath of the House of M (X-Men #179, December, 2005).
