Absolute Zero's daily life

You know, that is a fairly good question. My assumption is that he lives in basically a cyrogenic room, which would allow him to relax without his suit and do basic things like eating. Now the true question is if they allow him to roam about freely while wearing the suit or not, since he was recruited to the Freedom Five to help pay of the debt of it technically making it not actually his to do whatever he desires to do with it.

Eating was actually one of the problems that occurred to us. According to his bio, his body temperature is at near absolute zero, meaning anything close to him is going to freeze in seconds. And while I will admit I've never tried it, I imagine that eating a solid, frozen block of what used to be food would be somewhat of a challenge.

Maybe he doesn't need to eat anymore.  Eating is just a mechanism to convert the energy in food into energy your cells can use.  If your cells are operating at absolute zero, by definition they must not need energy to operate.

Well you see, i'm not so sure if anything gets near him if it will freeze that fast, maybe just really cold and not so good tasting. His taste buds are probably of the line as well so the taste wouldn't phase him. Not too mention it is also just a comic so really the creators are the ones who can say just about anything they want about how it works, really hoping one will show up soon and give some kind of reveal on how he lives his daily life because it has peeked my curiosity.

Christopher is the one (aside from Dr. Stinson) who has actually studied this and understands the science behind Absolute Zero.  He is currently on vacation, but I'm sure he will respond in a week or so when he returns!

My assumption regarding the debt of paying off the suit is that he's paying off the initial costs of developing/constructing it and that the operation itself is (relatively) inexpensive. Otherwise, he'd very quickly find himself in debt again after paying it off.

Since it's metabolism that creates heat in our bodies, it seems likely that his would have slowed tremendously in the accident - I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't need to eat/expel waste more than once per month or even less often (think cold blooded animal metabolism).

Even if his metabolism has slowed to the point that he only needs to eat a few times a year, he still needs to eat occasionally. Otherwise he wouldn't have the energy to move.

Let's set aside for a moment the speed with which things would freeze in his vicinity, since I cannot seem to find the equations to determine that. My Google Fu is weak today. Let's instead look at what would happen if he tried to eat something that wasn't frozen. AZ's bio explicitly says "temperatures warmer than liquid helium were as fire." Helium liquifies at 4.22 Kelvin, meaning that he cannot eat anything warmer than that. Unless the accident altered AZ's digestive tract to be able to absorb nutrients from things that don't normally have such nutrients, anything he eats will be totally rigid and unchewable.

Or Tachyon scienced him up some super cold comestibles, but that still doesn't explain how he didn't starve to death in his 10 year coma.

He doesn't eat - he receives injected nutrients mixed with non-toxic antifreeze compatible with his biology.

That's my theory, anyway.  8)

Rabit

Nope, no good.  Absolute zero is the temperature at which molecular motion stops, and an antifreeze would keep the molecules of the nutrients in motion (i.e. not frozen).  I think we're just going to have to throw up our hands and declare it magic.

Perhaps SotM should have named the character Near Absolute Zero, or just Pretty Darn Cold.  Then we wouldn't have this problem. ;)

"Pretty Darn Cold"

Why isn't there a hero/villain with that name?

AZ didn't starve to death because comics.  :P

Also, I think Pretty Darn Cold would be better as a villian. He'd have major jealousy issues, and AZ would have well-written lines like "You may be cold, but I'm colder!"

AZ's name is just an exaggeration for effect. His bio says his body temperature dropped to near absolute zero.

I can accept a super science solution, as well. Heck, I'll grumble a bit, but I'd accept that a wizard did it.

I think many would consider Dr. Meredith Stinson a wizard... ;)

Rabit

Now she just needs a point hat and robes to go with her suits/heels at the lab...

Reading AZ's bio, I would assume he spends a lot of his time in his cryo-chamber moping about how horrible his life is. Maybe he occaisionally tries to go AWOL in his suit and find something to enjoy, but he is ultimately dependant on the suit and cryo-chamber to survive so can't run away.

Given his internal body temperature is near absolute zero, he must of undergone some amount of biological change to not have the liquid and gasses in his body just freeze and rupture most of the cells in his body and make him a livign statue.

His body's core temperature is indicative of a resting state of near zero energy - a thermodynamic vacuum. This means that his body absorbs whatever energy it can and does so rapidly. Hence why even liquid helium can burn him. The suit & chamber regulate this and protect him.

I am convinced that his metabolism works by absorbing external energy - normally in the the form of heat - and somehow uses that to function, hence why he is never at a true absolute zero core temperature.

So given that Ryan Frost* was essentially a normal guy before the accident and he rejected the offer of the suit the first time (and probably on many subsequent occasions) it was offered to him does anyone else feel that once he's paid off his debt for the cyrosuit, 10 years of medical treatment and the cyro chamber that he'll just go "I'm done, go find another guy to risk his life everyday"?

* With a name like that he should have known that some cold related accident was bound to happen to him.

Yeah. But sometime later he would either witness a situation similar to one that killed his fiancee and he would be unable to help. Or some villain would be threatening one of his old teammates. You know, the one he had been developing feelings for? Then he would realize that his proper place is in his cryo-suit as a member of the Freedom Five.

Yeah, I get that feeling too... But... Think about how expensive his medical care was! There's no way health insurance even began to cover that. And, a cryro chamber? That's got to be ridiculous. Not to mention the suit. And is there compounding interest on that debt? If so, he's never paying it off.

Interest, probably not, but there is upkeep, and that's not cheap either. Think how expensive it is just to keep someone on a breather, then imagine that breather is a multimillion-dollar mobile cryogenic containment system combined with a painstakingly calibrated climate-control chamber, and all the power requirements of both.

I'm sure there's enough hidden fees and surprise extra charges that AbZero will basically be an indentured servent his entire life.  Just when he thinks he's close to paying off his debt, they'll tell him there was a paperwork mix-up or an accounting error and tack a couple more 0's onto his owed amount.

Maybe in a possible timeline he goes rogue and tries to take his rage out on the government that tried to keep him a slave ....

"Do you know how long $6 million bucks takes to pay off on a government salary?"

I think it's B.S. that they're making him pay it off anyway.  He didn't ask them to save him.  They obviously wanted to test their tech and entrap him into being a slave hero for the government, and are now keeping him around by telling him he needs to pay the bill he didn't agree to pay in the first place.  He should tell them to go screw themselves and call their bluff.  They won't turn off the power.  How many other cryogenic superheroes do they have to put in the suit if AZ gives it up?

Hmmmmm, I guess they can't turn the power off. Who would re-elect the government that killed one of the Freedom Five? The balance of power has shifted and Absolute Zero can demand away (though not too much or he'll get reclassified as a super villain).

I tend to think of it as more a term of service clause, rather than truly paying for the suit. Like a contract stating that he works with the Five for 10 years and then  the suit is his.