Freezing

Freezing
Originally held by:	Unknown
Absorbed by:	Sylar
Ability to:	Remove heat from matter
Examples of freezing

Cryokinesis is the ability to remove heat from matter, reducing its temperature and causing it to freeze.

Characters

From the evidence shown it is assumed that Sylar has acquired this ability from James Walker, father of Molly Walker. It hasn't been explained specifically, but from episode 102 James Walker's, frozen body was found with his head cut open and brain removed, the same method Sylar uses to kill evolved humans.

Limits

In Don't Look Back, James Walker was found frozen solid, mid-bite. In Road Kill, Sylar managed to coat a large stretch of highway with ice in seconds. These events indicate that he can rapidly freeze a human body or cause hundreds of cubic feet of ice to form from ambient moisture in seconds.

The range of this ability appears to be quite short. Sylar did not have to have physical contact with the roadway in order to freeze it — he merely pointed his hand at the asphalt — but he did have to open the door and lean down from the cab.

Examples

• Molly's father is found frozen, mid-bite. (Don't Look Back)
• In an unaired scene, a cop guarding Molly at FBI Headquarters is found frozen, his right arm so brittle it has shattered into pieces. (One Giant Leap)
• Sylar freezes part of I-95, causing pursuing police cars to crash. (Road Kill)
• In 2011, Sylar and Peter face off. In a creative mirroring of old western movies, Sylar's hands turn to ice at his will, where Peter's ignite flame. (Five Years Gone)
• To simulate a snow globe for his mother, Sylar freezes water from a sink spray-nozzle to form snow. (The Hard Part)
• After grabbing Hiro's sword, Sylar freezes it, breaking it in half. (The Hard Part)

Notes

• Jason Badower, creator of the graphic novel Road Kill, said he didn't want Sylar's freezing power to look like Iceman from the X-men.

"A beam of ice never made any sense to me and wouldn't look right in the Heroes world. I figured that the air around his hands would simply just get really, really cold rather than a beam of ice shoot out of his hands. I figured he could then extend and direct the coldness around his hands towards the road (I couldn't get him leaning out and touching the road -- how would he steer the semi?!). But where does the water come from that forms the ice? Is it the oxygen in the air slowing down? Should I have drawn the ground wet from rain? Given that there was no direction for the latter in the script, I opted for the former. So my comic implies that he could freeze someone from a short distance (3 feet?)."

• Assuming that Mohinder's list of Sylar's victims was complete at the time he reported it (Fallout), the cryokinetic ability was probably obtained either from the victim described as "David" (Turning Point), from one of the two unnamed victims whose photos Mr. Bennet shows to Eden (Homecoming), or from another unrevealed victim.

Gallery

• 
  James Walker is frozen while eating cereal in his home.
• 
  A uniformed officer is frozen by Sylar at FBI Headquarters.
• 
  Sylar evades police by freezing asphalt.
• 
  Sylar creates a snow globe for his mother...
• 
  ...then prevents Hiro from using his sword.