Art by Chris Bachalo
- Name: Robert Drake
- Code Names: Iceman
- First Appearance: X-Men #1 (Oct ’63)
- Powers: Ice manipulation
- Teams Affiliation: X-Men, Champions, Defenders, X-Factor
About
My first draft of this article had a pretentious quote from Watchmen (the Pagliacci joke) because I wanted to talk about how much Iceman avoided his real internal problems by being a clown. Then I realized that was the least Iceman way to open up this article. Instead, I am going to pull the equally pretentious trick from Sex Criminals where I break the fourth wall and just talk directly to the themes I am trying to discuss. That seems more up Bobby’s alley. So here is the deal, Bobby is the class clown. He also recently came out as gay as an adult (and at the same time as a teenager but don’t worry about it). His entire characterization in the modern age has been about holding back something. It just so happens that one of those somethings is his sexuality. He is still the Bobby we know and love, now with a twist! Anyway, here is the part of the article people actually care about.
Portrayed by Shawn Ashmore
Bobby Drake had a simple life on Long Island. His father could be overbearing, sure, but it wasn’t a bad life. While he was out on a date, like all boys his age were doing, Bobby was interrupted by the town bully and decided to reveal his secret. He shot a blast of ice out of his hand, freezing the ruffian in his tracks. The news about the Drake boy spread fast and a mob assembled to attack the young mutant. He was rescued by Professor Xavier and his recruit Cyclops. The Professor offered Bobby a spot at his school for gifted youngsters and erased the memory of Bobby’s powers from everyone in the town.
Art by George Tuska and John Verpoorten
Bobby took the name Iceman and trained in the use of his mutant powers. He discovered he could cover his body in snow, creates slides of ice, and freeze his enemies in their tracks. He formed a close bond with his teammate Beast and the two often went on double dates with some hip chicks from Café A-Go-Go. He had fun with the X-Men, they became like family, but soon new members appeared and Bobby realized it was time to move on.
Art by Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman
His father always wanted him to have a respectable job so Iceman enrolled in the accounting program at UCLA. He and his roommate Angel got embroiled in a plot by the god of the underworld to defeat Hercules and had to team up with Ghost Rider and Black Widow to form The League of Leftover Heroes The Champions of Los Angeles. They quickly folded, realizing they had literally no reason to be a team and Bobby decided to head back east to finish school. His good buddy Beast enlisted him to join the New Defenders with Angel while trying to finish his accounting degree. He began a relationship with his gender fluid teammate Cloud but struggled to accept them for who they were. He felt a sense of emptiness when they left the group and the Defenders soon disbanded and Bobby finally got his CPA.
Art by Don Perlin
Bobby got a job at an accounting firm and quickly realized that he didn’t want to spend his days hunting for deductions. When he found out that the original X-Men were reuniting as X-Factor it took literally zero effort to convince him to be a superhero again. Iceman started mentoring their young wards, even if kids like Boom Boom pushed his patience to its’ limits. He was captured by Loki, who unlocked the potential in his powers, but Bobby didn’t want to put the effort into testing them further. He began dating record store employee, Opal Tanaka and was entangled in a power struggle involving her family’s branch of the Yakuza and Cyburai (who, yes, are cybernetic Samurai). X-Factor rejoined the X-Men and for the first time since the silver age, Bobby Drake was home.
Art by Whilce Portacio and Art Thibert
Speaking of home, Bobby decided to take Opal to meet his parents. His racist father didn’t approve of his son dating outside his race and refused to accept the relationship. Between Mr. Drake’s attitude and Opal’s Cyburai based issues, the two decided to split. Without a relationship to define him, Bobby felt aimless. This only got worse when a comatose Emma Frost took over his body and used his powers in ways he never dreamed of. Iceman was dejected that Emma was so much better with his powers and left the team to go on a soul-searching road trip with Rogue.
Art by Steve Epting, Dan Green, and Steve Buccellato
Iceman volunteered to by the X-Men’s spy in Graydon Creed’s presidential campaign and saw a different side to his family. His father attended a debate of Creed’s but surprisingly spoke out against the anti-mutant bigotry the candidate spewed. Bobby was touched by his father’s words and moved to action when Creed had him attacked for speaking out. Soon, Bastion’s Operation: Zero Tolerance was underway and Iceman was forced to recruit a team of ragtag mutants to combat it. He had grown as a leader and as an X-Man.
Art by Carlos Pacheco and Art Thibert
The X-Men grew again, enlisting Northstar into their ranks. The Canadian speedster made a pass at Iceman, assuming he was gay, and was strongly rebuffed (oh and Chuck Austen starts writing Bobby like a jerk here for absolutely no reason). In response, Iceman pursued a relationship with the X-Men nurse, Annie Ghazikhanian but also Polaris at the same time. It sure felt like he was overcompensating for something. Soon after, M-Day hit and it appeared that Iceman was among the mutants to lose their abilities. It turned out that his issues were psychosomatic and Bobby only thought he has lost his powers rendering the whole thing pointless. Boy was this a bad time to be reading X-Men.
Art by Sean Philips
He was recruited by Rogue to join her X-Men strike force. He fell for fellow teammate Mystique and was shocked by her sudden but inevitable betrayal. Iceman and Cannonball were the last men standing after her attack and led the counter-attack. He followed the X-Men to San Francisco and was a solid contributor to the team, with the most notable thing being the time he had his body blessed with holy water so he could fight a vampire army. He wasn’t being well utilized on the island and jumped at the opportunity to follow Wolverine back to Westchester to start the Jean Grey School.
Art by Billy Tan and Andres Mossa
Iceman finally put his degree to use as the school’s chief financial officer. He taught classes, had a fling with Kitty Pryde, and joined one of the field teams. He also gained better control over his powers, mastering the ability to create an army of ice men. On a mission battling Celestials, Iceman was infected with the Celestial Death Seed, and his inhibitions slowly slipped away. He gathered all his ex’s and kidnapped them, he needed them to see he was worth their love. He confronted his father, nearly killing him as he asked why he could never accept his son. But above all else, he called on all his powers to cast the world into Fimbulvetr, the Norse great winter. The X-Men stopped their ally, but something was different in Bobby. Knowing the anger inside him and the insecurity he had repressed, left a mark on Iceman. He knew he would have to confront this sooner rather than later.
Art by Gabriel Hernández Walta and Cris Peter
Beast decided the best way to teach Cyclops a lesson would be to totally mess up the space-time continuum and bring the original five X-Men forward from the past. Iceman got along pretty well with his younger self, maybe he hadn’t matured much past the class clown he was a 15. The young Iceman confronted his older self with the revelation he had come to. Iceman was gay. For years he put his energy into being a superhero, doing what his dad wanted, trying everything he could to avoid coming to terms with the truth, but he couldn’t hide any longer. Bobby decided to come out of the closet, but the M-Pox crisis put personal relationships on pause. Now that it is resolved, Iceman has an upcoming solo title that promises to explore what this new normal means for Bobby.
Art by Mahmud Asrar and Jason Keith
So before we get to the end lets talk about this retcon, because I know that’s all the comments are going to be about. There has been rumor and speculation that Iceman was gay since at least the 90’s (since that’s as far back as Dr. Internet can find but I won’t be shocked if it was before then). That doesn’t mean the subtext is textual, gay subtext is there for just about every member of the X-Men, but fans seemed to latch onto it with Iceman. There was even a gag on Family Guy about him being gay. I say all that just to point out that it wasn’t out of the blue. Now, it is obvious that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn’t create him as a gay character in 1963 and most writers wrote him straight as a default (Majorie Liu being a notable exception). Characters change and I believe having his sexuality be part of Bobby’s long history with repression is a valid interpretation of his history as a character. Plenty of gay men date women, get married, and have children before coming out of the closet later in life. Him dating women in the past doesn’t invalidate his sexuality. There are plenty of other arguments to get into about the specific mechanics of how he was outed, none of which I feel like starting a debate over, but Iceman being gay fits for me. X-Men fans should be excited that a marginalized group has such a high profile character as a member, not upset that it may not fit into every detail of continuity.
Art by Kevin Wada
Must Read
Iceman is an interesting character to recommend a book for. He often works as a secondary character in an ensemble and his solo titles have been universally bad. The moments where major stories turn the focus to him, like Operation: Zero Tolerance or Austen’s X-Men have happened to single dark times for the books. Probably the most interesting Iceman story comes from Majorie Liu’s run on Astonishing X-Men with Gabriel Hernández Walta. In this story Iceman is forced to confront all his repressed feelings about his father, his sexuality, and the potential of his powers. Bobby questions himself in a deeper, more personal way than he had before. Walta provides stunning, moody art that he would go on to perfect in books like Magneto and Vision. It’s a little uneven but it is well worth a read in trades or on Marvel Unlimited.
Art by Phil Noto
Ranking
When Stan Lee talks about the creation of Iceman he discusses wanting the Human Torch but with the opposite powers, and that is exactly what Iceman is. He is a knock-off version of the worst member of the Fantastic Four. He has often been a one-note joker where the best thing you could say about him is that he has the potential to be really powerful. Writers have struggled to find a good angle for the character and Bobby largely gets put into prominence because of his status as an original X-Man and his arresting visual design. I do not understand why anyone thinks he needs more of a costume than just his iced-up bod, but I digress. It isn’t that Iceman is a bad character, it’s just that I can think of plenty of X-Men I would rather see fill the same niche. The only other O5 character on the list is Cyclops and Iceman doesn’t rank anywhere near that high. In the same way I don’t see him anywhere close to his long time love interest Polaris near the bottom of the list. When I started this, I put Rachel Summers as a weird dividing line, but I like Iceman has had a lot more consistency than Rach. As I scan up the list my eyes stop at Kid Omega, him staring in Generation X has me more excited than the upcoming Iceman solo series so that has to be the ceiling. Right below him is Dazzler, and I’d rather read a comic with Iceman than with her. That slides Iceman in as the new number 25 in the Xavier Files.
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Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
