Iceman (Marvel Comics)

• 1. Introduction

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  Iceman, born Robert Louis "Bobby" Drake, was at the center of a quiet scene in April 2015, in issue 40 of All-New X-Men. A teenage version of Bobby was pulled aside by Jean Grey, who had read his mind. She told him something he had never said aloud. He was gay. The story drew attention well beyond comic book readers. It also raised a hard question about a hero who first appeared in 1963. How could a founding member of the X-Men, followed by fans for decades, turn out to be hiding something so basic? Why was he created in the first place, and what made a teenager from Long Island worth keeping around? And what happens to a character when a single issue forces readers to reread everything that came before?

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• 2. Borrowed Element

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  Stan Lee later admitted that Iceman was essentially a copy of the Human Torch, built on the opposite element. Where the Torch burned, Bobby Drake froze. Lee created him with artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby, and he debuted in The X-Men #1, dated September 1963.

  The copy outlasted its origins. Bobby became a main character in Uncanny X-Men and in the second volume of X-Men. He was also a lead in the first volume of X-Factor. Away from the main books, he was a member of The Champions from 1975 to 1978 and of The New Defenders from 1983 to 1986.

  Solo projects drew mixed feelings. A 1984-85 miniseries was written by J. M. DeMatteis, and a second came in the 2000s from Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett, with art by Karl Kerschl. DeMatteis was blunt about the first one: "It was my idea, so there was no one to blame but myself." He called it a mistake. He credited its editor, Bob Budiansky, with any sense it made.

  Other comics kept returning to Bobby as a teenager, in X-Men: The Hidden Years and X-Men: First Class. The teenager in those pages starts from a small town on Long Island.

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• 3. Floral Park

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  Floral Park, Long Island, New York, is where Bobby was born, to William Robert Drake and Madeline Beatrice Bass-Drake. His parents are Irish Catholics, and his mother has also been described as Jewish.

  His powers appeared on a date with a girl named Judy Harmon. A local bully, Rocky Beasely, tried to take her away. Bobby pointed a hand at Beasely and sealed him in a block of ice.

  Word spread, and an angry mob of townspeople came looking for him. The sheriff locked Bobby in a cell for his own protection. Then the outer wall of the station was blown open, and a young man named Scott Summers walked in and offered to take him away. Bobby said no, and the two mutants fought briefly until Professor Charles Xavier arrived.

  After Xavier spoke with Bobby and his parents, they suggested he go to the professor's school for gifted youngsters. He left with Xavier and Cyclops, becoming the second member of the X-Men. Hank McCoy, Jean Grey and Warren Worthington III soon joined, and Bobby stayed self-conscious about being the youngest.

  In those early days he fought Magneto alongside the team, and then the Brotherhood of Mutants. He wore a snow-covered form at first, and later an ice-covered one. He teamed up with the Human Torch for the first time, and the two became close friends. The team visited the Savage Land, where he met Ka-Zar, and he fought the Juggernaut. He was badly hurt in his first battle against the Sentinels. He then fought Magneto alone and visited Subterranea.

  The early run ended when Krakoa captured the original X-Men, producing a new team that did not include him. Bobby quit with most of the original group.

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• 4. Anatomy of Cold

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  A temperature of -105 degrees Fahrenheit, reached within a few tenths of a second, is what Iceman's body once hit whenever he used his powers. Over time his body usually converted to organic ice instead.

  His basic power is to drop the temperature of water vapor around him below zero degrees Celsius, freezing it. The ice does not break unless he wants it to. He makes projectiles, shields, ladders and baseball bats, and he builds slides beneath and behind his feet to move at high speed. He can even assemble miniature cities in a short time. Because cold is the absence of heat, he does not emit cold. He lowers thermal energy, and he can sense it in the objects around him.

  His look changed along with his skill. He first wore a thick layer of what looked like snow, so he resembled a traditional snowman more than an ice-man. With training he made armor of solid ice. Later he learned to turn his own tissue into organic ice, sometimes adding razor-sharp edges to his shoulders, elbows, knees and fists.

  The ice form can travel. He can pour his mass into a river and reconstitute himself a great distance away in minutes. If the form is damaged or even shattered, he can rebuild it without permanent harm. He can add the mass of a body of water to his own to grow larger and stronger. He can also survive as liquid water or vapor. Returning from gas to solid is physically and mentally taxing.

  The trickster god Loki changed the scale of his power. Loki captured Bobby, enhanced his powers and then extracted them to restore the Frost Giants. Thor rescued him, but the tampering left Bobby unable to control his abilities. A power-dampening belt helped him, and eventually he did not need it. Once limited to sheathing his own body, he found he could encase the entire Empire State Building.

  Since then writers have pushed further. Mike Carey called him an Omega-level mutant with powers that can influence the ecosystem of the entire world. His power reaches the molecular level, and he once froze every molecule of water in the body of David Haller. When Emma Frost possessed his body, he controlled all forms of moisture and froze fluids inside people. The combined X-Men Gold team could not stop her. Afterward she refused to train him further, so he turned to Storm, who shares elemental powers, and she agreed to tutor him.

  In the alternate future of the "Battle of the Atom" storyline, his older self makes semi-independent ice structures that act on their own. One, a creature with a Hulk-like physique and intellect, joined that future's Brotherhood.

  He is also a fair hand-to-hand fighter. He trained at Xavier's School and got coaching from the Black Widow and Hercules during his time with the Champions of Los Angeles.

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• 5. Wandering Roster

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  UCLA was where Bobby headed after leaving the X-Men, and he became a founding member of The Champions of Los Angeles. They dissolved quickly. Master Mold then abducted him, and alongside Angel he met the Hulk. He helped the Thing against the Circus of Crime.

  Then he gave up superheroics for a college degree in accounting, though the school seems to be on the east coast instead of in California. He briefly rejoined the X-Men to rescue captives held by Arcade's henchman, Miss Locke. He came back as a full-time hero in a version of the Defenders alongside Angel and Beast, and fought Professor Power's Secret Empire. When the Defenders disbanded, he went back to being an accountant.

  On another mission, he met Mirage, the "daughter" of Oblivion. He traveled back in time and met his parents before he was born, and he reconciled with them.

  The original X-Men reunited as X-Factor, and with that team he met Apocalypse for the first time. He and Beast helped Boom Boom gain a more normal life. For a while he also helped supervise the New Mutants and their sister team, the X-Terminators. After the "Muir Island Saga", X-Factor rejoined the X-Men.

  The next change was physical. After a fight with Azazel and his followers, Bobby's body was shattered from the neck down. He regained his full ice form but could not return to human appearance, and he became bitter and despondent. Later he joined Rogue's team and learned that he could be destroyed completely and pull himself back together.

  One membership stayed in dispute for years, in a Fantastic Four story. The Human Torch insisted that Iceman had never been a member. Iceman said Namor had been involved. The Torch simply answered, "That didn't COUNT!"

  Fantastic Four vol. 6 #24 told a different story. The young Torch had quit the team in a fit of pique. The same day, the teenage Iceman left the X-Men after his peers laughed at his Danger Room performance. Iceman helped the remaining Four through a day of crises and was casually admitted. When the Torch returned and found a replacement, he attacked him. The Invisible Girl made them work together. Professor X then summoned Bobby back, and Mister Fantastic told him he could return whenever he wanted. The Torch was readmitted too, with a week of laundry duty as penance.

  In the present day, Iceman brought the teenage Franklin Richards home from Krakoa, and the building's security system recognized him as a member. The Torch confessed what bothered him most. If Iceman was the first substitute, he had given up his own place "over nothing." He then accepted Iceman as an official substitute and part of the family.

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• 6. Hearts and Friends

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  Writer Mike Carey described Bobby Drake as being like the ice he manipulates, but transparent rather than cold. In his words, Bobby is "devastatingly honest" and "very up-front with his emotions and his thoughts all the time." Carey also called him incredibly brave, both in physical danger and in admitting his own mistakes.

  His first girlfriend was a waitress named Zelda Kurtzberg, though he stopped seeing her. His longest relationship was with Opal Tanaka, a Japanese-American New Yorker. After a session of ice sledding, she found threatening mail. It was the start of harassment by her cybernetically enhanced relatives in the Tatsu Clan of the Yakuza. Bobby helped her deal with it.

  He later developed strong feelings for Polaris, who did not return them because of her feelings for Havok. A nurse at Xavier's school named Annie left him for Havok, who had just left Polaris at the altar. When Bobby tried again with Polaris, it ended abruptly, and she returned to Havok.

  Northstar developed an unrequited crush on Iceman during their time on the same team, and Iceman never found out. Bobby shared a passionate kiss with Mystique on Cable's island. A romance between them appeared to follow, but it was a front. She was using Iceman and the X-Men as a spy for Mister Sinister. She said she would either kill him or cure him of his personal uncertainty. He also had a relationship with Kitty Pryde.

  His friendships have lasted longer than his romances. He is close to Spider-Man, Firestar and the Human Torch, and to the original X-Men, particularly Beast and Angel.

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• 7. Two Bobbys

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  November 2015, in Uncanny X-Men #600, brought a conversation between two versions of the same man. The young Iceman, pulled forward in time, demanded that his adult self explain why he had presented as straight for most of his adult life. The adult Bobby had previously been shown dating women, which made the question sharper.

  The older Bobby broke down. He said he had long known he was gay and had repressed it, fearing hatred. He already faced prejudice for being a mutant, and he did not want to receive hatred for another part of himself.

  The younger Bobby was in the present because of Beast, who traveled back in time and recruited the original five X-Men to stop Cyclops. They chose to stay as the All-New X-Men, led by Kitty Pryde. Oya and Kid Apocalypse later took the young Bobby to a gay club, where he embarrassed himself and met Romeo. Romeo is an Inhuman who can manipulate and feel others' emotions, and the two began a relationship. The adult Bobby came out to fellow gay X-Man Anole in Extraordinary X-Men #6.

  In 2017, Iceman received his first ongoing solo series, written by Sina Grace. It followed the adult Bobby as he came to terms with life as an out gay man. It also explored his status as an Omega-level mutant and his legacy as a hero. The book was cancelled, with its last issue in early 2018. Marvel reversed the decision and relaunched it in 2019 as part of its Fresh Start initiative.

  In that series, a text from his mother sent Bobby rushing to the hospital because of his father's heart attack. His father scolded him for missing family events. At a later dinner, his parents kept making anti-mutant remarks, and Purifiers interrupted. Bobby beat them quickly, but his parents were angry that their house had been destroyed and sent him away.

  When his parents later visited the school, he told them he was gay, and they reacted badly. His father stayed on after a fight with Juggernaut. He had obtained Bobby's draft of a coming out letter from Kitty, and the two men began to reconcile.

  Bobby also dated Judah Miller, whom he met while shopping and then took to a gay bar with his Champions teammates as wingmen. After Daken's apprentice mortally wounded Judah, Judah left because Bobby's life was too much for him. Later, at the third annual Hellfire Gala, Nimrod injected Bobby with cellular napalm, which melted him in front of Kitty Pryde and Romeo. Romeo used his Inhuman powers and emotional connection to restore him. Bobby's cohesion now depends on staying near Romeo.

  The time-displaced Bobby's story ended differently. In the Extermination event, Jean Grey wiped the memories of the young X-Men before they returned to 1964. She locked the memories away, and the teenage Bobby went back into the closet. The adult Bobby retains both sets of memories and remains an out gay man.

  Critics took notice. Peter Eckhardt of CBR.com called Iceman the biggest name among queer X-Men, while noting that All-New X-Men #40 was handled somewhat clumsily. Mey Rude of Out noted that Northstar was the first out gay superhero in a Marvel comic, but Iceman is his more famous teammate. Iceman #1 in June 2017 was the 62nd best selling comic that month, and ComicBook.com gave it 4 out of 5 stars. In 2022, The Mary Sue ranked him 9th among the most powerful X-Men. A collection of the Astonishing Iceman issues, Out Cold, reached shelves in May 2024.

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• 8. Other Icemen

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  The "Age of Apocalypse" offers a very different Bobby, trained by Magneto. He travels by breaking down his body and merging it with another body of water. In the Uncanny X-Force arc "The Dark Angel Saga", he abandoned his X-Men after losing faith in their ability to save their world. He joined Archangel in exchange for transport to Earth-616. Later, living a hedonistic life in Madripoor, he was found by that world's Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler forced him into a factory boiler room with too little moisture for his powers and shoved him into an incinerator.

  In "House of M", this Iceman is one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse. Apocalypse recruited him from a mutant internment camp his parents had sent him to.

  In Ultimate Marvel, Bobby is the youngest founding member of the X-Men. He ran away from home at the peak of government-supported Sentinel attacks because he feared his family would be killed. After Proteus injured him, his parents sued Xavier. He dated Rogue and then Shadowcat. Later his family kicked him out for being a mutant. Kitty suggested he move in with Aunt May, Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy and Johnny Storm. May enrolled him at Midtown High, posing as Peter's cousin.

  On screen, Shawn Ashmore portrayed Iceman in the 20th Century Fox X-Men films from 2000 to 2014. He also voiced the character in The Super Hero Squad Show, where Iceman is the academy's class clown. In X-Men, this version is one of the first students to befriend Rogue, and they begin a relationship. In X2, his brother turns him in to the police for being a mutant, and he has an uneasy friendship with classmate Pyro. In X-Men: Days of Future Past, a Sentinel kills him in a dystopian future. He is resurrected after Kitty Pryde and Wolverine alter the timeline.

  Cartoons offered other versions. Frank Welker voiced him in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends as a government agent codenamed Windchill Factor Zero. In X-Men: Evolution, Andrew Francis voiced him as the unofficial leader of the junior New Mutants. In video games he appears in X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Marvel Contest of Champions. Two incarnations of Iceman are playable in Marvel Puzzle Quest.

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