You Can Be My Iceman Anytime
Iceman: Being grown up doesn’t have to mean being endlessly morose and having fun isn’t just for five-year-olds. No, the day I can’t laugh at how ridiculous this all is, while still loving every single second of it, is the day I walk away and find a new line of work.
Wolverine and the X-Men #24 (2014)
Rain pours down as terrorists attack a school. They fire round after round at the windows, trying to kill Mutant children hiding under desks. The temperature plummets as rain freezes into hail. A man appears in the sky, sliding down a bridge of ice. He raises his hand and a silver-blue beam freezes a terrorist
The terrorists shoot at the man, but their shivering hands can’t aim. One fires a rocket at the school. The man forms an ice barrier that shatters in the explosion. The terrorists can’t see through the smoke, but one notices the rain funneling towards the cloud. The man emerges, now a furious ice giant. Iceman freezes them all in place and destroys their equipment. Soft snow falls as he comforts the students.
Iceman was one of the original five X-Men. He’s grown from an eager young gun into a hero with godlike potential. So who is he? How did he become a hero? What secret did he hide for decades? Let’s find out.
Scene Select
Bobby, the X-Man: Iceman’s Backstory
Iceman: “At home I was always the baby boy being coddled and protected! In the X-Men, I was the weak link, the kid who couldn’t hold his own! Is it any wonder I was never sure of myself?”
Iceman #4 (1985)
Iceman debuted in The X-Men #1 in 1963. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to be reverse of The Human Torch. Iceman originally looked like a living snowman, but learned to fully transform into ice over time.
Bobby Drake suddenly discovered superpowers when bullies harassed him and his girlfriend. The teenaged Bobby protected her by freezing the bullies and terrifying everyone. He was later attacked by an angry mob and rescued by Cyclops.
Bobby became Iceman, the X-Men’s surrogate little brother who rushed into danger to prove himself. Iceman left to join The Champions with former teammate Angel and briefly became a Defender. Both heroes later rejoined the original X-Men to form X-Factor.
Iceman grew stronger after Loki usurped his powers to bolster an army of Frost Giants. Bobby spent months regaining control of his powers and emerged as X-Factor’s biggest gun.
Frozen Hearts: Ice Man’s History
Jean: “Bobby… you’re gay.”
All-New X-Men #40
Bobby: “What? W-why would you say that?“
Jean: “Because I’m a psychic. I can read your thoughts.“
Bobby: “Don’t… hey, don’t do that! Stop it! […] STOP!“
Jean: “You’re thinking it right now. I’m not doing anything.”
Iceman became a mentor to younger heroes and one of the faces of the original X-Men. He took Boom-Boom and Dust under his wing and later taught in every X-Men academy.
Life changed when Iceman and Beast were chatting about Cyclops’ turn to Mutant supremacy. He joked about bringing teenage Cyclops to the future to see the zealot that he’d become. Beast brought the original X-Men to the modern day, but unintentionally trapped them in the future.
After Past Jean Grey discovered that Past Bobby was gay, Bobby had a heart to heart with Iceman, who revealed that he’d been in the closet for years. He was already a Mutant and didn’t want to be ostracized for being gay, too. Jean publicly outing them forced Iceman to confront his fear of living openly.
Absolute Zero to Hero: Iceman’s Powers and Personality
Iceman: “I’m the what, “class clown”? They say it, all of them. Not me. Say it like that’s a bad thing. But at the end of the day… clowns terrify people.”
Astonishing Ice Man #5 (2023)
Iceman stops villains cold. He can generate ice, shoot blasts that freeze objects, create armor from ice, and freeze hellfire. Iceman can also create living beings from ice, once using a sprinkler system to grow an army of himself. He rides on ice slides to maneuver around enemies.
Cryomancy isn’t his only power. Iceman discovered that he could control moisture while possessed by anti-hero Emma Frost. She merged with a river, transformed into gas, and drew water from the air to rebuild Bobby’s body. Iceman has all those powers as well, but never pushed his limits because he thought he’d hit them. He’s an ice god when at full power.
Bobby Drake is an easygoing comedian. He often hid worries and self-doubt with jokes, preferring to have fun and inspire his students. Bobby acted as a ladies man to mask his real preferences. Coming out of the closet made him more open with his friends and comrades. Iceman still has lingering resentment from years of hiding and is sometimes racist against humans.
The Actors Who Play Him
Frank Welker – Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
Jesse Collins – X-Men: The Animated Series
Andrew Francis – X-Men: Evolution
Yuri Lowenthal – Wolverine and the X-Men
Shawn Ashmore – X-Men, X2: X-Men United, others
Didya Get All That?
The X-Man who grew up.
Image: Shawn Ashmore and Aaron Stanford in X-Men: The Last Stand. Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.
Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.
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