Iceman #9 Discussion and Spoilers

[Anduinel]

Whooo boy. I suspect there are going to be Strong Opinions on this issue. But anyway, let's go.

- The story opens with Judah having a slight case of nerves when it comes to attending Bobby's going-away party. (Probably has something to do with being clobbered by an organic steel man-mountain last issue.) Bobby assures him that it's all fine, but he might want to steer clear of Kitty, who distrusts Bobby's motives for leaving the team to move to LA.

- Michela and Oya chat while thrifting. Oya asks Michela if she's ever considered life after the school, since she doesn't have to be a mutant 24/7. It's a pretty thinly-veiled "concern" about Michela's power levels, and Michela good-naturedly calls her out on dancing around the topic. Then Oya thinks she catches a glimpse of Daken on the street and has a "I've got a bad feeling about this" moment.

- Jump back to the school, and the party is in full swing. Cameos galore! Sam thinks Bobby and Judah should roadtrip back to LA, since "roadtrips are the best". Northstar's husband, Kyle, gives Bobby some advice on every-day details that shouldn't be allowed to slide just because superhero life is nuts. Northstar says he thinks part of him knew Bobby was gay, he just didn't want to risk projecting; no one believes a word of it. Rictor tells Bobby that he and Shatterstar are on break, maybe for good, and asks him to look him up if he finds himself in New York and single. Forge uses his mechanical leg to make Judah a drink (off-panel).

- Zach pokes his head back into the mansion. When Ben wants to know where the hell he's been, he claims the X-Men rescued him, and btw, all the students should meet in the Danger Room to help with a big surprise for Mr. Drake.

- Bobby tries to make peace with Kitty, but she's having none of it. She says she's the only one being honest with him: he belongs at the school, and shouldn't move out to LA for a boy just because his life will be easier out there. Bobby protests that he isn't just moving for a boy. He tells Kitty he's not a team, so she can't lead him, and he's not hanging around the mansion just to be her gay best friend now that he's finally reclaimed some of his life.

- Kitty dismisses Bobby's "drama" to take a call. She addresses the crowd, telling them that they've just had a noise complaint and asks that they take the party to a nearby bar. In an aside to Storm, she says that Purifiers are surrounding the school. She wants Storm to get the Gold team ready.

- Bobby flags down Colossus and asks him what's up. Colossus says it's a mild threat and they'll handle it, then adds that Kitty just wants to know she matters to Bobby.

- Bobby decides he's going to help out Kitty's team, but he wants to stash Judah someplace safe first and leads him to his room. Judah jokes that it's cute watching Bobby try to decide if he's a damsel in distress or a sidekick. Meanwhile, Daken is lurking out of sight.

- The students are assembled in the Danger Room, wondering what the big surprise is supposed to be. Turns out that it's Zac being evil; he puts on a high-level DR program to keep the students occupied.

- Daken ambushes Bobby and Judah. Bobby's powers are shut down thanks to Zach, who is now calling himself Amp. He's got control over his power to the point that he was able to shut down the mansion's security systems while keeping Bobby's powers inhibited.

- Judah tries to get Daken off Bobby, but he's entirely outmatched. Daken taunts them both, then uses his pheromone powers to seduce Judah in front of Bobby.

- Kitty and her team find that, even though the people surrounding the school are wearing Purifier duds, they're utter pushovers. She realizes they've been set up.

- Daken kisses Judah, then throws him to the ground: "Nothing. No spark. Romance is dead." He tells Bobby that winning over Zach was all about the Apocalypse Seed implanted in him. He refuses to be controlled, to only have access to all of that power if it's as a lackey to Apocalypse. Zach is there to give Daken access to that power while keeping Apocalypse's influence filtered out.

- Bobby tries to warn him of what the Seed will do to him, but Daken gives no fucks. A second later, Amp has unleashed the Seed's power, and Daken has been transformed into Final Boss Daken. He stabs Judah through the chest with his claws in to goad Bobby into an opponent he can activate his full power against, and tells Zach to give Iceman back his powers. Bobby ices up.

- As the Seed's powers grow, Zach reaches the upper limit of his abilities and begins popping MGH to boost them.

- Daken and Bobby brawl, with a furious Bobby still trying to talk sense into Daken about what the Seed will do to him. Daken isn't interested in Bobby's "hero speech" and gains the upper hand.

- Turns out Zach's not strong enough to hold corruptive, god-like powers in check for very long. But he knows just where to vent them: on the students trapped in the Danger Room.

I suspect I'm not going to have a firm opinion on this issue until I read the next one, but general thoughts:

Loved the cameos, for the most part. I've got a little side-eye for putting Rictor and Shatterstar on break, but I suspect Grace checked with Rosenberg first on that front. Makes me a bit more interested in the upcoming New Mutants series than I already was.

Between X-Men: Gold in general, Rogue and Gambit #1, and now this, I'm about convinced that the official stance of the X-Office, the one that the writers are being diligently coached to uphold, is that the readers are supposed to 100% hate Kitty Pryde. She just wants to know that "she matters" to the guy she was dating for 6 minutes, and who has gone through a lot of life-altering shit since then? The guy that she left because he wasn't giving her enough validation two engagements ago? To the point she is so damn invested in being right that she'd rather part on just about the worst possible terms than show the bare minumum of support by wishing him good luck and letting him make his own mitakes? Geez. The world does not revolve around your need to be the center of all things, Kitty. Also! There's a threat that you have not properly verified approaching the school, and your response is to lie to a dozen experienced superheroes and send them away like they're a bunch of civvies who don't know any better so your team can handle it solo? You don't even ask them to sit tight and enjoy themselves so that there's someone watching the fort while your crew is busy? This is me being unimpressed.

re: Judah. Since, misleading coloring aside, the outfit indicates that he's the person Bobby is holding on the cover of next month's issue, I'm going to guess he lives. Whether or not he stays with Bobby after this is the bigger question. Mind control, sexual assault, and near-death experience are a lot for a budding relationship to weather.

Daken... yeah, I got thoughts on Daken, but I'll save them until next issue to see if a couple of theories play out.

[Wiccan]

Ctrl + V from the Iceman thread, so this doesn't get buried:

It was really... Wow. Grace just went off with this. I have to say though that the random RicStar "relationship update" was unnecessary lol. I'm not surprised, but still disappointed that Daken is just like, chaotic evil here. At this point I feel like the jarring difference from him here to All New Wolverine can't be excused with just "He only cares about Laura". Ain't mad that Judah is (possibly)dead though.

[Tycon]

But like.......what the hell

[nandes]

Whew... this was a bit of a hot mess wasn't it.

Rictor & Shatterstar potentially breaking up though?? Oh no.

[SpiderClops]

I haven't read it. I haven't read any comment on this thread. I'm going to read this issue right now. But I saw the cover. Now, if this issue doesn't end in Iceman beating the living bejesus out of Daken without breaking a sweat, I'ma be pissed.

Be back in a few minutes.

[Anduinel]

I haven't read it. I haven't read any comment on this thread. I'm going to read this issue right now. But I saw the cover. Now, if this issue doesn't end in Iceman beating the living bejesus out of Daken without breaking a sweat, I'ma be pissed.

Be back in a few minutes.

Two-parter, so brace yourself for that.

[Harpsikord]

I have a lot of feelings about this but them maybe killing Judah off was unnecessary.

[Ambaryerno]

I'm not surprised, but still disappointed that Daken is just like, chaotic evil here. At this point I feel like the jarring difference from him here to All New Wolverine can't be excused with just "He only cares about Laura".

Editorial seriously needs to start doing their jobs and not let writers just do whatever with characterization. At the very LEAST there needs to be a better sense of where the books fit in relation to one another (IE, do the events of Iceman precede OoX and establish his situation there? Or is it the other way around, and OoX leads to Daken playing with his Death Seed powers?)

[Bl00dwerK]

At the very LEAST there needs to be a better sense of where the books fit in relation to one another.

This book wasn't started to fit into anything. It got made so a gay dude could tell his coming out story. Iceman, nor the X-Men in general, had anything to do with it.

[Anduinel]

Ctrl + V from the Iceman thread, so this doesn't get buried:

It was really... Wow. Grace just went off with this. I have to say though that the random RicStar "relationship update" was unnecessary lol. I'm not surprised, but still disappointed that Daken is just like, chaotic evil here. At this point I feel like the jarring difference from him here to All New Wolverine can't be excused with just "He only cares about Laura". Ain't mad that Judah is (possibly)dead though.

One theory I've seen floated for Daken's behavior is that the Apocalypse Seed has been corrupting him, even while dormant. I suspect it's more that Grace needs him to be a villain, so he's drawing from Daken's most villainous characterizations (Remender, Williams, etc). But we'll see how the next two issues go.

[Wiccan]

Editorial seriously needs to start doing their jobs and not let writers just do whatever with characterization. At the very LEAST there needs to be a better sense of where the books fit in relation to one another (IE, do the events of Iceman precede OoX and establish his situation there? Or is it the other way around, and OoX leads to Daken playing with his Death Seed powers?)

It's harder to make a proper timeline if you consider his previous appearances on both books. He was on ANW in issue 20 on the Immune arc(June), and fighting Bobby on Iceman #4(August), he still had his arm there, so you could say that one was before OOX(October-now), but it doesn't feel like that much time passed since then...

One theory I've seen floated for Daken's behavior is that the Apocalypse Seed has been corrupting him, even while dormant. I suspect it's more that Grace needs him to be a villain, so he's drawing from Daken's most villainous characterizations (Remender, Williams, etc). But we'll see how the next two issues go.

Yeah I think he just needed some sort of arch-nemesis for Bobby and so villain Daken is more fitting, but I guess this works as a headcanon maybe.

[Harpsikord]

It's harder to make a proper timeline if you consider his previous appearances on both books. He was on ANW in issue 20 on the Immune arc(June), and fighting Bobby on Iceman #4(August), he still had his arm there, so you could say that one was before OOX(October-now), but it doesn't feel like that much time passed since then...

It's a little more glaring too when you have Laura and Bobby on the same squad in Phoenix Rez without there being too much bad blood.

[Ambaryerno]

It's a little more glaring too when you have Laura and Bobby on the same squad in Phoenix Rez without there being too much bad blood.

I don't see Bobby getting into a fight with Daken stirring up any sort of hostility between Bobby and Laura. However much benefit of the doubt she allows Daken, she's not blindly giving him free reign (IE her telling him to stuff it when Daken tried to sweet-talk Megan). So if Daken attacked the school and put the students at risk like this, I doubt she'd fault Bobby for dealing with it.

[SpiderClops]

Well, I don't know what to say. This was unexpected.

[Chaos Reigns]

Ctrl + V from the Iceman thread, so this doesn't get buried:

It was really... Wow. Grace just went off with this. I have to say though that the random RicStar "relationship update" was unnecessary lol. I'm not surprised, but still disappointed that Daken is just like, chaotic evil here. At this point I feel like the jarring difference from him here to All New Wolverine can't be excused with just "He only cares about Laura". Ain't mad that Judah is (possibly)dead though.

I am, I liked Jewish boyfriend. Giving the X-men outside relationships keeps the brand healthy and I hate how Daken is being portrayed.