An article has been written about Iceman saving the world. The editor tells the journalist to "drop the gay angle," as she's focusing on Iceman being a gay mutant hero. He thinks that his sexuality isn't relevant to the story.
Flashback to a few days ago. Some alien jerks (rogue Novas, by the looks of their helmets?) are trying to make our sun collapse by torpedoing it with.. something. They want to win big from bets on Gameworld, as they bet on Earth's destruction. Cyclops and Magik port inside their ship and helpfully let them know that Gameworld is no more.
The aliens refuse to give up, since they outnumber the duo. But Cyclops trickshots his eye beams all over the room, shooting their helmets off. Now outgunned and at the mercy of Magik's blade, they confess that they put a fire generator in the sun, so they can bathe our planet in fire. They're gonna create a giant solar flare.
Cyclops tells Jean all about it. She gives Iceman the deets and sends him up into orbit. Iceman decides to make an ice shield, but he's aware that it could cause another hazard to the planet. He tells Jean to tell Forge to get his thinking bandana on.
Jean instructs Firestar of the plan. The ice shield will act as an air bag. When it falls, Firestar will go to the largest debris field (the American widwest) and melt the ice as it falls, so people aren't, like, crushed to death.
While walking around with a stick and eating a sandwich, Forge is doing some calculations on how thick the ice should be. Everyone's favorite walkie-talkie, Jean, will upload the info into Bobby's mind.
Magik and Cyclops evacuate all the astronauts in orbit, so no one is fried. No one except Bobby, who's obliterated by the flare, along with his shield. The outer edge of the flare has been deflected, but more is on the way. Firestar, Jean, Synch and Rogue (the latter two borrowing Jean's powers) work to tak care of the ice raining down on everyone.
Back in orbit, Bobby reforms and blasts the plasma bolt with more ice. He's knocked back into Earth's gravity and begins falling, but then casually makes his ice trail to move down safely. On the way, he runs into Firestar, and they high-five. Their powers mingle and make a giant rainbow in the sky.
When they touch down, a reporter flocks to Iceman for an interview. Iceman says that he only has a little bit of time before he has to go fight the Eternals, but he does stop to give us a data page.
The page is an excerpt of the interview, and kind of lengthy. The tl;dr is that Bobby a mutant and a gay man; he's tired of trying to find acceptance by fitting in with the majority. He's also staying in his ice form more, because he's proud of his gift and wants to show other mutants and humans that he doesn't have to pass or be afraid of who he is. He also has a 14-paragraph dissertation on why everyone should strive to be like Hellion: an attractive and human-passing mutant who is the ultimate ally towards non-passing mutants (Mercury), the LGBT (Mercury and Anole), and the ugly (Wither during his early days of New Mutants vol 2.)
Back to the present. The journalist says that she wants to keep the gay angle because it's the truth, she doesn't want to "coddle the small-minded," and doesn't want to erase Bobby's existence. The editor is like "okay w/e, we'll keep it."
Meanwhile, Cyclops meets with the Celestial judge in the Arctic. Before he can be judged, Cyclops tells the Celestial that only his wife can judge him. He's willing to bring the Celestial somewhere else to meet his wife. For this, the Celestial gives him a passing verdict.
Notes:
- Duggan's writing Bobby a little better, but this issue felt very awkward. Like Iceman's interview has some merit, but it feels out of left field within the context of the issue.