Bobby Drake: The Iceman Appreciation 2024

[From The Shadows]

During the 1980s, I was kind of upset that Iceman (and Firestar) was not a part of the main X-Men team. I had to settle for the New Defenders, but I was glad that X-Factor came out by 1986.

I too enjoyed X-Factor and the 05 reunion. It was nice to see Bobby in the X-World again (along with Warren and Hank).

[From The Shadows]

Iceman freezes "Hell". Wish Jason Aaron finished his run. Ed McGuiness' awesome art really made this scene extra great.



X-Men: Operation Zero Tolerance. I may be in the minority about this page. These pages had some beautiful work by the late Carlos Pacheco.



Another page from OZT..

[juan678]

https://twitter.com/THE_saintart/sta...79931256295665

[NewMutant]

We got a Bobby cameo in the 97 intro and a Bastion hint as well. The final episodes are called Tolerance is Extinction which I'm assuming while be a Zero Tolerance adaptation. Dreaming of a minor role our boy Iceman!

[Dante Milton]

I just hope that wherever Bobby ends up in the new era the writer that's using him has a clear idea of what they want to do with the character. Bobby had a lot of appearances in the Krakoa books, but they were largely superficial and ultimately insignificant to his character development. The closest we got to a relevant story for him was the Vecchio Unlimited mini.

[NewMutant]

I just hope that wherever Bobby ends up in the new era the writer that's using him has a clear idea of what they want to do with the character. Bobby had a lot of appearances in the Krakoa books, but they were largely superficial and ultimately insignificant to his character development. The closest we got to a relevant story for him was the Vecchio Unlimited mini.

I read rumor (no source) that Iceman will be leading an X-team, potentially X-Factor. A leadership role would be a step up I'd imagine. Though I'm not sure how interested I am in the new era. How Iceman is handle will certainly help or hurt that attraction.

I thought Iceman was handled well in this era... particularly Marauders, both minis (tho LV was superior), all the actual Hellfire Gala issues - it was his run on X-Men that felt underwhelming when it seemed like a moment to shine.

I want to see Iceman on the "flagship" team with Morrison, Whedon, Hickman level hype/quality around it.

[Nicoclaws]

Duggan gave him his apparently usual "exploring anger issues via violence" side which applied to Kate to. I don't mind the trope too much, but I prefered the other takes on the character.

[Veni]

[Hypestyle]

Some Iceman footage in the old Nintendo NES X-Men game, circa @11:00

[From The Shadows]

In the original X-Factor Bobby outsmarts Warren and snaps him out of his brainwashing.

[Icefanatic]

Hmmm... I swear his father was portrayed as a bigot during New Defenders. But I guess I was wrong. Anyway, Bobby burying the hatchet with his father, even if Lobdell is the one who made him racist, I actually liked that development and think it fleshed out Bobby's character. I think making his parents bigots and they keep returning to it is because of Claremont's back - up story in Classic X-Men # 1 which portrayed Bobby as prejudiced. I loved the Claremont back-up stories but I could never get behind his portrayal of Bobby. Supposedly CC didn't like the character. If you don't like a character simply don't use him. I see no need for character assassination. I didn't like them killing off Bobby's father. I wanted him to interact with his parents again but that would not have happened anyway, I guess, since they were both made prejudiced again. Oh, well...

Circa New Defenders, both of Bobby's parents considered him being Iceman to be something dangerous and foolish, and worried that if people found out he was Iceman and a mutant he would be hurt or killed. No indication of any bigotry pre-Lobdell. My Headcannon thing is I think Bobby's parents probably grew up with parents who were bigoted to some degree, and they internalized some of that and as they got older some of those views and opinions started rising to the surface. It's a funny thing watching people turn into their parents, in ways good and bad.

I never really bought the motivation for Bobby's behavior as prejudice. That's what Sean and Kurt accuse him of in their scene with him because they don't understand why he is acting the way he is, but he rejects it. It reminds me of when I was a kid growing up in my grandparents house. We'd had family over but it was mostly great-aunts and great-uncles and sometimes their adult children. Then my grandmother died and our house was invaded by extended family, including younger cousins and little kids and all running around doing whatever they wanted. My grandmother had been strict and there were rules for her house and the 'invaders' just disregarded all of that. I asked my mother to throw them out of our house, and when she wouldn't I retreated to our den, and once in there had my first encounter with a drunk person.

Bobby was a couple of years younger than the other X-Men, who were on the cusp of adulthood when they joined, while he was just leaving being a kid behind. They were his family, and the X-mansion was his home and he lashed out at seeing a bunch of strangers occupy both and claim they had as much right to be there as he did. So he lashed out, and since the only things he knew about the 'intruders' were superficial, those were the blows he struck.

Saying that Nightcrawler 'looked the part' of a demon after Colossus asked if he was one, or calling Colossus 'Ruskie' in response to being called 'Comrade' at the height of the Cold War doesn't seem beyond the pale to me. Telling Proudstar he can find his way around easily because everything is labeled, and adding 'assuming you can read' is the type of schoolyard insult Bobby would have directed at anyone.

I feel like Jean got the right sense of things with Bobby on the next page and so did Angel in a later scene when telling Storm that Bobby was just being a kid. I think if Claremont was actually going for prejudice with Bobby instead of immaturity he would have been a lot more pointed in his dialogue(Probably called Proudstar 'chief' at a minimum, Claremont wasn't even afraid to throw the N-word around when he wanted.) and he wouldn't have had other characters that knew Bobby better chalk it up to immaturity.

Claremont has never written Bobby as prejudiced at any other point. Claremont even wrote issue #4 of the Champions set just after that time and there was no animus toward Natasha and Ivan for being Russian, quite the opposite.

During the 1980s, I was kind of upset that Iceman (and Firestar) was not a part of the main X-Men team. I had to settle for the New Defenders, but I was glad that X-Factor came out by 1986.

Same. I couldn't figure why Bobby sat around in his underwear in human form instead of transforming like he did in the cartoon. I remember freaking out at Jean coming 'back from the dead' in Fantastic Four, I must have read that comic a hundred times in the weeks after I first got it. And then seeing the '05 reunite as X-Factor was thrilling. '05 for life!

I don't remember much of him (besides his issues with Cloud, that with hindsight and Bobby's coming out, might make more sense than how it was intended at the time) but coming out of the Champions it was a fresh breath of air. For as much as I remember, Bobby got a very bad characterization in the Champions.
Too bad, because in every reunion of the group, the team showed to have potential.

I think things got better all around after Bill Mantlo took over as the writer for the Champions in the second half of the run, and the issues he did with John Byrne on art still hold up well, but the book was already heading for cancellation at that point.

X-Men: Operation Zero Tolerance. I may be in the minority about this page. These pages had some beautiful work by the late Carlos Pacheco.

Carlos Pacheco is my favorite Iceman artist. He combined elements of Whilce Portacio's and Joe Madureira's takes to create something even better than both.

Some Iceman footage in the old Nintendo NES X-Men game, circa @11:00

I played the hell out of that, never managed to crack the code to get me to Magneto. Eventually looked it up on the internet years later.

In the original X-Factor Bobby outsmarts Warren and snaps him out of his brainwashing.

Classic moment. It works because everyone knew Bobby was just flesh-and-blood under that ice. You couldn't do that moment with how his powers are today.

I would love to see that in a movie or even the Animated Series reboot.

[Nicoclaws]

I would love to see Pacheco draw Iceman's new outfit. I love Vecchio but I agree Pacheco is one of my favorite takes on Bobby.

[NewMutant]

I would love to see Pacheco draw Iceman's new outfit. I love Vecchio but I agree Pacheco is one of my favorite takes on Bobby.

Pacheco sadly passed away in 2022. Wonderful artist.

[Nicoclaws]

Pacheco sadly passed away in 2022. Wonderful artist.

Oh crap I forgot sorry !

[From The Shadows]

I always found it amusing that Bobby would challenge someone like Logan. He got balls.