Iceman (Marvel)
Iceman is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents[hide] |
Biography
Origin
Robert Drake was a male human Mutant born as the son of William Drake and Madeline Drake. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #319)
When Bobby hit puberty, his mutant powers gradually began to manifest. He was constantly feeling cold and shivering, producing mild amounts of cold that he couldn’t fully control. (X-Men Forever v1 #3)
Later, Bobby's powers manifested themselves for the first time when he froze the water in the family swimming pool. His parents quickly realized that their son was a mutant, and warned him to be careful about his powers because others would grow to fear them. Bobby began secretly practicing the use of his powers and quickly learned how to coat his body in snow, he found the idea of being a mutant to be an amazing experience. In school, Drake began dating Judy Harmon earning the ire of local bully Rocky Beasely. In his free time, Bobby continued practicing how to use his mutant powers to freeze the moisture in the air. (X-Men Origins: Iceman v1 #1)
After manifesting his powers, his parents warned him not to use them in public as other people would not understand him with Bobby's mutation being kept a secret from the town. (X-Men v1 #44)
During school, a bully named Rocky Beasely had convinced his gang to attack Bobby during his date with his girlfriend Judy Harmon. Beasely was taking Judy away whilst his friends attacked Drake who in desperation used his powers thus freezing Rocky in place. This exposed his powers to everyone causing Judy to flee in terror as she wanted nothing to do with Bobby whilst the others told everyone else in the town. He then rushed to his parents place asking for their help and they told him that they had to leave town. However, a mob had organised outside the Drake house where they broke in with Bobby's father attempting to hold them off. Rather than leave his father, Bobby came to use his abilities to help them off but was overpowered by them. At the time, the local sheriff saw the matter was getting out of control and took Robert Drake into custody into protection. News of the event came to be reported in he news and attracting the attention of Professor Charles Xavier. (X-Men v1 #44)
Upon arriving at Xavier's school in Westchester County, the first thing Bobby did was ice up and use his powers, happy to finally be somewhere they he could be himself. (X-Men Origins: Iceman v1 #1)
X-Men
Time-Displaced
During these early days, Iceman along with his fellow X-Men were abducted from their place in the timeline and brought into the future. The person was responsible was revealed to be an older version of Beast. Before the older Hank McCoy could explain anything, he collapsed with the rest of the X-Men being aware of the arrival of their younger counterparts. The young Drake came to be surprised upon seeing his older self. Looking to help Beast, the younger Iceman suggested taking him to a hospital but no such regular medical facility could help a Mutant. As such, specialised help was called for as everyone at the X-Mansion looked to save McCoy. During the commotion, the confused time-displaced original X-Men came to learn more about their fates in this point in history. Among these included the fact that Cyclops had become a Mutant revolutionary and a wanted man whilst Jean Grey was dead. Looking for a purpose, they decided to go out in search of Mutants and escaped the future X-Men with the young Hank McCoy helping steal a Blackbird as they left the X-Mansion. (All-New X-Men v1 #2) The group would later encounter the future Cyclops who was accompanied by Magneto. During this encounter, Cyclops was taken aback at seeing the young Jean who herself was overwhelmed at what she knew of the future. This caused her to lash out telekinetically which in turn led to the future Cyclops accidentally sending an optic blast at the time displaced X-Men. A fight erupted with Magneto urging the future Cyclops to escape. The young Drake was shocked at seeing Magneto working alongside Summers future self and found this whole future to be backwards. (All-New X-Men v1 #4)
Kitty Pryde was headmistress of the future's Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and became private instructor for the original five as long as they chose to remain in the future. This proved particularly awkward for the young Iceman and 'Professor K', who despite dating his future self somehow did not find the younger Bobby's immaturity remotely charming. (All-New X-Men v1 #7)
This adventure damaged the trust Kitty Pryde had in her fellow teachers and so she moved Iceman and the original five to Cyclops' New Xavier School instead, since old Scott had stood by them in the crisis. Kitty and old Bobby had also broken up during this fiasco, a fact for which when young Bobby believed Professor K was blaming him. Kitty told Bobby she was only being harder on him because he simply would not stop talking during instruction! Bobby finally got the message and began to quiet down. (All-New X-Men v1 #18)
Iceman
Later, without Xavier, the X-Men succeeded in stopping the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from recruiting the Blob into their ranks. (X-Men v1 #7) Under Scott's training, Iceman learned how to cover his body in ice. Not long after this, both Bobby and Hank were attacked by an anti-mutant mob. Having had enough, Hank abruptly quit the X-Men. Soon the X-Men faced a new evil mutant named Unus the Untouchable, who could erect an impenetrable force field around himself. The Beast soon returned to his friends developed a device that boosted Unus' force fields so that he could not even touch food forcing him to surrender to have the effects reversed. (X-Men v1 #8)
Charles soon contacted his students and revealed that he was searching for the alien Lucifer, who was responsible for crippling him. Charles called for his X-Men to join him in Europe. Quickly captured, Charles learned that Lucifer had armed a bomb that could blow up all of Europe and that it was specially rigged to his heart, so that the bomb would go off if his heart was stopped. When the Avengers later arrived to investigate the scene. Charles had Cyclops and the X-Men hold the Avengers at bay until he was able to incapacitate Lucifer with a mental bolt. Charles then stopped the first between the two teams and explained the situation. Satisfied that the X-Men had the situation under control, the Avengers then departed. Guiding Cyclops' optic blast, Charles was able to disarm the bomb. When Lucifer revived shortly thereafter, Xavier allowed him to go free as he had been thoroughly defeated. (X-Men v1 #9)
With the next stage of their education and training, Iceman and his teammates were provided with alternate costumes that they occasionally wore in the field. Charles also developed an addition to Cerebro which included an artificial intelligence that taught his students whenever he was absent or busy. When Xavier began detecting a strange force that was taking control of plants and animals near the mansion, he and the X-Men tracked the source near Greenland. There they prevented scientist who were studying global warming from drilling into the domain of ancient creatures that used to be the dominant species on Earth and were in the final cycle of their lifespan. This discovery convinced the scientist to drill elsewhere for their research. (X-Men First Class v1 #1)
Champions of Los Angeles
Inspired by these events, Angel suggested the heroes remain together as a new group of crime-fighters in California. Known as the Champions of Los Angeles, they would be open and accessible to the public, acting as “heroes for the common man”. Iceman, Black Widow, Hercules and Ghost Rider agreed to Angel’s proposal, and they established a headquarters and funding in LA thanks to Warren’s recent inheritance. Despite agreeing to help start up the Champions, Bobby actually planned to retire from super-heroing once Warren had the team up and running properly. (Champions v1 #5)
The group was volatile and disbanded after a brief stint. After the team disbanded, Bobby visited his former opponent Rampage in the hospital and was brought under his mental control. Bobby began wearing the armor of Rampage and helped him to escape. Spider-Man arrived to cover the story of the Champions disbanding, and Bobby battled both him and Angel. Spider-Man was able to bring Bobby to his senses. (Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #17)
Later, Bobby took his girlfriend, Terri Sue Bottoms, to Warren's cabin style mansion and was attacked by Master Mold. After Bobby was captured, Master Mold awoke the Hulk. The Hulk and Angel were also captured and taken to the Sentinel Space Station, where the Hulk broke free and tore Master Mold into pieces. (Incredible Hulk Annual v1 #7)
Defenders
Bobby had some difficulty telling his parents about his decision to resume his career as a super-hero. Although Professor Xavier had originally wiped their minds of any knowledge of his powers, Bobby had told his parents about his mutant abilities and crime-fighting career some years ago. His parents had never been fully comfortable with it, dreading the phone call telling them their son had been killed in battle. Hank and Warren went with him to tell the Drakes about his decision. Though they were surprised by and unhappy with Bobby's news, they eventually came to accept it after he assured them he would continue to pursue his accounting degree. (Defenders v1 #127)
Bobby’s attraction to Cloud hit a snag when she transformed into a man overnight, triggered in part by Moondragon's low-level manipulations to make the others like her. The confused Cloud felt that being a man would allow her to act upon her newfound feelings of love towards Moondragon better, yet was as surprised as anyone when her body actually responded to the idea. (Defenders v1 #136)
Some weeks later, the riddle was solved, as Cloud turned out to be a giant nebula that had come to Earth for help. To communicate, it took on the human forms of two car crash victims along with their pain; the shock of suddenly developing a human nervous system made her amnesiac. After the Defenders helped to fight the cosmic danger she originally came to Earth to fight, Cloud and the group parted ways, though not before the nebula thanked Bobby for his love and apologized for any grief it had unintentionally caused. (Defenders v1 #150)
Right after their return, Moondragon and Gargoyle were taken over by a mystical entity, the Dragon of the Moon, to be used as pawns to take over the world. The Interloper could use his powers as an Eternal to stop the Dragon of the Moon, but he needed extra lifeforce to completely defeat the beast. While the three former X-Men were kept busy with rescuing friends and loved ones, the other Defenders sacrificed their lifeforces to destroy the dragon. When Beast, Angel and Iceman returned to the scene, they found both their allies and their enemies had been turned to dust. With more than half the team gone, the Defenders disbanded. (Defenders v1 #152)
X-Factor
After clearing out of Angel’s Aerie, Iceman finished his degree and started up a normal life at an accounting firm. Not long thereafter, he was contacted by Warren with shocking news – their original teammate Jean Grey was alive again. Jean was shocked at the state of mutant affairs, as well as the fact that the X-Men had accepted Magneto as a member in her absence, and wanted to do something about it. Warren agreed and convinced Iceman and Beast to join their new X-Factor team. To lead them, they recruited Cyclops from retirement as well. The plan behind X-Factor was to pose as mutant hunting humans, mercenaries for hire by the general public. Behind this cover, their true mission was to use tips from the public to police evil mutants and recruit innocent mutants to help them learn how to use their powers. When necessary, they also worked in disguise in their mutant identities eventually calling themselves X-Terminators. (X-Factor v1 #1)
When he returned to X-Factor, Bobby’s powers were out of control, frequently causing him to ice up for no reason. Following Warren’s funeral, X-Factor received a call about a mutant threatening to destroy San Francisco with an earthquake. The X-Terminators flew out west to confront the threat, and Bobby was particularly incensed at yet another evil mutant causing trouble for mankind. On the scene, however, they learned the mutant named Rictor was nothing but a teenager, tortured and used as an unwilling guinea pig an anti-mutant organization called the Right, using his powers to spread hatred towards mutants. The X-Terminators stopped the threat, and Iceman was furious he was taken in by the anti-mutant rhetoric X-Factor was spreading. He publicly announced the Right’s plans over the airwaves, demanding the public “Know mutants by their deeds!”, and not by blind hatred. (X-Factor v1 #17)
After nearly falling victim to their own anti-mutant advertising, Iceman decided he was done with X-Factor and Hodge’s propaganda machine. Bobby began actively defacing X-Factor billboards around Manhattan and goading humans into calling 'X-Factor' to do something about it, hoping the 'mutant-hunters' would lose credibility when they inevitably did nothing to stop him. Iceman’s power problems continued to plague him as well, and he ran the risk of trapping himself in a block of solid ice whenever he let loose with his abilities. On one such occasion, while fighting the Horsemen of Apocalypse in Central Park, Bobby froze over the entire area, creating a miniature glacier in the middle of Manhattan. This was not exactly good for his reputation, especially after Iceman’s impassioned speech days earlier, but Rusty Collins and the other young mutants of X-Factor went out to the park to clean up after Bobby. They left behind a message letting New York know mutants were responsible, once again asking to be 'known by their deeds'. (X-Factor v1 #20)
Uncanny X-Men
Schism
After the Schism, Logan opened up the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning where he asked Bobby to serve as book keeper of the school’s finances. Bobby worked with Logan, Hank, and Kitty to rebuild the newly-renamed Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Falling back on his accounting degree, Bobby became the school's bookkeeper and part of the senior faculty for the school. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #1)
Logan wanted more from Bobby, though. As an Omega-class mutant, Iceman had always had untapped potential. Wolverine made it clear it was time for Iceman to step up and make full use of his powers, because they could never lose another student. On the first day of school, the Hellfire Club injected Krakoa bio-matter into the school grounds, causing the campus itself to turn against the X-Men. Remembering Logan's words, Bobby used the sprinkler system as a source of water and created over a dozen ice-avatar bodies, splitting his consciousness to command a veritable legion of Icemen. Bobby was instrumental in routing the Hellfire Club's forces and protecting the students, but his avatars were guided mostly by instinct instead of him actively controlling each of them. One ice avatar had the impulse to grab Kitty Pryde and kiss her passionately during the ruckus. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #3)
Iceman was not completely supportive of all of Wolverine's actions, of course. Logan's secret X-Force squad had battled Archangel as he ascended to become the new Apocalypse, only for Warren's mind to be burned away by a Celestial Lifeseed. As a result, one of Bobby's oldest friends was now in a virtual fugue state, completely oblivious to his past life and convinced he was a real angel. Iceman took charge of Warren's care from Logan and enrolled Angel in the school as a new student so that he could get back up to speed on his life. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #4)
Astonishing X-Men
Extraordinary X-Men
House of X
After the establishment of Krakoa, the living island was declared a sovereign nation that was to be a homeland for Mutantkind. Iceman came to be among those that accepted the invitation to reside on it where he participated in the celebration over the creation of the new country. (House of X v1 #6)
He later came to be one of a number of Omega-level Mutants that participated in the large scale terraforming of Mars using his abilities. With his powers, he helped create large fields of ice that later came to melt into oceans of water. Once complete, the world was renamed planet Arakko with the entirety of the living island of Arakko being transported to its surface to populate it. (Planet-Size X-Men v1 #1)
From the Ashes
Overview
Personality and attributes
As an infant, young Bobby looked up to his parents and thought very highly of them. He grew to love the beach. (Iceman v1 #2)
All his life, Bobby tried to accept everyone for who they were even before he got powers and was different. He had always been the one who made friends with the 'new kid' in class. During the third grade, he beat up the class bully for picking on smaller kids. All his life, he came to believe that he learnt these values from his parents. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #319)
After Emma Frost took over his body, Drake came to be surprised at the sheer range of skill she managed with his abilities. This made him see that he had been a slacker over the years and had not been living to his full potential. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #319)
His parents were aware of him being a Mutant and told him to hide his powers as they feared the response from ordinary humans that might target their son. (X-Men v1 #44)
Bobby Drake was born the son of William Drake and his wife Madeline Drake. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #319) His father was noted for being Irish-American Catholic, whilst his mother was Jewish. (Iceman v1 #1) According to Iceman, his father had been an honest man, a hard worker, a veteran of war, a loving husband but was also bigoted against Mutants. It was said that his father was not a big fan of Bobby. He once told his son when he was a child that a man did not get anywhere in the world by dreaming and making castles in the sand. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #319)
One of his cousins was Mary Drake who he had been close with and learnt Bobby was a Mutant when they were children. (Iceman v1 #1)
During high school, he was noted to had dated Judy Harmon with the two having gone on a number of dates together. When she saw his powers, she came to be terrified of him and never wanted to see him again. (X-Men v1 #44)
Powers and abilities
It was after Emma Frost once possessed his body that Bobby came to see that he had not been living to the full potential of his Mutant powers. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #319)
Such was his power that he could make complicated structures going as far as creating a miniature city. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #319)
Iceman's power to generate cold was so great, he was able to stop a massive fusion device explosion. (X-Men v2 #199)
He had the ability to not only cover his body with ice, but to actually become organic ice. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #415)
He could also survive by transforming himself into other states such as liquid water and water vapor. Iceman was able to transform his body from a gaseous state back to a solid, although it was physically and mentally taxing. (X-Men v2 #190)
Bobby discovered that he was able to use his control over moisture to draw ambient moisture into himself and thus use that moisture to replace his bodies cells. He framed this ability as 'A body swap, done one piece- one cell- at a time', and by doing this was able to avoid receiving a fatal dose of neurotoxin, by letting the poisoned molecules of his body dissipate into vapor and be replaced by untainted water molecules from his surroundings. By using this ability he can heal/purge himself by remaking his own body. (X-Men: Manifest Destiny v1 #3)
His power later improved whereby he could produce multiple ice duplicates of various body configurations and manage controlling them. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #2) However, there was a danger that these free-roaming ice creations could become independent from him and develop a crude sentience with Iceman unable to reabsorb them. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #37)
Notes
- Iceman was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where he made his first appearance in X-Men v1 #1 (September, 1963).
- In an interview, Mike Carey commented on the character during his Manifest Destiny story, "I feel of the original five X-Men, with the possible exception of Angel, Iceman is the one who's been most inconsistently developed. Every so often he'd just default back to being the joker, the wisecracker, and the rookie, which he empathically isn't. He's got as much combat experience as Cyclops and Beast. He deserves to have that reflected in the way he's portrayed. So in the adjectiveless 'X-Men' title and other places I've been playing with Bobby's character, developing his powers and personality, and trying to move him into the place where I think he ought to be...
- Carey later commented on the character being an Omega-level Mutant, "We've heard in the past that he's an Omega level mutant and at the height of his game he definitely is. He has powers that can influence the ecosystem of the entire world. We seldom see him operating on that level though. Things that he's been able to do in the past aren't always acknowledged as being part of his core power se. We've seen him get partially destroyed and recreate himself, which is something I had him do again in an adjectiveless 'X-Men' arc. He gets blown apart and than he just grows himself back again because he's made up of ice and ice is a crystal. With a crystal, every single part contains enough information to recreate the whole. I think the potential of his powers is almost limitless...
- In addition, he commented on Bobby Drake's personality, "He's devastatingly honest. He is very up-front with his emotions and his thoughts all the time. Also, he's obviously incredibly brave both in terms of facing external, physical danger as well as facing up to unpleasant situations and admitting his own mistakes."
Alternate Versions
- In X-Men: Alpha v1 #1 (1995), an alternate reality of Bobby Drake as Iceman appeared in the Age of Apocalypse reality designated as Earth-295 in the Multiverse. Due to Magneto being harder on his students than Professor X, Bobby lacked his mainstream counterpart's sense of humor. Instead, Bobby became very cold and inhuman, making his teammates feel uncomfortable. In addition to his normal abilities, Bobby was capable of breaking down his body and merging it with another body of water to travel great distances in a matter of seconds. He could also bring others along through a process that he called 'moisture molecular inversion' though it was a painful process for the passengers. Bobby was also able to reconstitute his body from broken pieces.
- In Ultimate X-Men v1 #1 (2000), an alternate version of Bobby Drake as Iceman appeared in the Ultimate Marvel reality designated as Earth-1610 in the Multiverse.
- In Secrets of the House of M v1 #1 (2005), an alternate reality of Bobby Drake as Iceman appeared in the House of M reality designated as Earth-58163 in the Multiverse. When his mutant powers manifested, Bobby kept them a secret from everyone but his parents. His father turned him over to the authorities when the Human-Mutant War began because he thought he would be safer in custody than hunted as a renegade. Bitter over this perceived betrayal, Bobby jumped at the chance to join Apocalypse when that mutant freed him during a raid on the Alamo Mutant Camp. After the war ended and Magneto gave North Africa to Apocalypse, Iceman continued to serve loyally as one of the Horsemen. He participated in enslaving the human population of the area and forcing them to rebuild Egyptian monuments. Iceman was one of the mutants who volunteered to accompany Apocalypse when Magneto authorized the invasion of Wakanda. He distracted Storm, Sunfire and Namor long enough to allow Apocalypse to get past them.
- In X-Men: Legacy v1 #245 (2011), an alternate reality of Bobby Drake as Iceman appeared in the Age of X reality designated as Earth-11326 in the Multiverse.
- In Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #29 (2013), an alternate possible future version of Bobby Drake was shown who had taken the name of Ice Master and resided on Earth-13729 in the Multiverse.
- In Age of X-Man Alpha #1 (2019), an alternate reality of Bobby Drake as Iceman appeared in the Age of X-Man reality designated as Earth-TRN716 in the Multiverse. This version was part of a Mutant utopian society where all forms of emotional attachment were illegal with Iceman serving the elite Mutant enforcers of Department X.
- In Immortal X-Men v1 #10 (2023), an alternate version of Bobby Drake as Iceman appeared in the Sins of Sinister reality designated as Earth-TRN993 in the Multiverse.
In other media
Television
- In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Iceman appeared in the setting of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Frank Welker.
Films
- In X-Men, Iceman appeared in the setting of the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Shawn Ashmore.
Video games
- In X-Men: Destiny, Iceman appeared in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Jason Marsden.
Other
Appearances
- X-Men v1: (1963)
- Uncanny X-Men v1:
- Iceman v1:
- X-Men v2:
- Wolverine and the X-Men v1:
- House of X v1:
- Marauders v1:
- Planet-Size X-Men v1: (2021)
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
