The Displaced Time-Clone of Iceman is Gay?

[Tev]

Saw this today, still not 100% sure how poorly the article is written compared to the comic pages that they show.

Original "X-Men" member Iceman is set to make a big revelation this week: he's gay.

The iconic character makes the surprise declaration in the All-New X-Men #40, which is available in stores and online April 22. Pages from the new book show an intimate conversation between a young Iceman, or Bobby Drake, and pal Jean Grey.

After Iceman comments on how hot he finds his female teacher, the telepathic Jean sees right through her friend's thinly-veiled declaration and tells him outright that she knows he's gay.

As a number of publications have already pointed out, the Iceman depicted in this new installment is the teenage version of the character displaced in time. The older, present-day Iceman that audiences are familiar with from the series, identifies as straight.

In an email statement, All-New X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis told The Huffington Post that Iceman's storyline will continue to evolve in future books, and that the decision to make the character a gay man was in keeping with contemporary social dialogue around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.

"There are thousands, if not millions, of stories of people who, for many different reasons, felt the need to hide their sexuality," he said. "The X-Men, with the conceit of time travel, give us a fascinating platform in which to examine such personal journeys. This is just the first little chapter of a much larger story that will be told.”

In 2012, Marvel Comics made waves when it was announced that its first openly gay hero, super speedster Northstar, would tie the knot with his longtime civilian boyfriend, Kyle Jinadu, in an issue of “Astonishing X-Men.”

Still, Iceman's declaration breaks fresh ground in that the character was one of the original "X-Men" created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963.

Check out pages from All-New X-Men which depict Iceman's coming out below:

Pages in order?




From looking at the pages, it seems less like a "coming out" and more like Jean being a total ass to young, time-displaced Bobby. I guess they set it up so later in the comic he turns around and finally admits it himself? either way, as a vehicle to talk about LGBTQ issues, this doesn't seem like the right way to do it. Making the outsider time-clone out to be the gay character, and sort of pulling him out of the closet like that as well, seems uncomfortably hamfisted to me. This probably could have been handled better with a new character, and not a "fake-new" character that can be championed as "the original Iceman!....but not really if you are interested in learning about the character, or get into a debate with anyone who has read the comics."

[Aerozord]

At first I was like, well x-men were always the other, representing ostracized groups. Thats when I realized thats why this, narrative, is pretty weak. He's a mutant, he already "came out" about being a mutant which is a vastly more marginalized group in the Marvel universe. Its just redundant and wont have much weight to it because him being a gay mutant wont be that much different than being a straight mutant. People aren't going to be going "I'm ok with the whole inhuman powers that present an actual tangible threat to my safety and way of life, but being a homosexual is where I draw the line."

I just have issue seeing this having much impact or really addressing issues X-men wasn't already handling

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Tev

From looking at the pages, it seems less like a "coming out" and more like Jean being a total ass to young, time-displaced Bobby. I guess they set it up so later in the comic he turns around and finally admits it himself? either way, as a vehicle to talk about LGBTQ issues, this doesn't seem like the right way to do it. Making the outsider time-clone out to be the gay character, and sort of pulling him out of the closet like that as well, seems uncomfortably hamfisted to me. This probably could have been handled better with a new character, and not a "fake-new" character that can be championed as "the original Iceman!....but not really if you are interested in learning about the character, or get into a debate with anyone who has read the comics."

Pretty much, yeah. I buy Bobby being gay, but the way this is handled, with Jean violating his privacy and personal boundaries to drag him out of the closet against his will instead of allowing him the freedom to come to terms with his own sexuality however that might be is pretty gross. There's also some vague bi-erasure stuff in how the rest of the issue is handled that's off-putting.

It's also weird that, later in the comic, it suggests that present Bobby couldn't deal with being both a mutant and gay so he stayed in the closet doesn't really sound like him at all. Yes, a lot of his behavior in the past has been a shield against certain personal issues of his boiling beneath the surface, but I just can't see him being someone who would be so open about being a mutant but decide he can't deal with being gay, which is something that's WAY easier to live with in the Marvel universe than being a mutant. Add to that the fact that there are openly gay mutants out there doing just fine (or at least as fine as one can be as a mutant) and it just seems like silly reasoning.

Oh, also? One of those openly gay mutants, Karma, appeared at the end of the issue. Apparently as a villain now? So hey wow fuck that.

There is the strong possibility, however, that the teen O5 aren't going back to their own time, seeing as young Warren has been cosmically transformed by an ancient space macguffin in the most recent crossover arc and young Jean now has the ability to transform into LITERAL ESPER TERRA, which means that this is no longer the past version of present Bobby Drake anyway.

The only sticking point there is that present Scott began to vanish when his younger counterpart was momentarily mortally wounded during Battle of the Atom, but there's countless ways to handwave that away.

In other news, Kitty Pryde just agreed to marry to Peter "Star Lord" Quill and the fact that she and Illyana will probably never run off together like they damn well should means that Marvel outed the wrong X-Man this week.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

I honestly don't give two shits that Bobby Drake is gay. Will him being gay suddenly change his character? I highly doubt that.

What pisses me off is how it handled.

[Solid Snake]

I love Jean Grey's impeccable logic of "You're attracted to a man, you must be ~*gay*~!!!!"

Or hell, even "You've had an attractive thought about a man," in which case like, if Jean Grey read my mind at the wrong time (after a Patriots Super Bowl win, for example), she'd conclude I'm gay too?

I'm pretty sure even asexuals have had an errant sexual thought or two (at least one I know personally have conceded she has), the thought wouldn't seem to dictate any kind of actual substantive preference.

[MSperoni]

It should be noted, I think, that this Young Jean may not necessarily be a good person (is anyone aside from Superman a "good" character anymore? The line between Face and Heel in superhero books seems to be getting fuzzier and fuzzier).

I got the impression that her being mentored by Emma is putting a bit of an edge on her and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she told Bobby he was gay just to fuck with him. Her invading his privacy seems...in character.

Went to the comic store and got ANX 40 today but haven't read it (also bought some Wonder Woman stuff so I've been focusing on that).

Also the Peter Quill + Kitty thing is stupid.

And in an older issue of Uncanny, (I can't remember what number), there was a scene where Bobby was accused of being a homophobe because of his attitudes about Northstar (who had a crush on him at the time).

Two other gay mutants are Rictor and Shatterstar...

Psylocke is bisexual though, so that's cool. Maybe she can end up with Illyana. Then I might actually care about Psylocke stuff!

---------- Post added at 09:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:22 PM ----------

A thought I had regarding Jean's telepathy: I dont' think she is trained enough to be able to shut out other people's thoughts yet.

One thing Professor X always had trouble with is that he could hear what everyone was thinking and couldn't control it, and he had to train himself to be able to. They also mention in an issue of Uncanny Xforce that this was a problem Psylocke had as well.

Jean is seventeen-ish? And her telepathy is a relatively new power for her. And since she's under the semi-tutelage of Emma Frost (or at least she was a few issues ago when she fought Blob), I dont' think she can control what thoughts she picks up nor do I think she's being encouraged to do so.

The unethical thing is her telling him he's gay after finding out by hearing his thoughts, but she's kind of a snotty kid and his friend so I guess that's in character?

[Doc ock rokc]

And? its an obvious cash grab. They are doing what everyone is doing and inserting token characters in.

OH WE MADE A TOKEN CHARACTER HOW EDGY!

But it goes against cannon and isn't nessisarry there are already a few gay Mutiants and heros in mar-

SHHH WERE BEING EDGY!

They didn't even do it well! They could have hinted at it for a few issues, drum up the drama with strange out of character behavior, some foreshadowing and red hearings and using it all to lead up to a big dramatic reveal...instead they just make Jean Gray blab it.

They were practically handed a plot AND THEY FUMBLED OUT OF THE GATE!

[POS Industries]

Man, people talking about "token" characters rubs me the wrong way something fierce.

[MSperoni]

It doesn't actually go against "canon" though.

For one thing, this Bobby is a different Bobby Drake from the one in the 616 Universe. Whatever they established in the past of 616-Drake doesn't apply to this guy.

Also Rictor, another gay mutant, was a super duper womanizer and hit on all the ladies in New Mutants/X-force. When he came out of the X-closet, they just played up the "in denial" angle.

So this reveal works for X-men as well as anything would.

Sure, they could have made the reveal a bit more dramatic (after all, the issue where Northstar reveals he's gay was an entire issue of buildup and real world drama involving AIDs and the homophobia surrounding it). But this is Bendis and it's sorta his writery style to have a character just flat out be "You're totes gay" (and then have 8 panels of copy/pasted art around it).

Plus in this day and age, a character being gay isn't really all that edgy. There is no need for a massive "coming out" issue anymore. It's not as big of a deal as it was when Northstar came out in the early 1990s.

Maybe that's why Bendis had Jean put it to Bobby so bluntly.

Because who really cares?

It's cool that Bobby is gay, but like...when it comes to the sexuality of X-men this isn't really all that outlandish. Fantomex was sleeping with a female clone of himself, after all...

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Originally Posted by POS Industries

Man, people talking about "token" characters rubs me the wrong way something fierce.

If there's chafing might I suggest some sort of water based lube?