Bobby drake gay
COMMENTARY: The Icemen Cometh Out: The Queering of Bobby Drake
Why Iceman coming out matters more than you might consider. A commentary on the generation gap between the Bobbys and the necessary effects on identification and representation.
June is Pride Month, so it seemed like the most appropriate imaginable period to share my thoughts on the extremely controversial coming out of the X-Men’s Bobby Drake, Iceman. First, a little background.
Iceman is the youngest authentic member of the X-Men, debuting in X-Men #1 all the way assist in 1963. In 2012, following the massive Avengers vs. X-Men crossover, the original five X-Men were pulled out of the past and dropped into present day, where they have been since. Each of these original, time-displaced X-Men have faced their own challenges in adapting to a modern society, and young Bobby Drake was no exception. However, existence unhinged in period did afford fresh Bobby at least one advantage. In the 2015 issue, All-New X-Men #40, following some remarks about Illyana Rasputin, the mutant famous as Magik, and her level of ‘hotness’, young Jean Grey pulls Bobby aside and outs him to himself. Among his immediate questions is how he can b
Marvel’s Iceman Series Is Everything I Love and Loathe About Coming Out Stories
It’s been interesting to monitor Bobby Drake unsteadily make his way through life as a newly-out homosexual man in Sina Grace’s Iceman series. He’s very much the same Iceman who’s been cracking wise with the X-Men since the ’60s, and yet he’s also a vastly different Bobby who’s grappling with a new sort of emotional struggle.
Though Bobby’s told a number of people throughout Marvel’s books about his sexuality, his coming out—like most people’s—has been a gradual process. The more relaxed he has develop with acknowledging and accepting his individuality, the more expose he’s become with others. But, for all of the personal growth that Bobby’s gone through as a finding of his entity honest with his loved ones, the specter of coming out to his parents has been lurking around the periphery of Iceman since its very first issue.
In no uncertain terms, Iceman has framed Bobby’s fear of rejection by his family as the first big bad of the series and, this week, Bobby’s facing his demons head on.
The circumstances leading to Bobby’s coming out are a bit convoluted, but understanding them is key to u
'X-Men' Icon Iceman Comes Out as Gay
— -- An "X-Men" legend has come out of the closet.In the "All-New X-Men" #40, set to debut in stores and online tomorrow, Iceman says he's gay.
In a statement to ABC News, Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of the publication, said, "There are thousands if not millions of stories of people who, for many unlike reasons, felt the need to hide their sexuality. The X-Men, with the conceit of hour travel, give us a fascinating platform in which to study such personal journeys. This is just the first little chapter of a much larger story that will be told.”
In the scene in the book, Jean Grey is talking with her friend Iceman aka Bobby Drake.
The series features the "X-Men" help as teens displaced in moment. (Note - The characters realize they are set back in time and have traveled forward to talk their older selves.) In images obtained by ABC News from Marvel, Iceman is talking about his teacher Magik and saying how hot he thinks she is. That's when Jean steps in to consent her friend know she knows he's gay and doesn't care.
She asks why Bobby is saying another woman is hot, when she knows
The X-Men are significant enough pop cultural figures that when Bobby Drake, AKA “Iceman”, was written as gay in All-New X-Men #40, media outlets outside of the comics compress published news items and commentaries on the moment, including CNN, The Huffington Post and The Advocate. While many of these notices essentially amounted to, “hey look, a core member of the X-Men is now gay,” other pieces, primarily at committed comics sites, address the politics and ethics of how Bobby is revealed as gay — he’s chided into coming out by Jean Grey — or seek to place this moment into a larger context of media representation of LGBTQ characters and experiences.
Alenka Figa’s commentary at Women Compose About Comics is a good example of the more nuanced responses to the storyline. She also links to similar and related discussions at places like The Mary Sue and Panels (see, “In Plain Sight: On the Authenticity of Queer Characters“, 8 June 2015).
In addition to questions about how this episode is written, especially in regards to Jean’s role and Bobby’s own comfort/discomfort with entity gay and also the question of b