Iceman (comics)
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Iceman (Robert "Bobby" Drake) is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero, a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in X-Men (vol. 1) #1, (September 1963).
A mutant, Iceman can freeze moisture in the air around him and turn his body into solid ice. Although he is an Omega-level mutant, Drake has never fully tapped his mutant potential.
One of the original X-Men, Iceman has had a frequent presence in X-Men-related comics, video games, animation, and movies. Actor Shawn Ashmore portrays the character of Bobby Drake in the film series.
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[edit] Character biography
Robert Drake was born in Floral Park, New York, United States to William Robert Drake and his wife Madeline Beatrice Bass. As a teenager, Drake is recruited to Professor Charles Xavier's "school for gifted youngsters", where he joins other young mutants as a charter member of the X-Men. Iceman quickly befriends Hank McCoy (Beast), and the two serve as comic relief for the team. However, Drake remains self-conscious regarding the fact that he is the youngest member of the group. During his original stint with the X-Men, Drake pursues a relationship with Lorna Dane, although the relationship does not last. Iceman is among the original X-Men captured by Krakoa, leading to a new incarnation of X-Men in which he is not a part. For a short while, he moves to the American west coast to attend UCLA and becomes a founding member of The Champions of Los Angeles (Champions #1, October 1975).
After the Champions dissolve, Drake retires from life as a superhero to earn a college degree in accounting. He returns as a full-time superhero in an incarnation of the Defenders alongside his former teammates, Angel and Beast. After the Defenders disband, Drake embarks on his career as an accountant.
The original X-Men, including Iceman, are then reunited to form the superhero team X-Factor (X-Factor #1, February 1986). Though after the Muir Island Saga, X-factor rejoined the X-men.
Iceman went through a period of deep depression after Emma Frost, the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club, took over his body and used his powers at levels which he himself had previously been unable to reach. The White Queen subsequently believes that Iceman has the potential to be one of the most powerful mutants on Earth.
Iceman leaves the X-Men shortly after the incident with the White Queen, only to take an uncharacteristic turn as a leader during Operation: Zero Tolerance.
While working with a team of X-Men some time later, Drake undergoes a secondary mutation that prevents him from transforming a damaged portion of his chest back to flesh. Upon encountering Azazel and his followers, Iceman's body is shattered from the neck down. Afterward, he regains his entire ice form, but cannot change back to his human appearance. As a result, Bobby becomes both bitter and despondent because of this drastic change.
After Polaris breaks up with Havok, Iceman admits that he still has feelings for her. The two engage in mild flirtation, and a relationship between the two develops.
After the events of the House of M, Iceman finds himself to be flesh and blood again and believes to have lost his powers. Shortly after, while being held at gun point by the Leper Queen, Emma Frost pushes something in Bobby's mind that forces him to turn to ice. Further examination reveals that Drake had not lost his powers, but rather had unconsciously repressed them on his own. After this, Bobby is once again able to revert from ice to flesh. He joins Rogue's team of X-Men as they fight a new threat, a powerful group known as "The Children" (X-Men #188, July, 2006).
[edit] Physical appearance
Iceman's appearance has changed significantly over the years. In the early X-Men stories, his appearance is more reminiscent of a snowman. The explanation given is that frost formed on his skin when he used his abilities. In X-Men #8 (1964), at the prompting of team leader Cyclops, Drake learns to cover his body with hardened-but-flexible ice and adopts the hard crystalline appearance familiar to modern readers. After a battle with the Norse god Loki, Iceman temporarily loses control of his powers and is required to wear a belt to keep them from raging out of control. Iceman later develops the ability to actually become organic ice, appearing almost translucent. He is virtually indestructible in this form, as he can reform his shattered body even if part of him is completely destroyed. For a time, Iceman became stuck in this ice form. However, after the events of M-Day, Drake regains his ability to revert back to his human appearance. In addition, while in this ice form he takes on a rougher, more jagged appearance.
[edit] Powers and abilities
An Omega-level mutant, Iceman's powers have evolved considerably over the years. Originally he had a normal human and an ice-form. In normal human form, he had the strength, agility and durability of a typical athletic male of his size. In his ice-form, his strength and durability were enhanced.
According to the laws of thermodynamics, cold is defined as the absence of heat. Therefore, Iceman does not actually emanate cold, but rather absorbs and dispels heat. Since heat is energy, Iceman's power then becomes a psionic ability to manipulate energy.
Iceman is able to lower his body temperature without causing harm to himself, reaching minus 105°F within a few tenths of a second. He is able to freeze any moisture in the air around him into unusually hard ice to form ice-slides and various projectiles and shields. He can travel rapidly along these ice-slides or ice-bridges by causing ice to form rapily beneath and behind his feet, pushing him along the slick surface. He is also able to summon moisture from the air and create a flood.
Iceman is immune to sub-zero temperatures and has thermal vision: the ability to detect objects visually by how much heat the objects generate.
Over the years, his mutant physiology has gone through radical changes. First, he was able to fashion an armor of densely packed snow around his human form when lowering his temperature; later, this became an armor of solid ice. Under the mind control of Emma Frost, his powers were used to a greater potential than he ever had, including being able to deposit his bodily mass into a river and reconstitute his entire mass a great distance away in a matter of minutes. He was also able to transform his body into purely organic ice (similar to the organic steel of Colossus) in which his strength and endurance were augmented to greatly enhanced levels. When she gave up her mind control, Iceman was not able to duplicate what she had done with his own powers, although she had "unlocked" him, leaving him with somewhat enhanced powers, including the organic ice.
At one point, Iceman suffered a severe chest injury and was stuck in his ice-form, afraid of what would happen if he changed back, and went to Emma Frost for help. She merely taunted him, unwilling to help, teasing him that his own self-esteem issues were the only thing holding him back from becoming one of the most powerful mutants on Earth. She hinted that his powers were rooted in the psionic manipulation of energy, and not in manipulation of moisture in the air as previously believed. She was finally able to push Iceman to the point where he lashed out, becoming somewhat malicious, causing her severe pain, and threatening to torture and kill her by slowly freezing the blood flow into her brain. He soon realized what she had been talking about, and he transformed back into his human form, healing the chest wound in the process. From that point forward, Iceman used his organic ice form instead of his ice armor. Sporadically, he would augment his organic ice form with razor sharp adornments to his shoulders, elbows, knees, and fists.
Among his new-found abilities, Iceman is also able to reconstitute his ice-form if any part of it is damaged or even if it is completely shattered, without permanent harm to himself. He is able to temporarily add the mass of a body of water to his own to increase his mass, size and physical power. His strength and durability in his ice-form are enhanced beyond normal human levels. He can survive not only as sentient ice, but as sentient water and vapor. Drake has developed the ability to transform his body from a gaseous state back to a solid, although it is taxing both physically and mentally (X-Men #190 & 193, 2006). He has the capacity to manipulate all forms of moisture and possesses all of the abilities to generate projectiles, slides and shields like always, but they have been augmented greatly.
In House of M #8, it appeared that Iceman was among the many millions of mutants who lost their powers due to the magic of the Scarlet Witch, having returned to his normal human form and noticeably sweating. However, while repelling an attack of anti-mutant protesters, Iceman's powers reactivated (X-Men #178, November, 2005). It was revealed that Iceman did not lose his powers, but had subconsicously shut them down out of fear due to the aftermath of the House of M (X-Men #179, December, 2005).
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
- Main article: Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse crossover event, Bobby, along with the rest of the X-Men, is trained by Magneto. Because Magneto is harder on his students than Professor X, Bobby lacks his 616-counterpart's sense of humor. Instead, Bobby becomes very cold and inhuman, making his teammates feel uncomfortable. In addition to his normal abilities, Bobby is capable of breaking down his body and merging it with another body of water to travel great distances in a matter of seconds. He can bring others along through a process that he calls "moisture molecular inversion", though it is a painful process for the passengers. Bobby is also able to reconstitute his body from broken pieces. His name was shown on a gravestone in the 2005 miniseries. It is unknown how he died.
[edit] Ultimate Iceman
- Main article: Ultimate X-Men
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Bobby Drake is 15 years old and the youngest founding member of the X-Men. He ran away from his family at the peak of government-supported Sentinel attacks, fearing his family would be killed in such an attack.
Ultimate Iceman never had the snowman look of his counter-part, instead generating a flexible ice armor from the beginning and still does so to this day. Bobby establishes himself as a valuable asset, single-handedly taking out the Ultimates once with a gigantic ice wall (see Ultimate War), as well as single-handedly halting an invasion by Colonel Wraith and Weapon X. He was only able to be stopped by Rogue, who was in temporary possession of Marvel Girl's telepathy. Professor X has stated that Bobby is one of the three most powerful X-Men. During the World Tour arc, after enlarging his armor to form a gigantic ice troll, Bobby is greatly injured by Proteus, which resulted in a lawsuit issued by his parents against Xavier. Bobby eventually rebels against his parents, and later returns to the X-Men.
Before Bobby joined the X-Men he had a girlfriend, but Professor Xavier erased all memories of her from Bobby's head when he told her too much about the X-Men. Upon her acceptance into the X-Men, Bobby begins to date Rogue. The pair date for a considerable amount of time, but eventually break up to Bobby's growing feelings for Shadowcat and Rogue's feelings for Gambit. Eventually Rogue leaves, and Bobby starts to date Kitty until she dumps him after finding Bobby was still emailing Rogue. When Rogue returned to the X-Men, her original powers had been replaced with those of Gambit's and, now being able to touch each other, Bobby and Rogue rekindle their relationship. However, recently problems erupt when Rogue's old powers begin to return.
[edit] Other Versions
- In the Mutant X universe, Robert Drake is the victim of misfortune. The Asgardian god Loki amplified Bobby's powers to a dangerous level, leaving him unable to make contact with any organic thing for fear of killing it. Now going by Bob and calling himself Ice-Man, he becomes very bitter from his circumstances.
- During the series Earth X, Bobby had becomes trapped in his ice form, making him vulnerable to melting. He moves to the Arctic regions of Earth, and made an ice city for himself and the Inuit. Due to a series of events where Earth's orbital path moves, Bobby is able to return to the United States to aid in the battle against the demon Mephisto.
- In X-Men: Fairy Tales (issue #1), Iceman appears as the dog. His fur is completely white, and goes by the name of Kori (Japanese for ice). Before he is reached by Cyclops, he appears to have lost faith in friendship.
- Iceman is Roberto Trefusis in the miniseries Marvel 1602, a member of the group of "witchbreeds" founded by Carlos Javier (Professor X) and led by Scotius Summerisle (Scott Summers). He is related to naval commander Sir Francis Drake. As in the Marvel Universe, he generates ice and can assume a physical ice form.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Television
- Iceman was one of the three leads in the animated television series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, in which he was voiced by Frank Welker. Very little background is given on the character, though in several episodes he appears with his former teammates, the X-Men. In the episode Vengeance Of Loki, he's revealed to be a government agent; his codename is "Windchill Factor Zero." In the episode Mission: Save The Guardstar his half-sister, Aurora Dante (Lightwave), is introduced.
- He also appeared as a former member of the team, who quit due to disagreements with Xavier, in the X-Men animated series voiced by Dennis Akayama. He appears in the episode "Cold Comfort" where he gets Jubilee's help to rescue his girlfriend Lorna Dane (not called Polaris here) from a government facility which is housing the X-Factor led by the modern day Forge. In the series, Iceman was seen in many flashbacks which include "Sanctuary Part 1", and "Xavier Remembers".
- He appeared in the X-Men: Evolution animated series played by Andrew Francis. Iceman was meant to be the 8th X-Man of the show, but rejected in favor of Spyke. Not surprisingly, Iceman appeared more often when Spyke left. In the series, Iceman was a New Mutant who often acted as the un-official leader of the New Mutants.
- Iceman made a brief appearance in Family Guy. He appears in the episode, "Hell Comes to Quahog". In the episode Iceman's wife is questioning where he was yesterday night. Iceman states that he was out with the guys, but his wife points out the ice slide leading from the window to the gay club across the street. His wife gets upset, and Iceman tells his wife,"At least they know how to touch a man!"
[edit] Film
In the movies X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand he is played by Shawn Ashmore. Bobby is one of the first students to reach out to Rogue and begins a dating relationship with her. In X2, he has an uneasy friendship with Pyro. In X3, his relationship with Rogue appears to be deteriorating, strained by their inability to have physical contact and by his apparent romantic interest in shy, soft-spoken Kitty Pryde. This prompts Rogue to seek out "the cure" so she can finally touch Bobby without fear of hurting him. He takes part in the X-Men's final confrontation with Magneto's army and fights Pyro one-on-one. During this battle, Iceman's ability to transform his body into ice manifests itself, being first implied in a previous confrontation between the two former best friends. Unlike his mainstream counterpart, Bobby Drake is more of an everyman and not a cynical underachiever.
[edit] Video games
- Iceman has appeared in various video game adaptations, such as X-Men: Children of the Atom, the subsequent Marvel vs. Capcom 2. He is somewhat infamous in the game for being invunerable to beam and fireball based attacks and supers while blocking.
- He also has appeared in X-Men Legends, where he was voiced by Darren Scott, and its sequel X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, where he was voiced by James Arnold Taylor.
- Iceman is one of the three playable characters in the game X-Men: The Official Movie Game which fills in the gap between X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand. He was voiced by Shawn Ashmore, the same actor who played him in the films.
- Iceman appears in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as a playable character, retaining many of his moves from the Legends games and voiced again by James Arnold Taylor.
[edit] External links
- MDP: Iceman - Marvel Database Project
- Spotlight On... Iceman at UncannyXmen.Net
- Iceman - Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
- Ultimate Iceman on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
Categories: 1963 introductions | Fictional Americans in Marvel Comics | Fictional characters with the power to manipulate ice or cold | Fictional characters with the power to manipulate water | Fictional New Yorkers | Jewish comic book characters | Marvel Comics mutants | Marvel Comics superheroes | Omega-level mutants | Spider-Man supporting characters | The 198 Files | X-Men
