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Marvel Puts Iceman Back In The Closet

The final issue of the X-Men Extermination series puts Iceman back in the closet…
 
The X-Men are basically a long-running soap opera that gets complicated and very often doesn’t make sense no matter what universe or time stream they’re in. What you can always count on is that when new writers come on a title or when upper management decides on a new editorial change, some readers are going to get very mad because the decision just doesn’t make any sense, especially if you’re a fan of a young time-displaced mutant named Bobby Drake aka Iceman.
 
In 2015, in the 40th issue of All-New X-Men, the time-displaced Bobby Drake was outed by Jean Grey who discovered this via her telepathic powers. This was important because the older version of Iceman had always been written as straight. After the reveal, Iceman became the first gay lead to headline a Marvel comic book and got rave reviews from the LGBTQ2 community. (Yes, Northstar but he was never a core member of the X-Men.)
 
However, according to the Gay Times, with the final issue of the X-Men Extermination series, which is a fix-it for the time-displacement, writers Ed Brisson and Pepe Larraz have put Iceman back in the closet.
 
The plot has the younger X-Men going back to their time, erasing all their memories. That means that they have to go back to who they were and go through what the older team did: Jean Grey will become the Phoenix, Beast will become blue and furry, Cyclops will kill Professor X and Iceman will go back in the closet.
 
Fans are naturally upset and outraged, seeing this as blatant disregard for the readers and Iceman’s character development. Considering this is a series that has time travel, multiple universes, zombies, psychic claws, etc., we’re not sure why Iceman has to go back into the closet.
 

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Comments

17 Comments

    Marc Watts / 29 May 2021

    Thank God Marvel reversed their poorly-considered and totally illogical decision to morph Iceman into a homosexual. If Disney/Marvel wants to pander to/sell comics to the homosexual percentage of their readership,( which is , admittedly, considerable ) then they need to design some gay characters straight ( npi ) off the drawing board instead of disenfranchising their long-term fan-base, who I still believe constitutes the backbone of the company’s readership/fan base. As any long-term X-fan can attest, if Bob Drake has the hots for anybody, it’s Lorna Dane/Polaris! Iceman’s ardor for her has, at times, reached psychotic levels!! She is TRULY the Love of His Life, even if Polaris is, for all intents and purposes, Mrs. Alex Summers! And no homosexual writer just coming on board at Marvel Comics with an agenda to serve is going to negate that! Thank you, Marvel, for having the courage to rectify this egregious blunder!

      Destin / 17 September 2021

      I see what you mean but you’re being bias tbh, there’s a lot of us who are apart of that fan base and are gay too, and we’ve had to watch it our entire lives wondering why there isn’t gay people on it and when there was they were used as entertainment or side character and never as a main character, and I mean we see why they don’t bc when they do people complain abt it and say things like how you just did, so either way they lose. But doesn’t change the fact that gay people have always been here and factually during that time period these were all created being gay wasnt talked abt bc it’s a topic that either someone hates or is protective over. So them making a main character gay while almost every character in that universe is straight and that being the real reason why they did it is actually logical. And a lot of homophobic people have a problem with it when in reality it’s a fictional person and it’s created by the outlooks of other people. And there’s literally all of these other characters, all I’ve heard from the homophobic people is that they should make new characters, because they’re following the logic that everything had to go under back then and that’s that being gay is looked down on bc it is, I mean it’s stil even used as a joke that it’s self is proof the world is still evolving. Because we still judge eachother for things we can’t control and even put that fake picture of being normal on everyone when in total reality none of us can live up to it because it’s not real, there’s so many different kinds of people, and being gay shouldn’t be that big of an issue as people like you are making it. And that’s what everyone on this side is trying to prove. It’s all just psychological. Having Bobby be gay doesn’t change anything other than what his love story is, and tbrh in the comics he was created to be bisexual it’s just bc to a homophobic person and the way they think you can’t be bisexual bc if you like men as a man you only like men, but in reality it’s literally just what your attracted to and your even trying to push that fake picture of normalcy on a fictional character, which kind of also proves we are all still learning to be okay with what we don’t understand. One of our many straight characters turning gay shouldn’t matter as much to u as it does, and it mattering that much and you thinking it’s wrong proves your opinion is and was bias. And please before you just try and prove me wrong which you can’t even do because it’s a whole logical situation that you just have to think in, reread and actually take in what I’m saying because the way you think is problematic and that’s why people like you feel like it’s being shoved down your throat, bc your the person everyone has to defend themselves against, so honestly step back and look at what the real problem is. And people living and changing things for the favor of other people shouldn’t affect you and it effecting you is a problem all on its own, and you guys putting that problem onto others is just another problem on its own, and smart people who actually understand that are trying to stop it, by doing things like this, by taking one of the many straight characters they had to have bc if they didn’t people would have criticized it bc people who think like you were more in charge of the world, but now that we see that way of thinking only hurts other people and only helps that one person we changed it, I’m so sorry people like you are honestly unhappy with simple things like this. It does mean that the impact and horrible way of thinking our world had going is changing which is a good thing and I think any good person knows that. And if you really want me to debunk your knowledge and prove it’s bias here we go, if they were to use ur logic and just make new characters who are gay all of the old characters and regular characters we know would stay straight, and that would look kind of stupid seeing all of the new ones being lgtbq and our old characters being straight bc of how different society was back then, it would literally just prove that our way of thinking back then left out gay people bc they apparently arnt normal, when in ALL REALITY it’s not just bc the person who wrote it thought that way. Because if you really look at the world you’d see that there’s more people who are apparently different and not normal then there is people who are “normal” because there is no actual normal or way of being normal, everyone has something about them that’s different it’s just that for gay people it’s also being gay, and if that’s a problem still after I explained it all then you really do have something psychologically wrong and thats actually true bc it doesn’t take a genius to understand that there’s a picture of normalcy that we all try to follow and just hurt ourselves while trying to do so. And I brought all of that into this subject bc it’s a big part of it. I hope I helped open your eyes because everything you said was very bias and shows me you have suppressed homophobia , and you are probably also someone who says “that doesn’t make me homophobic just my opinion” when it literally is all proving you are so stop trying to justify it and own up to it atp bc even you trying to talk factual was a whole hit and miss. Bobby’s character material was him made to like both genders of you really wanna try and lie on the subject, and you trying to lie and say he’s straight just bc you are and you having something u watch make u question ur sexuality is no one else’s problem so don’t make it anyone else’s..

    Z / 26 April 2021

    The fact that homophobes are brain dead and worthless is not a ‘view,’ lmao. It is not an opinion. You Puritan psychopaths who dont even understand your own religion don’t have a,’ side,’ or an argument here, you’re just plainly unintelligent.

    John / 08 April 2021

    During Louise Simonson’s run on X-Factor there are numerous instances of Iceman having thought balloons about how he was attracted to Opal and Lev. Saying he was always gay doesn’t make sense with those earlier stories where we can read his inner monolog. He should have been made bisexual. It wouldn’t have counterdicted those stories/ inner thoughts and made more sense. The story with Lev even had him with amnesia but was still attracted to the opposite sex. For some reason Marvel won’t really write a male being bisexual but a woman they will. With men they always go the full gay route.

    Why so much hate? / 07 June 2020

    Yikes… lots of homophobic comments on here. But then again its the internet… what else is new lol. I’d make a jab back…. but ya know… I’m not full of hate and dissatisfaction with life.

      dumastadon / 06 November 2020

      No, youre just making condescending judgements of everyone here while trying to force your own views on us.

    Ryan / 20 April 2020

    So many things wrong with this article. Firstly, Northstar HAS been a regular member of the X-Men. Like, MULTIPLE times. Over the last 16-17 YEARS or so. Secondly, Iceman did NOT end up going back into the closet. Yes, his YOUNGER self went back to his own time with his memory wiped, but the OLDER, modern one had his own revelation (in large part THANKS to his younger self and young Jean) and came to terms with it. So yeah. Fact-checking at multiple levels.

    J / 30 September 2019

    Clearly the writer here isn’t into reading the source material. The current timeline Bobby has revealed his homosexuality, nullifying any notion of Marvel attempting to disregard the character development that occurred. Story wise the time displaced team had to go back and memories had to be cleansed in order to avoid altering the current timeline.

      N / 21 February 2021

      Reading source material? The writer that wrote Bobby into being gay should of read the damn source material. Bobby isn’t gay at all. I’m glad that got rid of that crap. I praise the writer that had the balls to do right thing and return the character to normalcy.

        Destin / 17 September 2021

        Uh you saying normalcy proves your whole opinion was opinionated, They made iceman gay probably because there’s always going to be gay people and if you look closely there wasn’t ever gay characters because of the simple fact that a straight person who doesn’t care to understand it doesn’t like it and the idea of being straight is was controlled a lot of things back then, and that’s why only homophobic people have a problem with it now, and they’ll use whatever they can to back up why they don’t like it and then say “but I’m not homophobic” it’s all just logic tbrh. It isn’t the right thing making him straight again, and you saying that proved you are actually homophobic, bc if you weren’t you’d be okay with the fact that one of the many straight characters were turned gay, bc in all reality it isn’t even that big of an issues so you having one and getting mad that people point out that you have an issues probates a lot, gay isn’t being different just because you don’t have the ability to be okay with it or understand it, there’s actually probably more people who are gay, bi, or pan sexual, or asexual, then there is people who are straight, bc if you actually know how attraction works, you would know that no one can control what they’re attracted to, and attractions is a spectrum bc I mean even when it comes to being straight you are only attracted to certain things. Honestly not even trying to understand the bigger picture and just saying “Bobby isn’t gay at all” when he’s a literal fictional character that can be changed at anytime bc he isn’t real and is literally just used to make statements like the one they tried making, using saying all of that is just you favoring your opinion more than others and that’s exactly what you are trying to complain about.. saying they’re shoving it down your throats only because you have to see it, when there’s like how many other straight characters? And that’s the real logical reason on why they did it. all of the characters are made up, and the character being gay doesn’t really matter it literally just adds more to the situation and subject. They changed it for other people not for people like you obviously.. and honestly they made them straight just because being gay back then was way more looked down upon than it is now so they couldn’t exactly just add gay characters, but now in this time period things are different bc we aren’t letting simple minded people control us so we are arnt trying to follow a “normalcy” that literally no one can even live up to, because everyone just judges what each other does wrong. People like you contradict themselves as they try and complain about what someone else is doing wrong. I’m only telling you all of this because it’s actually really sad seeing someone say something like that when they don’t even have the basic information on the subject that you need to be able to understand it. And actual smart logical people know things like that. That’s why an actual smart person doesn’t say opinionated things like you just did. If Bobby being gay bothers you and your picture of normality then just watch something else, because it’ll always be there if you like it or not, because in reality your way of thinking is the problem. And other people living isn’t. And the first way to fix a problem is realizing it and owning up to it, and you are definitely homophobic with all of the thoughts you showed me. And I’m hoping more will read this so it’ll change their outlook on it. They change a lot of things for new timelines, bc the characters are fictional sir. If you can’t even comprehend that then why did you even talk about him being gay? That was kind of a reach for your braincells. Please try and understand subjects more before you try and critics something.

          Paul / 19 February 2022

          m8 stop the gay thing, being gay its a choice….the problem here is that they are trying to change an old hero (for lots of readers and fans) for something (gay pink grey whatever) he just isnt…do you understand? they can simply make another hero….its simple.

    Caca / 04 June 2019

    Thank God he aint gay i dont support

      John / 08 July 2019

      It 3ws stupid to begin 2oth blatant senatuonalism .. screwed up a good character amd tried to force the nonsense down your throat for social amd political and phony sales boost . They couldn’t just create a new character nooo they had to do something stupid to further an agenda. They weren’t smart or clever …The real origiinal Bobby Drake was never gay. Got nothing against people who are or characters who from rhr beginning , but changing long time characters for revisionist history is stupid . They just wanted to use a popular well know character to make a stamemet and being more acceptable . Lets make wolverine gay too . Nonsense ..

    Robbie / 18 March 2019

    As a bisexual man, I never agreed with turning Drake gay. It felt phony and like reverse conversion therapy to a character that’s been straight for decades. In the case of Colossus in the Ultimate comics, it made sense since it was an alternate reality that was free to do whatever the writers wanted. I figured that they’d pull some kind of time warp wibbly wobbly trick to fix it, but it feels like a band-aid like when Magneto went crazy murdering people in awful, Hitler-esque ways, only to be revealed that it was “someone else” all along — never mind the behind the scenes drama where the authors and editors were scrambling to patch up the massive waves of hatred they were receiving from that narrative decision.

      Ben Borndahl / 14 September 2020

      Emma outed him in the 90’s during Bryan Hitch’s run. (Uncanny X-Men 314). Bobby was an example of any gay guy that forced himself into the vloset due to societial pressure. He was written that way with various hints for YEARS. He rarely dated girls and if he did it was brief and very one dimensional and superficial. Example Opal. He even took Rogue to his parents as a beard once (again under Bryan Hitch’s run).

        Curt / 07 October 2021

        Bullshit been reading X-men since the 60’s he wasn’t gay

        dumastadon / 06 November 2020

        Garbage. He was never outed before. So now, according to you any guy that has trouble with dating women must be gay? Not because theyre insecure or at the other end dont respect women enough? This is like that other pathetic argument that anyone who isnt gay just hasnt admitted it yet.

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