Iceman Already Kda Sorta Tried to Come Out as Gay the 1990s |

Contents:

• MARVEL’S ICEMAN JT ME OUT AS GAY
• KNOWLEDGE WAS: THE POSSIBLE HTS OVER THE YEARS THAT ICEMAN IS GAY
• SHOULD ICEMAN BE STRAIGHT OR GAY ?
• FOR LGBT FANS OF X-MEN, ICEMAN COMG OUT AS GAY HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMG
• THE ICEMAN ETH OUT: MARVEL FANS PROCS X-MEN'S GAY STORYLE

MARVEL’S ICEMAN JT ME OUT AS GAY

This edorial move mak one of Marvel's most inic and high-profile hero a gay man — a ttament to the pany's ongog missn to clu more diversy and make sure s ic books reflect the real world. Wh younger Iceman beg gay, olr Iceman datg women, and Jean Grey llg "a unique suatn, " there was a qutn of whether the X-Men would ultimately get to the nature-vers-nurture bate — a story that uld get really msy. Though Iceman wasn't explicly wrten to be a gay character, his storyl and his history uld be terpreted as allegori for LGBTQ life.

"The fact that Ben has e out as homosexual is jt a small facet of who he is and what he is gog to brg to Cyclops’ select team of X-Men, " Marvel spokman Joe Taraborrelli told the Huffgton Post 2013. There's been a trend ic books and pop culture that se gay characters troduced but then shipped off to romanc and shuttled to marriag (see: Northstar). It's been a very one-dimensnal, "rpectable" view of gay life that's often void of sex or, more simply, imperfectn and discretn.

KNOWLEDGE WAS: THE POSSIBLE HTS OVER THE YEARS THAT ICEMAN IS GAY

"I do fd fascatg that really wh the last 10 years and relatively recent tim, there's been a gay character clud most mastream edi and shows, which is great, " ic book wrer Mark Millar told me while talkg about his ic book Juper's Circle. It's weird that there's this versn of gay characters seen, pecially Amerin shows, as people who are almost sexualized, " he said.

SHOULD ICEMAN BE STRAIGHT OR GAY ?

I image that all the recent hubbub about Iceman g out as gay this week’s #40 issue of All New X-Men (and by hubbub I mean “Oh, Facebook Trendg updated self aga”) is tertg to ic book fans who grew up readg X-Men ics. However, some stanc rears may believe that this is a new velopment for Iceman, and that Brian Bendis is jt pullg the “gay” ticket out of the Box O’ Unique Character Tras whout any rpect for the character’s prev history.

FOR LGBT FANS OF X-MEN, ICEMAN COMG OUT AS GAY HAS BEEN A LONG TIME COMG

And while Bobby’s homosexualy is only prent this story via implitn, that implitn may have been strong enough to fluence Bryan Sger when he nstcted this notable scene om X-Men 2:. Bryan Sger has spoken publicly that he feels that the experience of beg gay and g out is analogo to how mutants mt feel the X-Men universe when they “e out, ” and that the above scene is spired by that.

He almost cl, but then rensirs, offerg a personal ttimonial about the event and how relat to his own life as a gay the statement, Iceman explas that he ed to be ashamed not jt of his powers, but his sexualy, thanks to scty and bigotry om his peers.

The Iceman story pag are drawn by Kris a prev issue, also drawn by Anka, a time-travelg young versn of Jean Grey read the md of young Iceman, llg him out for hidg that he’s “full gay. ” Young Bobby Drake nfirmed that he is gay, but rears were left wh the cliffhanger of what that means for prent-day Iceman, who has always acted straight. Prent Iceman eventually admted that he is ed gay, sayg that he was already persecuted for beg a mutant and an X-Man and he didn’t want to add beg gay to the list.

THE ICEMAN ETH OUT: MARVEL FANS PROCS X-MEN'S GAY STORYLE

He talked about how he put that part of himself away for his entire life, and when he nsired lettg out, he would unsuccsfully try thgs to see if he was actually straight, which only nfirmed that he is gay.

One of the tertg aspects of young Iceman g out the most recent issue of All-New X-Men (and om the sound of Brian Michael Bendis' discsns of the topic, sure sounds like adult Iceman will be tchg up wh him, as well) is the notn that Iceman beg gay is somethg supported past ics. Hontly, I don't thk the Cloud era is all that important to the overall "Hts that Bobby is gay" storyle, but people will always brg Cloud up, so I figure I might as well addrs . In X-Men #331, Bobby nonts Emma Frost about his powers, and she mak a ment about him beg an terr rator that some people have taken as a gay joke.