The Iceman Cometh…Out

Marvel has a storyline which reveals that Iceman of the X-Men is gay. I just spoke to a reporter who wanted me to comment on this and my comment was along the lines of "If it makes for some good stories, great." There are gay people. It stands to reason there are gay super people.

However, I really don't know if you can do meaningful stories about him being gay. The gay folks I know all have issues about being treated as "different" and "unusual." If you're a mutant made of ice, your sexual identity may be the least unusual thing about you. I would think that being the only individual on the planet like that — and constantly being involved in incidents that could mean the destruction of said planet — would have a bit more impact on your personality and create a lot more problems than being attracted to others of the same gender.

So then the next question — and the reporter didn't ask me this but it's being discussed a lot on the web — is "Well, is Iceman gay?" Answer: Iceman is a fictional character. He's gay if the folks writing and controlling his usage at the moment say he's gay.

I have not followed the comics closely enough to know how much, if at all, those in charge of him lately have hinted at this. My guess is that some have, some haven't. When a character is around for a while — and Iceman has passed the half-century mark — he or she gets handled by all sorts of folks who have different ideas. Certainly, many of those who have written Batman have not written the same guy in the suit.

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They don't even all read each other's work and some of those who do are consciously seeking to "undo" what others did. I do not believe you should ever expect consistency in characterization from a character who's been under the creative control of more than three people.

In fact — and this is a side discussion — I think a lot of great characters become devalued by the fact that since dozens of different people are in charge of them, no one is really in charge of them. You know the old saying about how a camel is a horse that's been designed by a committee? Well, Bugs Bunny and many others I can name sure seem to be growing humps lately. But that's a rant for another time.

Apparently, some writers suggested in their stories that Iceman was generally cold to the idea of heterosexuality (I'm sorry) and then fans seized upon whatever hints were embedded and expanded on it in articles and fan fiction. And then the current custodians of the character thought it would be a good idea to make it official. I don't know them well enough to know if it was decided for creative reasons or marketing ones.

You see, I don't have a lot of contact with mainstream comics these days. When I did though, there was this constant push from both DC and Marvel to put out something "sexy" each month. That was the descriptor Dick Giordano used when he was in charge at DC. "Sexy" meant that at least one comic or mini-series had to stand out as very special. Sometimes, it could be achieved by the sheer assignment of a superstar writer and/or artist. Frank Miller doing a comic was an event. Another way was a "high concept" mini-series…like The X-Men crossing over with Star Trek or something like that.

Yet another way to create a "sexy" comic was to impose some life-changing storyline on an existing property. Some character was killed or married or resigned, etc. A more recent life-changer is to reveal someone is gay.

What's interesting is that "gay" may be the only permanent life-changer. Superman can be killed and later come back to life. Spider-Man can get married and then someone can turn back time and say it never happened. Captain America can quit and turn the costume over to someone else…then later take it back.

But gay may be forever. I would think it would be distasteful and really, really stupid for someone later to do a comic in which Iceman's gayness was "cured." They'd probably have to kill off the character and have someone else become Iceman…and if it was obviously done just to have a straight Iceman, that would be insulting to the gay community. So Iceman is gay.

What I think could be interesting is if they also decided that The Human Torch was gay. The two of them could fall in love…and if the man made of fire were to have sex with the man made of ice, it could trigger an explosion of weather that would stop Global Warming. If Marvel ever uses this idea, I expect royalties.