Last Updated on March 24, 2023

Iceman (Robert Drake) Bio

Iceman (Robert Drake) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and is a founding member of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The X-Men (September 1963).

Iceman is a member of a subspecies of humans known as mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. He has the ability to manipulate ice and cold by freezing water vapor around him. This allows him to freeze objects, as well as turn his body into ice. The character received widespread media attention when it was revealed that he was gay in All-New X-Men.

The character has been frequently present in X-Men and Spider-Man-related comics, video games, animated series, and movies. Shawn Ashmore portrayed Iceman in the X-Men films and voices the character in The Super Hero Squad Show.

Iceman (Robert Drake) Early Life

Robert Louis “Bobby” Drake was born in Floral Park, Long Island, New York, to William Robert Drake and Madeline Beatrice Bass-Drake. His father is Irish-American Catholic, and his mother is Jewish. Bobby’s powers first manifested when he was on a date with Judy Harmon, and a local bully by the name of Rocky Beasely tried to take Judy away for himself.

Knowing Judy could not put up a good fight, Bobby pointed his hand at Beasley and encased him in a block of ice.

Later, the local townspeople, having heard of the incident, came looking for him in the form of an angry mob. The local sheriff had no choice but to put Bobby in jail for his own “protection”.

While Bobby sat in his cell at the sheriff station, the outer wall was blown open, and a young man named Scott Summers walked in and offered to take Bobby with him.

After Bobby turned him down, the two mutants got into a short battle, which was soon ended by the arrival of Professor Charles Xavier.

After Xavier spoke with Bobby and his parents, Bobby’s parents suggested that he go with Professor Xavier to his “school for gifted youngsters”. Bobby took the suggestion and left with Professor Xavier and Cyclops to become the second member of the X-Men.

He is later joined by Henry “Hank” McCoy, Jean Grey, and Warren Worthington III as the founding members of the X-Men.

Drake remains self-conscious regarding the fact that he is the youngest member of the group. Appearing in his original snow-covered form, he first battles Magneto along with the rest of the team, and later the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Bobby Drake’s first girlfriend is Zelda.

Not long after, he takes on a new ice-covered form. He then teams up with the Human Torch for the first time. The two would become close friends as time went on. With the X-Men, he visits the Savage Land and meets Ka-Zar for the first time. He then battles the Juggernaut and is badly injured in his first battle against the Sentinels.

He next battles Magneto by himself. Later, he visits Subterranea for the first time. Then, he and Beast battle the Maha Yogi. During his original stint with the X-Men, Drake pursues a relationship with Lorna Dane, although the relationship does not last.

Iceman (Robert Drake) Relationship

Iceman had a brief relationship with a Japanese-American New Yorker named Opal. He subsequently exhibited strong feelings for his fellow X-Man Polaris, but she did not return those feelings, due to her feelings towards Havok

Northstar developed an unrequited crush for Iceman during their time on the same team, though Iceman never did find out about this. Iceman later had a brief relationship with the Xavier School’s nurse, Annie, but she eventually left him for Havok, who had just left Polaris at the altar.

When Iceman attempted to rekindle his relationship with Polaris, that too ended abruptly, and Polaris returned to Havok. Iceman then had a relationship with the X-Men’s enemy Mystique, who later betrayed him, despite her continued fixation on him, in as much as she stated that she would either kill him or cure him of his personal uncertainty.

Iceman (Robert Drake) Sexuality

In All-New X-Men, the time-displaced Iceman is revealed to be gay, which eventually forces the youth to confront the adult version of himself about the matter. As both speak, the adult Iceman confirms the fact and that he had put all his energy into just being an X-Man as he couldn’t cope with being a mutant and gay simultaneously.

With the help of his younger self and Jean Grey, however, he finally comes to terms with his own sexuality and comes out to fellow gay X-Man Anole in Extraordinary X-Men.

The end of the Extermination X-Men event saw the redirecting of the time-displaced version of Bobby back into the “closet” when he returned to his original timeline alongside the other X-Men, due to a mind lock by Jean Grey, even though the current version retains his memories and remains an out, gay man.

Iceman (Robert Drake) Powers and Abilities

Iceman possesses the power to instantly decrease the temperature of ambient water vapor in his immediate environment to below zero degrees Celsius, thereby freezing it into ice. He is able to make ice that will not break unless he wills it to. In this manner, he is able to quickly form a great variety of ice structures, including projectiles, shields, ladders, baseball bats, etc.

Iceman often makes ice slides which form rapidly beneath and behind his feet, moving him along the slick surface at high speeds. He is also able to form exceedingly complicated structures within a relatively short time, such as miniature cities. Originally, Iceman’s own body temperature would lower dramatically when his powers were active, reaching −105 °F (−76 °C) within a few tenths of a second (now his body usually converts to organic ice; see below).

Iceman is immune to sub-zero temperatures; he is also able to perceive the thermal energy level of objects around him. Because cold is the absence of heat, Iceman does not actually ’emanate’ cold; rather, he decreases thermal energy. As mentioned by writer Mike Carey, Iceman is “an Omega-level mutant and has powers that can influence the ecosystem of the entire world.”

Iceman has yet to tap into his full mutant potential, but over the years he has taken more interest in developing his abilities.

In his early appearances, Iceman generally covered his body in a thick layer of what appeared to be snow; hence he looked more like a traditional snowman than an ice-man. Upon further training in the use of his powers, he was able to fashion an armor of solid ice around his body when using his powers, which afforded him some degree of protection against concussive force and projectiles.

Later on, he manifested the ability to convert the tissue of his body into organic ice. He sometimes augments his organic ice form with razor-sharp adornments to his shoulders, elbows, knees, and fists. Iceman has also been able to move rapidly to another distant location while in his organic ice form, being able to deposit his bodily mass into a river and reconstitute his entire mass a great distance away in a matter of minutes.

Iceman is also able to reconstitute his organic ice form if any part of it is damaged, or even if it is completely shattered, without permanently harming himself. He can temporarily add the mass of a body of water to his own, increasing his mass, size, and strength.

He can survive not only as ice but as liquid water and water vapor.

He can also transform his body from a gaseous state back to a solid, although it is physically and mentally taxing. Iceman can also freeze seawater, as seen during the “Operation: Zero Tolerance” story arc.

While he usually does not use his powers in lethal ways, his powers are so vast that they extend to the molecular level, to the point that he can freeze all of the molecules of an object/being with a thought; he once froze every single molecule of water within the body of David Haller.

Iceman is also able to dissolve his own icy constructs.

Iceman’s powers were pushed to their limit while possessed by Emma Frost, who used Iceman to discover the fate of her Hellions.

During this time Iceman was able to control all forms of moisture, freeze fluids inside people’s bodies, travel as a liquid, solid or gas.

Not even the combined might of the X-Men Gold team was able to stop Emma Frost in Iceman’s body. Following this, Bobby confronted Emma about how she was able to use his powers so effectively. While together they made some initial progress, she refused to train him further. Instead, he turned to Storm because they share similar elemental powers and she agreed to tutor him.

When Iceman was injected with Mister Sinister’s neuro-inhibitor by Mystique, he was able to save himself by drawing in all of the ambient moisture around him, rapidly replacing his poisoned cells with healthy material before the injection could kill him.

During the 2013–2014 “Battle of the Atom” storyline, Iceman’s future self-revealed that he has the ability to create semi-independent ice structures that can act on their own, although one of these structures—demonstrating a Hulk-like physique and intellect has gone on to join the future version of the Brotherhood.

Aside from his superhuman powers, Iceman is also a fair hand-to-hand combatant, and received combat training at Xavier’s School as well as coaching from the Black Widow and Hercules while serving with the Champions of Los Angeles. Iceman has taken as much combat training as Cyclops or Beast.

Iceman (Robert Drake) Movies and TV Shows

1. The Super Hero Squad Show
2. Wolverine and the X-Men
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past
4. X-Men

5. X-Men: Evolution
6. X-Men: The Last Stand
7. X2

Iceman (Robert Drake) Rogue

In the X-Men Movieverse, Bobby is portrayed by Shawn Ashmore. He is shown a student at Xavier’s school and to be best friends with John Allerdyce. He befriends Rogue in the first film and is shown to have a relationship with her in the second and third films.

In X3, it is shown that he has some attraction with Kitty Pryde, almost kissing her despite being in a relationship with Rogue. He stays with Rogue in the end, after she takes the cure despite the fact that he didn’t want her to take it. In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bobby is shown to be in a relationship with Kitty in the Dystopia future, often being killed by Sentinels before being reset alive due to Kitty’s powers sending Bishop back to warn them.

In the fixed present, Bobby is shown to be still together with Rogue. In the RogueCut of the film, Bobby goes back to Cerebro with Magneto and Charles to save Rogue. He sacrifices himself in order to save Rogue.