The problem with gay iceman
I want to start this post off by saying I’m a bi girl so obviously I’ve experienced being gay differently from gay men. So maybe I’m not the best person to talk about this but that being said; I want to voice my opinion.
I’m a huge x men fan, I’ve grown up with these characters, with the tv show wolverine and the x men and later with comics. Growing up as a gay kid there wasn't much representation I saw, so surely I’d be thrilled to hear that one of my most beloved characters was going to come out in his solo series? But that wasn't my reaction at all, because this new development from marvel wasn't a coming out story for unsure kids to relate to and for gay adults write fanfic about. This was just another money grabbing scheme for a big corporation to seam woke.
See Iceman is a character thats been around since the very beginning of the x men, he's an original team member. One of the most recognisable characters, he's even a title character in a Spider-man tv show. Because of this, theres a lot of history. A lot of history that marvel bulldozers away for a month or two of headlines praising how progressive they are. The sudden change means that all of Bobby's past relationships (of which there are many, two of which featured in the movies) are completely invalidated. All of that could have been avoided of course, if they'd just made him bi. But that would have been too far for marvel, no way could they do that. Because bisexuality is too confusing.
Its also barely addressed after his solo series, and it came out of nowhere. Reading wolverine and the x men (not affiliation to the show) at the tine was very confusing. Bobby and Kitty were finally rekindling there relationship then suddenly this whole storyline disappears and everyone acts like it didn't happen without even mentioning that its because bobby has just came out.
Look, I understand where marvel was coming from, they wanted a well known, cool character that would appeal to everyone to be there ticket into diversity. But ,by choosing him, they forgot all of the amazing writers and creators who've been writing gay background characters for years because marvel wouldn't allow them to be anything else. There were many alternatives, if they wanted a gay character they could have chosen Wiccan or Hulking, if they didn't want them to already be in a relationship they could have chosen Striker or Karolina Dean, if they had to be an x men character then what about Anole or Northstar. If they really had there hearts set on a coming out story, then make a new character. Its just lazy writing to pick someone and completely ignore 54 years of character history. I enjoy debating this topic so if you have anything to ask please do, I hope this post opens discussion and i want to know what you think. Thanks!
