yet kept his condition hidden from everyone but his parents. When bullies attacked Bobby and his girlfriend (Judy Harmon), the youngster panicked. He temporarily encased their ringleader (Rocky Beasely) in ice, thus revealing his abilities for all to see. Believing the boy to be a menace, the townspeople organized a lynch mob. They broke into Bobby's home and overpowered him, but the local sheriff took the teenager into custody for his own protection. Meanwhile, the situation had come to the attention of telepath Charles Xavier -- mentor to the mutant X-Men.
Professor X dispatched his first X-Man -- Cyclops, cursed with uncontrollable optic blasts -- to contact Bobby. Cyclops stole into the jailhouse as planned, but the two began fighting when Bobby refused to accompany him. Caught by the lynch mob, Cyclops and Bobby were about to be hanged when they broke free. Professor X used his psionic powers to halt the townspeople in their tracks and erase their memories of Bobby's abilities. A grateful Bobby then accepted Xavier's invitation to enroll at his School for Gifted Youngsters, home to a handful of troubled teenagers learning to control their strange powers...and fighting to preserve their teacher's dream of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.
Hated and feared by humanity, the X-Men hone their amazing abilities while standing in defense of a world pushed to the brink of genetic war by a handful of mutant terrorists. Iceman became known as the comedian of the group, a joker with amazing gifts, but lacking the ambition to tap his true potential. Bobby Drake has found out the hard way that he still has a lot to learn. Regardless, he pulls his weight and works well with rest of the X-Men as an intrical part of the team. |
