Personality: Although a mature individual who takes his position among the X-Men seriously, Bobby still maintains a cheerful manner and is known for his bright outlook on life. He's also something of a prankster.

Strength: The Iceman possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Fighting Skills: Iceman's fighting skills come only from his years of training and experience.

Special Skills and Abilities: Bobby is skilled in the world of finance, and is also somewhat of an artist, specialising in ice scupltures.

Known superhuman powers: The Iceman is a mutant with the superhuman ability to lower his external and internal body temperature, projecting intense coldness from his body. Like any normal human being's, the nerve centers for regulating the Iceman's body temperature are found in the part of the brain called the hypothalamus. However, the Iceman can mentally override his hypothalamus to allow his body temperature to be lowered by an unknown internal mechanism. This ability converts the latent thermal energies in and around his body into an unknown form of energy that is efficiently dissipated. A related mutation has rendered his body tissues unaffected by sub-zero temperatures. The Iceman can consciously, immediately lower his body temperature from its normal 98.6 Fahrenheit to that of -105.7 F within the span of a few tenths of a second.

As his body temperature falls, the surrounding moisture in the air that is in contact with him is similarly lowered. Just as condensed moisture forms frost, this moisture forms an icy covering which encompasses his entire body. It also obscures his facial features. When the Iceman first began to completely lower his body temperature, this covering took on a more snow-like appearance. But as he learned to increase the severity of his coldness, the covering assumed the consistency of crystalline ice that it has today. This ice constantly cracks with any movement of his body, and immediately reforms. (Hence, there is a cracking sound when the Iceman, covered with ice, moves.) Through practice, the Iceman has learned to control the intensity of his coldness, and he can selectively lower the temperature of isolated parts of his body.

The Iceman can use his mutant ability to freeze any local air moisture into super-hard ice. This ice can be formed into any object of his choosing: the only limitations are his own imagination, his skill as a sculptor, the amount of available moisture, and the ambient air temperature which determines how long his ice sculpture will stay icy. He does not have to hold the ice physically with his hands in order to shape it. Apparently he can simply direct the waves of coldness he projects in certain ways so as to create ice in the shape he desires. In the past, the Iceman has formed ice-ladders, ice-slides, ice-shields, and ice-bats.

The Iceman is able to form a rising column of ice beneath his feet, capable of lifting him off the ground. The tensile strength of the column is determined by its thickness, and its steadiness by how well it has been braced. A well-braced and regular column, 6 feet in diameter at its base, is able to support his weight without toppling for about 85 feet in a 20-mile per hour wind. By forming long ice-ramps connected either to his ice-column or to an existing structure like a building or a bridge, the Iceman is able to travel above the ground by sliding down the ramp he is creating. Unless he creates supports periodically, the ramp will crack beneath him, unable to support their combined weight.

Theoretically, the Iceman has an almost unlimited supply of moisture at all times since it is always present in the surrounding air or environment. Even desert air has sufficient moisture content for him to make practical use of, although the process takes somewhat longer. However, the mental effort needed to employ his mutant power can eventually fatigue him and render his freezing ability temporarily disfunctional.

Like that of any trained athlete, the Iceman's ability to perform is directly related to his daily physical health and current mental state. Under normal conditions, he can usually form ice continually for a period of about 3 hours before becoming exhausted.

The elder Drakes were correct, Bobby was walking with his date, Judy Harmon, one night after they saw a movie together, when they were attacked by a bully named Rocky Beasely and his friends. One of Beasely's allies held onto Drake while Beasely himself started to force Harmon to go with him. To save Harmon, Drake used his mutant power to temporarily encase Beasely in ice. Beasely was soon released unharmed, but Harmon was shocked, and the news of the incident swept through Drake's Long Island community, enraging local townspeople enough for them to form a lynch mob.

The mob broke into Drake's home, and he began using his powers to fight them off. But there were too many opponents for the young Drake, and the town's sheriff took him into custody for the youth's own protection.

Learning of the incident, Professor Charles Xavier, mentor of the X-Men, dispatched Cyclops, the first and at that time only member of the team, to contact Drake. Cyclops broke into Drake's cell, but Drake refused to leave. The two began fighting using their powers, and their fight spilled out into the streets of the town. Eventually the two exhausted young mutants were captured by the lynch mob, which nearly hanged them. Cyclops and Drake broke free, and were saved when Xavier used his great psychic powers against the mob.

Drake's parents consented to Xavier's proposal to let Bobby enroll in his special school for superhuman mutants, and allowed Xavier to use his powers to erase their knowledge of their son's powers. (They regained this knowledge years later.) Xavier also permanently erased all knowledge of Drake's abilities from the minds of the townspeople. Thus, given the code name Iceman, Bobby Drake became the second member of the X-Men.

Years later, Drake left the X-Men and joined the Champions of Los Angeles, a short-lived team of adventurers. After the Champions disbanded, Drake became a full-time college student, although he briefly rejoined the X-Men to battle Arcade. Later he joined his fellow former X-Men the Angel and the Beast as members of the Defenders.

With the apparent demise of some of the Defenders, the team was disbanded, and Drake took a job as an accountant. However, he soon left that job to join the other four members of the original X-Men as a member of their new organization, X-Factor. When Professor Xavier returned to Earth after an extended absence in outer space, Iceman and his fellow X-Factor members rejoined the X-Men.

Recently, Emma Frost, the White Queen, took mental possession of Iceman's body and was able to activate the full extent of his powers, turning his body into all ice. Since then, under Frost's prodding, Iceman has learned to transform his body into its "ice" state on his own.