On the other hand, did this have to be a story about him and his parents? Focusing more on his friends within the X-Men – like his ex-girlfriend, Kitty Pryde – would have been more compelling and allowed for a much more interesting about personal agency and self realization. On the one hand, Bobby Drake’s parents have been historically terrible, always viewing their son as a freak and a disappointment for being a mutant, so it would have been unrealistic to expect them to react positively to news like this. I found myself infuriated by the way his parents handled it, which is pretty typical, and honestly, it’s an aspect of the queer experience that I’m pretty sick of reading about. That’s not to say it didn’t have many of the hallmarks of these types of stories that can make them difficult and painful. It’s interesting because it’s a narrative that’s so unique to comic books and certainly a brand new take on the traditional coming out story. He lost the agency of deciding when to tell his friends in the X-Men because his younger self did it for him, and he was forced to deal with the fallout of that on someone else’s terms. His coming out was also complicated by it.
Seeing young Bobby embrace who he is and allow himself to be happy affected older Bobby deeply and helped him realize what kind of life he wanted for himself. It’s fascinating to watch the older Bobby Drake try to deal with his emotions surrounding his younger self. However, there’s an interesting spin on Bobby’s story to consider: there are currently two Bobby Drakes running around in the X-Men universe! The younger one recently came out publicly and got together with his (aptly named) crush, Romeo, in last year’s Inhumans vs X-Men event. There are so many of them, and they’re often the only type of story queer people are allowed to get in media. More queer representation in comics is definitely something I want to see, but coming out stories can be tough. So naturally I was very excited about Sina Grace’s new run of Iceman, whose first trade paperback came out in January. To see a character I love, like Bobby Drake, come out of the closet is always a great feeling.
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