Bobby Drake discovered
his mutant power to create ice while in his early teens, yet kept his condition
hidden from everyone but his parents. Initially, Bobby was unable to stop
feeling cold and shivering, but soon managed to keep it under control. When a
bully named Rocky Beasely and his friends attacked Bobby and his
then-girlfriend, Judy Harmon, the youngster panicked. To save Harmon, Bobby
temporarily encased Rocky 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 Professor Charles Xavier, the telepathic mentor of the team
of teenage mutant super heroes the X-Men.
Professor X
dispatched his first X-Man, Cyclops,
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
mental powers to halt the townspeople in their tracks and erase their memories
of Bobby's powers. A grateful Bobby then accepted Xavier's invitation to enroll
at his School for Gifted Youngsters and took the codename Iceman. Though
initially granting him a snow-like form, Bobby soon learned to increase his
degree of cold control resulting in an ice-like, almost transparent form.
Hated and feared by
humanity, the X-Men honed their amazing abilities while standing in defense of a
world pushed to the brink of genetic war by a handful of mutant terrorists.
Iceman, the team's youngest founding member, became known as the comedian of the
group. Regardless, he pulled his weight and worked well with rest of the team.
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