The 2020 Comic book crash

[clearspira]

Ice Man being gay and deeply in the closet actually works. The way he was written, he had this awkward habit of casually flirting with every woman on the team, while they were in relationships, in the same room, anything. That, combined with how immensely dysfunctional his few relationships actually were, makes sense for him being deep in the closet. It makes double sense when we consider that avoidance is a huge character trait of Bobby Drake - he's an Omega level mutant who runs from his powers and has many times commented that he almost never uses his full power, because he doesn't want to be like that, that he doesn't want the responsibility and doesn't think he should have that power. I mean you're talking someone who could go toe-to-toe with Magneto at full power (and smart money would be on Drake), and his usual plan is to throw snowballs and act goofy.

So could a good writer make it work? Hell yeah. It wouldn't even be very difficult. Give it to that writer for a solo run, 12-issue miniseries like The Visions (a FANTASTIC series). Bam, done, easy-peasy. Instead they handled it so bad it fucking hurts. Because OF COURSE they did. Marvel really hasn't evolved since the Rawhide Kid.

The idea I had at the time for how this could have worked was to have had Bobby's homosexuality hidden behind a mental block caused by Xavier that Jean Grey accidentally removes. Not only would this cleanly get around the fact that Bobby has never thought about men on panel, but it would somewhat redeem Jean Grey. Tbh, I cannot stand the character, she's a creator's pet whom the entire X-universe revolves around in some way, but forcibly outing Bobby advanced her to ''reprehensible'' in my eyes.

As to why Prof. X would forcibly turn Bobby straight, i think the safest answer to go with would be ''because Bobby asked him to''. Why? Who knows. But it sounds like a great potential story hook to me.

[Draco Dracul]

Ice Man being gay and deeply in the closet actually works. The way he was written, he had this awkward habit of casually flirting with every woman on the team, while they were in relationships, in the same room, anything. That, combined with how immensely dysfunctional his few relationships actually were, makes sense for him being deep in the closet. It makes double sense when we consider that avoidance is a huge character trait of Bobby Drake - he's an Omega level mutant who runs from his powers and has many times commented that he almost never uses his full power, because he doesn't want to be like that, that he doesn't want the responsibility and doesn't think he should have that power. I mean you're talking someone who could go toe-to-toe with Magneto at full power (and smart money would be on Drake), and his usual plan is to throw snowballs and act goofy.

So could a good writer make it work? Hell yeah. It wouldn't even be very difficult. Give it to that writer for a solo run, 12-issue miniseries like The Visions (a FANTASTIC series). Bam, done, easy-peasy. Instead they handled it so bad it fucking hurts. Because OF COURSE they did. Marvel really hasn't evolved since the Rawhide Kid.

The idea I had at the time for how this could have worked was to have had Bobby's homosexuality hidden behind a mental block caused by Xavier that Jean Grey accidentally removes. Not only would this cleanly get around the fact that Bobby has never thought about men on panel, but it would somewhat redeem Jean Grey. Tbh, I cannot stand the character, she's a creator's pet whom the entire X-universe revolves around in some way, but forcibly outing Bobby advanced her to ''reprehensible'' in my eyes.

As to why Prof. X would forcibly turn Bobby straight, i think the safest answer to go with would be ''because Bobby asked him to''. Why? Who knows. But it sounds like a great potential story hook to me.

It's also one of those things that works better without the necessary evil of the sliding timescale because a guy in the 60s wanting to hide that from himself makes a lot more sense and feels a lot more natural.

There is a part of me that thinks maybe it's time to do a line wide reboot at Marvel. Well not right now, like start planning now and have the role out planned for late 2022 or early 2023.

[Thebestoftherest]

I do think having jean call him out like that should have her remove the team.

[GreyICE]

The idea I had at the time for how this could have worked was to have had Bobby's homosexuality hidden behind a mental block caused by Xavier that Jean Grey accidentally removes. Not only would this cleanly get around the fact that Bobby has never thought about men on panel, but it would somewhat redeem Jean Grey. Tbh, I cannot stand the character, she's a creator's pet whom the entire X-universe revolves around in some way, but forcibly outing Bobby advanced her to ''reprehensible'' in my eyes.

As to why Prof. X would forcibly turn Bobby straight, i think the safest answer to go with would be ''because Bobby asked him to''. Why? Who knows. But it sounds like a great potential story hook to me.

It actually doesn't need even that. Bobby Drake joined the XMen during a time period when sticking people in prisons and insane asylums for being gay was standard practice. When it was literally illegal. When they would equate "the homosexuals" and communists, and purge them. Britain took a war hero who had saved thousands of allied lives (if not tens of thousands) and chemically castrated him. For being gay.

Does it make perfect sense that an insecure teenager who doesn't even fully realize what "being gay" is (it was often buried under euphemisms or not spoken of) and has been deprived of any family or friends he had desperately tried to fit in with his new family by hiding how different he was? Sure! And again, it would be an awesome thing to explore in a book. And the introduction of the younger XMen gave a great excuse - young Bobby looks at the wreck of the current XMen, the 21st century, says "fuck this" and starts dating a hot guy and literally no one cares. Then we could have a great self-exploration book. Maybe tag some older gay writers, really dig into the subject with the sensitivity and maturity it deserves.

OH WHO AM I KIDDING LOL JEAN GREY IS MAGIC.

Claremont had the right idea. "Marvel Girl" has been a cancer on the XMen since basically day 1. Now I will put the blame squarely where it belongs - thank you Stan Lee for having every single guy attracted to a teenage girl, including Professor X (way to make it not creepy Stan) - but the character at this point is nigh unsalvagable.

EDIT: I should note extremely lazy writing bears some responsibility. While she spent two decades dead, writers would borrow her ghost whenever they needed some memory alteration or psychic power done by a benevolent psychic who wasn't around to tell anyone. Thus a dead Jean Grey defeated Purple Man's hormonal mind control from beyond the grave, dueled Shadow King, and generally ended up responsible for a number of amazing feats that "couldn't be undone" because of lazy writers.