Originally published: December 1984 - June 1985Length: 4 issues
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Pencils: Alan Kupperberg
Inks: Mike Gustovich
Colors: Bob Sharen
Letters: Janice Chiang
Editor: Bob Budiansky
The Review: This series sprang out of the mid-1980's Marvel miniseries initiative. There were some real jewels in that era, some real crap and some that are just kinda so-so. Iceman is one of the so-so ones.
The basic theme of this mini is that of relations with one's parents as we see Bobby Drake doing his darnedest to please his demanding parents while also becoming an adult man. In this way, it is an interesting window into the times. In the 1980's, comic books were targeted at young boys, so it makes a lot of sense to portray the parent/child relationship through the eyes of the child. Everything is through Bobby Drake's eyes and has a very, "Why can't they just understand me and let me be my own person?!?!" vibe to it. In 2011, when comics are more targeted at middle-aged men who are more likely to be parents themselves, so we're more likely to see the parent/child relationship explored by seeing Wolverine taking a young mutant under his wing and being exasperated by her childish behavior. Times change...
A noteworthy thing abou this mini is that it features the first appearance of the cosmic entity, Oblivion. Oblivion has never been a major character, but he's turned up from time to time over the last 25 years. So, that's something for you folks looking for first appearances.
To summarize the story, Iceman is ice ramping around town while visiting his parents. He runs into a HOT girl who lives next door. As he's trying to get friendly with this girl and bitching about how unreasonable his parents are, these two superpowered dudes attack. Iceman fights them off, but when the fight is over, the girl and her whole family are GONE!!!! That's all in issue #1. From here, we'll get into SPOILERS....
Thereafter, Bobby finds an odd device in the wreckage of the girl's house. Fiddling with device, he is time warped into the past and meets his parents when they were ~20 and before they even got married. The whole thing is very "Back to the Future", but it should be noted that BttF came out just after this series was published, so it isn't as if Marvel was trying to capture some of the magic of a popular movie.
Just as Bobby is learning that his parents are real people too and used to have problems just like he does now, they are attacked by another mysterious foe. In the scrum, Bobby's dad is killed and that means that Bobby can no longer be born, so he is sent into OBLIVION!!!!
The final two issues reveal the cosmic entity that is Oblivion and the fact that the HOT chick was really Oblivion's wayward daughter, Mirage. She doesn't get along with her parent either and over the course of the final two issues, there is much fighting and much proclaiming not to give into OBLIVION! Finally, Mirage reconciles with Oblivion and for his role putting the two back together, Oblivion sends Bobby back to a timeline where his father didn't really die.
Upon returning to the present, Bobby has a new appreciation of his parents and they all hug a lot. The end.
The art throughout is really strong. This was an era before we had superstar artists, so sometimes when you go back to look at 80's comics, you see some really subpar crap. Stylistically, it is very typical of the era, but what sets it apart is how much effort and detail is going into these panels: lot's of fully drawn bystanders, well done backgrounds, etc. And before making a comment about how artists back then could crank out monthly books, it is worth nothing that Iceman took 6 months for 4 issues. In the later issues, we get a lot of these complex panel structures that made me think of George Perez, but Kupperberg had been around for years at this time, so who knows if he was drawing influence from Perez or not.
A couple of funny observations from the comic....
- It is treated as obvious that because Bobby's parents aren't married when he meets them in the past, that Bobby hasn't been born yet. Ya know, because NO ONE would have sex and children before getting married in 1985.
- As Bobby is ice-sliding around town, what happens to all the ice constructs after he leaves? Do they just slowly melt until they collapse and passerby are getting dipped on and whacked by hunks of falling ice? Do the cops put of yellow tape to keep people away from the debris zone?
- The ultimate resolution is kinda weird too. Oblivion tells Bobby that he cannot un-kill his father, but that he can only send Bobby back to a timeline where his father never died. I'm sure you can see the trouble here because if you expand on this concept, it would mean that the X-Men stories of the last 25 years featuring Bobby all happened in that alternative timeline where his daddy didn't die.
Grade: By today's standards: C- for awkward storytelling. By 80's standards: B
Where can you buy it?: This is dollar bin fodder and thus represents a good value.
- Dean Stell
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