Marvel’s X-Men have experienced a great deal of upheaval as of late, with events like House of M and Avengers vs. X-Men depopulating the mutant ranks and turning them into borderline villains at times. With the Death of X event currently in progress, pitting Cyclops and his team against the Inhumans and leading into an event titled “Inhumans vs. X-Men,” it certainly looked like Marvel is about to excise the MU from mutantkind. Marvel’s latest event/series, though, “Inhumans/X-Men: ResurreXion,” is a cause for x-gene optimism.

Up until recently, little was known about the latest X-Men line, with the exception of a promo last week teasing “An Ending. A Beginning.” However, the release of a new ongoing series sheds some light as to what’s behind the cryptic title.

Marvel unveiled the cover for their first new ongoing X-series today – mutants have been disturbingly light in the “Divided We Stand” release schedule this fall – with Iceman #1. The House of Ideas also took to Twitter to announce the book (via Comic Book) saying: “Coming soon: “Iceman” #1.” As of yet, no creative team members have been announced, but a release date has been tentatively set for spring of 2017. It’s also unknown as to whether the new series will feature the ‘young’ time-displaced Iceman or the classic Bobby Drake or both, seeing as Nova #1 will feature both Richard Rider and Sam Alexander. Take a look at the X-prominent Iceman cover below:



The cover includes a number of fragmented scenes from the longtime X-Men hero and is emblazoned with a golden “X” reminiscent of the X-Men’s Gold Team from their popular 90s series. Although this will be Iceman’s first solo ongoing series, he has been the subject of two miniseries: one in 1984 (written by J.M. DeMatteis) and one from the 2000s (by Andy Lanning and Karl Kerschl). After the events of House of M, he was one of thousands of mutants who were de-powered (although he’s since regained his handy-at-party abilities).

Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, was originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for the first issue of X-Men in 1963. Capable of manipulating water, he can turn his body and the world around him into ice – even traveling great distances by creating ice from atmospheric moisture. Due to his untapped potential powers, Iceman was classified as an omega-level mutant and has been a regular member of the X-roster, as well as one of the original Champions, Defenders, and part of X-Factor. Iceman was also revealed as gay, when Jean Grey accidentally outed a younger version of himself in All-New X-Men #40 (2012) – after which the older Mr. Drake was forced to admit his sexual orientation as well. Since then, he’s become popular with the LGBT+ community, as well as remaining a popular if sometimes sideline character in the Marvel Universe, at least until now.

A solo series for Iceman has a lot of potential, not only in terms of unraveling his complex personality, but also as a way to dig deeper into his developing powers. His incredible atomic manipulation has been hinted at during his time working alongside, possessed by, or fighting against Emma Frost but remains largely untapped and under-explored. Fans of Bobby Drake and the mutant population of the MU should be excited, not only by the prospect of more Iceman, but for the perpetuation of X-titles, since further “ResurreXion” announcements have been teased this week.

We’ll keep you updated as the future of the X-Men in the pages of Marvel unfolds.