Iceman (Marvel)

Robert Louis Drake, also known as Bobby Drake and Iceman, is a character from the Marvel comics.

The youngest member of the original X-Men. Bobby is an Omega-level mutant, although it took some help from Emma Frost to realize this. Bobby's control of ice is vast; he can create shields, clones, spikes, slides and also freeze others. He currently teaches at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

Personality
Bobby Drake is like the ice he manipulates -- not cold but transparent. He's devastatingly honest. He is very up-front with his emotions and his thoughts all the time. Also, he's obviously incredibly brave both in terms of facing external, physical danger as well as facing up to unpleasant situations and admitting his own mistakes.

Abilities
Originally Iceman could lower the temperature of his body and encase himself in an icy armor of varying shape and consistency. He has since gained the ability to turn his entire body into a flexible form of organic ice. He can also freeze the moisture in the air and can create objects such as slides, ladders, and projectiles. He can reform any part of his body in his ice form, and can augment his shape and size. He has demonstrated the ability to animate ice forms by creating figures and through rapid freezing and unfreezing of their structure, and thus creating movement. These figures do not gain intelligence, and he is still in the developmental stage of this ability as it requires much concentration.

When in ice form he is generally translucent, and his appearance ranges from human-like to jagged and geometric. He is also known to add additional ice mass to his shoulders and knuckles (often jagged and sharp) for a fight. In addition to altering his appearance and shape, Bobby can also augment his size(an ability he has used to grow to heights of over 100 feet) A side effect of this alteration is superhuman strength to match his larger form.

With unexpected aid from Mystique (after she laced his blood with a potent concentration of chemicals) Bobby learned that by using his power to "ice up" and draw the moisture out of the air around him, he could turn himself into his own form of air filter, allowing him to let the poison molecules dissipate into vapor, effectively swapping his cells each time he released the ice and return to his flesh form or as he put it "A body swap, done one piece, one cell at a time".

If damaged, he can reform damaged or missing body parts. While physically and mentally taxing, this ability can be used to reform his entire body if necessary, as he has been able to reform himself to ice from sentient water vapor. This ability was taken even farther when he was under Emma Frost's control and he was able to turn himself into sentient liquid, travel in this form through a body of water, and return back to his organic ice form. He has not been able to replicate this ability, however it does suggest that with practice he could shift through any phase of water. For a time he was stuck permanently in ice form, however since M-Day has regained his ability to return to human form. Bobby also was at one time a Certified Public Accountant.

During the Curse of the Mutants story arc Iceman had himself blessed to make his ice into 'Holy water' to give him an advantage against the vampire attackers.

Iceman has demonstrated the ability to control chemical reactions involving heat exchange and can prevent people with fire based abilities from using their powers.

As with all the X-Men, Bobby has been trained in unarmed combat, tactics, and resisting mental attacks. During (and after) the " Age of Apocalypse" storyline, it was revealed that Iceman's potential powers included the ability to, in essence, teleport via reverse-freezing molecules, meaning he theoretically can travel instantaneously across oceans when in full control of his abilities. However this method of teleportation has been described as extremely painful for anyone potentially traveling with Bobby.

During the run of Wolverine and the X-Men, Bobby demonstrated the ability of creating multiple Ice clones. He is also able to control them but they are not self aware. This act tired him greatly afterwards. He managed to use the ice clones without tiring in a bout against the Red Hulk. However, they were in a snowy setting which may have contributed to Bobby not wearing down.

Trivia

 * Bizarre Adventures #27 lists some different historical information on Bobby Drake. His birthplace is listed as Floral Park, New York; And his father's name is noted as ' Robert N.' Drake. At the time Drake was a student at Dartmouth College.
 * Iceman was one of the characters featured in the series of Marvel Value Stamps issued in the 1970's.
 * It is currently unknown if Iceman suppressed his secondary mutation along with his powers or if, like Black Tom Cassidy, he lost his secondary mutation and kept his primary mutation after M-Day.
 * Most of Iceman's more creative uses for his powers were done by Emma Frost inside Iceman's body and have yet to actually be done by Iceman himself.
 * As mentioned by writer Mike Carey, Iceman is "an Omega-level mutant...[and] has powers that can influence the ecosystem of the entire world." Iceman has yet to tap into his full mutant potential, but over the years he has taken more interest in developing his abilities.
 * Interestingly enough, Cyclops was the one who suggested that Bobby focus on "refining his ice crystals," making his ice-form less like a snowman and more like a living transparent being of ice.
 * Iceman was stated to be an Omega Level Mutate by Supergiant.
 * The change of Iceman's ice form from being smooth to having spikes was conceived by Scott Lobdell. When Lobdell asked Uncanny X-Men editor Bob Harras permission to alter Iceman's appearance, he was turned down, due to an Iceman action figure having been just released by ToyBiz at the time, arguing the licensor wouldn't be okay with the character looking differently in the comics than he did in the toy. Lobdell got around to changing Iceman's appearance, albeit temporarily, when the character was taken over by Emma Frost in Uncanny X-Men #314. As it turned out, the marketing division came up to Lobdell and asked him to use the spiked design for an action figure, which led to Iceman having spikes in his ice form becoming a long-term change.