Ice to see you, Bobby Drake! The OG X-Man, Iceman, will be joining the cast of Marvel‘s Exceptional X-Men, starting with December’s Exceptional X-Men #4. The news was officially revealed by Marvel today, per a cover for the issue, which you can see below.
…But in fact — and spoilers past this point — the highly demanded mutant actually returns in the final page of today’s Exceptional X-Men #1. In the one-pager, after following Kitty Pryde’s new life in Chicago for most of the issue, and then briefly checking in with Emma Frost, we cut to an airport. Specifically a phone, advertising a mysterious new app called Verate. A text message on the phone says “Let us know as soon as you locate her.” And then the next panel shows Bobby waiting in the terminal, with the announcement “Robert Drake, standby to Chicago? Robert Drake?”
So yeah, even in advance of issue #4, Bobby is back on the menu, boys.
In addition to the cover, Marvel also released a new trailer showing off scenes from the next few issues of the series. That includes Exceptional X-Men #2, where new character Melee “bravely stands up to a group of bullies” targeting fellow new mutant Axo. And in the panels from Exceptional X-Men #4, we see Iceman show up. “When Kitty and Emma clash over different teaching styles, will he be able to cool things down?” Marvel teases, via press release.
Added writer Eve L. Ewing, “Well, those who know that I was a poet long before becoming a comics creator will appreciate that EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN, in a world full of X-adjectives, simply sounds really good. But right now, they are exceptional in that they don’t carry a lot of the same history on their shoulders as the main characters in our other titles. For better or worse, they have no ties to Krakoa or broader team politics or the previous era of mutantdom. They’re just a group of awkward kids in the Midwest trying to figure out their abilities, like generations of young mutants before them.”
“Regarding the young mutants, I think the whole team fell in love with all three of them,” artist Carmen Carnero said. “I love that they are such opposites. Eve had very clear personalities, hobbies, musical tastes, how they feel… And when it came to designing them, it all developed naturally, and the whole team had a clear vision of what their final looks would be. I can’t wait for readers to meet them.”
Check out the cover, and watch the trailer, below:
