For the first time in his 54-year history, Iceman Bobby Drake gets a series all to himself. Read on for our review, and look out for some spoilers.
Written by Sina GraceCover by Kevin Wada
Illustrated by Alessandro Vitti
Colored by Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettered by VC’s Joe SabinoBobby Drake has been in the super hero game longer than most. But while reflecting on what he’s accomplished over the years, he realizes that the legacy he’s built is a few good one-liners and a string of failed relationships. Not only that, but now a younger version of himself has emerged from the timestream and he’s more put together than Bobby ever was: already a world-class hero in his own right, but also totally comfortable in his own skin, complete with a relationship with a handsome Inhuman to boot. In this new ongoing series penned by Sina Grace (Burn the Orphanage, Self-Obsessed) and drawn by Alessandro Vitti (SECRET WARRIORS), Bobby realizes that the time is never or now, and sets out to build a life and legacy he can be proud of…and be the best ICEMAN he can be!
Most writers would kill to be handed a series whose title character has a new status quo so rife with possibilities. My exposure to the X-Men is pretty much limited to the live-action movies and the X-Men Evolution cartoon, yet this concept was so strong that I jumped in as soon as I heard about it: A younger version of the character shows up from a different timeline and forces the older version to come to terms with the direction of his life, from accepting his sexuality to questioning his lack of accomplishments as an adult. It’s just the kind of mixture of comic book shenanigans and character drama that the medium does so well. So how did the issue itself turn out?
There’s no doubt Grace knew he was given a golden egg with “Iceman,” so he approaches this kick-off issue as a character study befitting the concept. He moves swiftly from a quiet moment alone to a moment with his younger self to a scene with his parents in a hospital room. Everything revolves around these characters, not a larger plot, which is exactly what this sort of series needs. Grace also works in some action, like the training scene with his younger self and a diversion at the hospital, and they work well enough to break up some of the drama and show that aspect of Bobby’s life.
But then there’s that god-awful narration. In theory, the concept makes sense: Bobby is writing about himself for a dating website, giving readers a chance to get to know who he is and where he currently stands with his life. It could be used for both recap and character-building purposes, seamlessly folding into the story whenever needed. In practice, however, it ends up as lame, unfunny, and self-indulgent as profiles on actual dating websites. Grace should get some credit for at least being authentic, but reading these things by non-writers is cringe-worthy enough. I’d rather not see them in my comics. There’s a nice moment of payoff at the very end of the issue using the device, but that doesn’t negate the fact that we spent most of the issue with that abysmal narration.
Putting the narration aside, Grace writes the actual character interactions well. His dialogue feels natural, it’s clear, and there’s always more going on below the surface. Bobby’s conversation with his younger self reads like a friendly bonding moment while also including the subtext of the older one’s regrets at how his life has turned out. Similarly, the scene with his parents has many little moments where the characters imply things without saying them or ignore a path of conversation that they’d rather not go down. For me, these were all highlights of the issue, so I’m glad they look to be the focus for “Iceman” going forward.
On the art side of things, Vitti’s style often seems an odd fit for “Iceman.” His rough, sharp, messy lines make very little stylistic sense during the dramatic scenes, and his own inking over himself removes any chance of a more down-to-earth final product. Instead, the faces, which should be carrying the emotion of scenes, look inconsistent and almost creepy. Vitti’s style has worked for me in other books before (his fill-in issues on Charles Soule’s criminally underrated “Red Lanterns” run come to mind). It just doesn’t make sense here. The action scenes work much better, at points displaying Bobby’s ice as sharp and jagged, which adds a dangerous dimension to the superpowers that this South Floridian hadn’t considered. Other times, the ice powers are represented with a swirling vortex, which also lends a certain amount of power to Bobby’s abilities.
Continued belowRosenberg colors those fights well by utilizing different shades of blue, though again those dramatic scenes don’t quite work. Whenever she tries to add extra dimension to Vitti’s faces in an attempt to better sell those emotional moments, the faces end up looking stranger. Those highlights just look out of place since there’s not much in the linework for them to hang on to.
In all, “Iceman” turned out to be more of a mixed bag than I’d hoped. Sometimes Vitti’s art looks good, and sometimes it doesn’t fit the story at all. Sina Grace knows where to go with the concept and writes some great dialogue, even if his choice for how to write the narrative captions didn’t pan out too well. In the end, though, the character study nature of the issue did convince this X-comics newbie to come back for next issue, so it did its job.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Despite some odd artistic and narrative choices, this character study does good by its concept.
