The process of coming out is one that LGBTQ people go through multiple times in their life—speaking to family, speaking to friends, speaking to co-workers, hell, speaking to complete and utter strangers, sometimes. In the world of comic books, out heroes have one other category... telling their fellow superheroes.
The opening page of this week’s Iceman #3—by Sina Grace, Alessandro Vitti, and Rachelle Rosenberg—sees Bobby Drake standing outside of his parents’ home on the verge of telling them about his recent discovery about his own sexuality. In what Bobby thought was a way to try and re-acclimatize himself to the process of coming out, the young mutant pinged off a group text to a bunch of his distant colleagues to let them know, and the reactions range from a little hokey to pretty hilarious.
There’s famously gay mutant Jean-Paul Beaubier, a.k.a. famous gay mutant Northstar, who’s very excited for Bobby. Former girlfriend Opal Tanaka plays it cool, as does Lorna Dane, a.k.a. Polaris. And then goofballs Johnny Storm and Spider-Man decide to make jokes, because of course they do. I kind of love that Boom Boom decided to just sidestep it altogether though.
It’s a cute way of showing how increasingly comfortable Bobby is becoming in his own skin after being so hesitant when first confronted by his younger, time-displaced self about his feelings. But I bet poor Bobby is gonna have to send that text out to a few more times over the course of his current ongoing comic. Let’s hope not every response is as cheesy as Johnny Storm’s.