Warning! Spoilers ahead for Marvel’s Voices: Iceman Infinity Comic #3!
One of the original five members of the X-Men, Bobby Drake aka Iceman, has risen to godlike power, courtesy of Loki. Iceman has been an Omega-level mutant for years, and per the newest qualifications for a mutant to be considered Omega-level, Iceman's powers have no discernible upper limit. However, the potential of a person's ability and their actual usage of them are not one and the same, making Bobby's new twist on an ice deity all the more intriguing.
Iceman's upgrade takes place in Marvel’s Voices: Iceman #3, the newest issue in an ongoing Infinity Comic for Marvel Unlimited from Luciano Vecchio, VC's Joe Sabino, and Sarah Brunstad. Thus far Vecchio's art style and tone of writing are pitch perfect for a Bobby solo series, as the X-Men member navigates romantic antics and family drama against the backdrop of his superheroic exploits. Rather than letting Bobby get frozen in the layers of feelings he's experiencing about rekindled romance with his ex-boyfriend and complex grief over his father passing away, Iceman #3 transports Bobby to a dynamic team-up with Loki.
Loki, Marvel's resident bisexual gender-fluid God of Outcasts and Mischief, is trapped and needs Iceman's help. Not only that, but they must defeat a magical amalgamation of their fathers. Bobby has faced down frost giants before, but never has he gone up against the strength of their late king Laufey, who happens to be Loki's father. Furthermore, Iceman has to fight the king-sized frost giant that's fused with his homophobic and mutantphobic dad. Loki, who’s still trapped, lends Bobby his godly crown and a wizard staff, which gives the Omega-level mutant a deity-sized power up just in the knick of time.
With a temporary Asgardian-themed redesign, Bobby saves himself and Loki by utterly destroying the frost giant creature. In the end Loki reveals his staff and crown were just props, proving that Bobby is basically an ice god based on his own strength alone. Technically though, Loki uses the props to instill a confidence in Iceman that lets him utilize his god-level abilities. This team up touches on one of the significant themes of mutantkind in the Krakoan era: where is the distinction between mutant and divine? In Jonathan Hickman, Marte Gracia, VC's Clayton Cowles, and Jordan D. White's House of X #1, Magneto proclaims to human government ambassadors, "You have new gods now." With mutants as powerful as himself, Iceman, Storm and so many others it is hard not to see where Magneto is coming from.
Even as Bobby has ascended to godlike heights in expressing his mutant gift, Krakoan innovation propels all of mutantkind toward the status of divinity as well. It is this blurring of lines that causes Nightcrawler to interrogate mutant spirituality over in Legion of X from Si Spurrier and Jan Bazaldua. Further still, the deity-esque rank of mutantkind is also a motivating factor for the Eternals' oncoming antagonism toward the mutants of Krakoa in the upcoming Judgment Day event by Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti. Loki may have caused Iceman's ascension to godhood, but many other X-Men may not be far behind him.
Marvel’s Voices: Iceman #3 is available now on Marvel Unlimited.