Whoof. Ok.
Warning: I am about to get as close to narrow-minded straight dude comicsgator-y as I can get, and I apologize.
I don’t accept Iceman as gay. Moreso, I don’t accept the circumstances or the story in which he is outed. I understand the narrative of closested person finally coming to grips with who they are, and it’s a very real experience and story that can and should be told. It just goes against what his characterization since Day 1 has been. Not that I’m opposed to change, but also, I’m opposed to change. But also also, I think I’m just opposed to the sloppy, awful way it was handled, adding the “past X-Men in the present” and having the past younger Bobby being forced out, and then having to have the adult present Bobby reconcile it… I dunno. It chaffed me.
Listen, I’m fully self-aware enough to know that Iceman is a personal favorite of mine since childhood, since the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends days. I realize that there is a part of me feeling like I own part of this character, and it’s been taken away from me in a way I don’t care for.
Look, if it had been adult Bobby coming to the realization on his own, forced or not, and we skipped all the timey-wimey bullshit mess of that era of the X-Men, I’d probably be way more accepting of it.
So, I’m just gonna blame Bendis mostly, and then my own prejudices secondly.
I’m sorry.