In 2015, X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis decided it was time for Iceman to come out of the closet. Well, actually, he had to come out twice, because Bendis wrote the time-displaced teenage Iceman’s coming out in All-New X-Men #40, then had to confirm that “our” adult Iceman was also gay in Uncanny X-Men #600. It was a whole thing.

While this was a welcome development for LGBT fans who’d insisted there were hints and clues all over the place for years that Iceman was gay, this was still a fairly major character revelation, if not a retcon, of a character who’d had more than 50 years of published appearances by that point. Did it really make sense with his previous depictions?

On this question, I’m gonna take as guidance what Paul O’Brien wrote about the House of X Moira retcon on his House to Astonish blog: It doesn’t really matter, as long as it feels like it makes sense. And yet, if nothing else, this revelation changes the way Iceman’s old stories will be read going forward. So, to what extent does it fit?

To that end, in this series of blog posts, I’m going to read through Iceman’s previously published appearances and report on how the knowledge that he’s gay changes the story, if at all. And to what extent was there actually something there, buried deep down, that was brought to light in 2015?

There’s a LOT of material to go through. I’m going to follow roughly publishing order on a thematic basis, rather than go through strict chronological order, since I’m trying to assemble Iceman’s published history, rather than his personal chronology. So I’m going to start with 1963’s X-Men #1 and work forward, rather than starting with the roughly 60 or so issues of chronologically earlier appearances the Marvel Chronology Project records – but don’t worry, we’ll get back to them.

I’ll also be skipping non-continuity appearances in books like What If…? and Ultimate X-Men or inter-company crossovers. And since this is also partly a big chronological re-read of the X-Men line as a whole, this will also have some notes and thoughts along the way about the wider continuity, especially queer themes that crop up along the way.

So, without further ado, let’s begin:

Chapter 1: Lee/Kirby Part 1
Chapter 2: Lee/Kirby Part 2
Chapter 3: The Roy Thomas Era (1966-1968)
Chapter 4: The End of the Silver Age (1968-1970)
Chapter 5: Origins and Flashbacks Part 1
Chapter 6: Silver Age Flashbacks Part 2
Chapter 7: X-Men: First Class Vol 1
Chapter 8: X-Men: First Class Vol 2 Part 1
Chapter 10: The Hidden Years
Chapter 11: X-Men on Hiatus (1970-75)
Chapter 12: The Champions Part 1 (1975-76)
Chapter 13: The End of the Champions (1977-78)
Chapter 14: The College Years (1978-83)
Chapter 15: The New Defenders Part 1 (1983-84)
Chapter 16: The New Defenders Part 2 (1984-85)
Chapter 17: The End of the New Defenders (1985-86)