Picture: Marvel Comics)

Marvel Comics chairman Stan Lee didn’t know that one of his own superhero creations was gay.

Bobby Drake, AKA Iceman, was created by and artist Jack Kirby and made his first Marvel appearance in The X-Men #1, September 1963, but in April 2015, in issue 40 of All-New X-Men, writer Brian Michael Bendis decided it was time for him to come out.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lee was informed of this character’s sexuality, and was pretty surprised to hear it.

‘You telling me that, is the first I’ve heard that Iceman is gay, is Iceman really gay?’ he asks. ‘I don’t read the magazines anymore because my eyesight isn’t that good and the print is so small. As I said this is the first time I learned that Iceman is gay.’


Hear what happened when we outed Marvel superhero Iceman to his creator, Stan Lee. https://t.co/cRikrvwgva — BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) November 18, 2015

Stan added: ‘Wow! I never knew that. I don’t care what happens as long as they tell good stories.’



In the X-Men films, Bobby is been played by Shawn Ashmore and his character has had relationships with both Rogue (Anna Paquin) and Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page).

Maybe if he makes an appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse, Iceman will be romancing one of the X-Men this time around.

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