There's one in every class: a joker with amazing gifts, but lacking the ambition to tap his true potential. One of Professor Charles Xavier's original students, Bobby Drake found out the hard way that he still had a lot to learn. But once he glimpsed the full extent of his mutant power to freeze water molecules, Iceman returned to the X-Men with evolution on his mind!

Real name: Robert "Bobby" Drake
Occupation: Adventurer, former accountant
Group affiliation: X-Men; formerly the Champions of Los Angeles, the Defenders and X-Factor
Base of operations: Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, Westchester County, New York
First appearance: X-Men (Vol. 1) #1 (1963)

Height: 5'8"
Weight: 145 lbs.
Eye color: Brown
Hair color: Brown

Powers: Iceman is able to lower his external and internal body temperature, thereby radiating intense cold. In addition, he can transform himself into ice at will and freeze any moisture in the air around him -- thus generating slides, shields, bats and other objects. He is immune to sub-zero temperatures.

Weapons: None

History: Bobby Drake discovered his mutant power to create ice while in his early teens, yet kept his condition hidden from everyone but his parents. When bullies attacked Bobby and his girlfriend, the youngster panicked. He temporarily encased their ringleader in ice, thus revealing his abilities for all to see. Believing the boy to be a menace, the townspeople organized a lynch mob. They broke into Bobby's home and overpowered him, but the local sheriff took the teenager into custody for his own protection. Meanwhile, the situation had come to the attention of telepath Charles Xavier -- mentor to the masked, mutant X-Men.

Professor X dispatched his first X-Man -- Cyclops, cursed with uncontrollable optic blasts -- to contact Bobby. Cyclops stole into the jailhouse as planned, but the two began fighting when Bobby refused to accompany him. Caught by the lynch mob, Cyclops and Bobby were about to be hanged when they broke free. Professor X used his psionic powers to halt the townspeople in their tracks and erase their memories of Bobby's abilities. A grateful Bobby then accepted Xavier's invitation to enroll at his School for Gifted Youngsters, home to a handful of troubled teenagers learning to control their strange powers...and fighting to preserve their teacher's dream of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.

Hated and feared by humanity, the X-Men honed their amazing abilities while standing in defense of a world pushed to the brink of genetic war by a handful of mutant terrorists. Iceman, the team's youngest founding member, became known as the comedian of the group. Regardless, he pulled his weight and worked well with rest of the X-Men. When the island-being known as Krakoa took Iceman and his teammates captive, Professor X assembled a second squad of X-Men. These new recruits rescued Xavier's original students, most of whom left the team soon after.

For a time, Bobby attempted to live a normal life. Eventually, he joined the Champions of Los Angeles -- a short-lived team of costumed adventurers founded by the high-flying Angel, Iceman's classmate at Xavier's school. When the Champions disbanded, Bobby went to college to study accounting. Later, he joined the Defenders -- originally a loose-knit collection of loners like the Incredible Hulk, green-skinned engine of mass destruction; Prince Namor, the Atlantean Sub-Mariner; Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts and Earth's Sorcerer Supreme; and the Silver Surfer, Lone Sentinel of the Spaceways. Iceman helped reorganize the team into a more formal and cohesive unit -- along with Angel and the blue-furred Beast, another of the Professor's original students. The Defenders disbanded when several of their members appeared to perish during a climactic battle.

Shortly after the Defenders' demise, Bobby joined the other founding X-Men to form X-Factor. During this period, the Asgardian trickster Loki increased Iceman's powers to such an extent that he was forced to wear a power-dampening belt. Once able only to sheathe his own body in a protective coating of ice, he now could encase the entirety of the Empire State Building. With time, Iceman gained sufficient control over his augmented powers that he was able to jettison the inhibitor belt. Believing he had achieved his full potential, Bobby never attempted to push himself beyond his perceived limits.

When Professor Xavier returned to Earth following an extended absence in outer space, Iceman and the other members of X-Factor rejoined the X-Men. Shortly thereafter, Iceman confronted former Cosmonaut Mikhail Rasputin, reality-warping brother of his steel-skinned teammate Colossus. Rasputin forced Bobby into a form composed entirely of ice, affording the young mutant a glimpse into his true nature. Subsequently, Bobby began experimenting with his abilities -- using ice to add mass to his slight frame, or lift himself high into the air without the benefit of his usual slides. Months later, the psychically incapacitated Emma Frost took mental possession of Iceman. Frost, the psionically powered mutant known as the White Queen, was able to activate the full extent of Bobby's powers. Until coaxed back into her own body by Professor Xavier, she pushed his form to the limit. With Frost's prodding, Iceman later learned to transform his body into its full-ice state on his own.

Two subsequent events served to shed further light on Iceman's untapped potential. To secure a new host body, the would-be conqueror Apocalypse sought to siphon the awesome energies of "The Twelve" -- mutants of incredible power, destined to alter the course of human history. Among their number was Iceman, who survived the ordeal thanks only to the apparent sacrifice of Cyclops. A second defining event occurred when the sentient spaceship Prosh escaped the confines of a Celestial prison, returned to Earth and dispatched a group of disparate beings on a journey through time to uncover the keys to preserving human evolution. Their mission: Save the human race from a threat that might not manifest itself for millions of years. When Prosh reassembled the members of his team in the present, they fought and defeated the enigmatic alien entity known as the Stranger, who sought to control the natural evolution of humans and mutants. These experiences forced Iceman into the realization that he no longer need fear the evolution of his abilities, and he returned to the X-Men to explore his mutant powers to the fullest.