Iceman (1st series) #2

Issue Date: 
February 1985
Story Title: 
Instant Karma !
Staff: 

J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Alan Kupperberg (penciler), Mike Gustovich (inker), Janice Chiang (letterer), Bob Sharen (colorist), Bob Budiansky (editor), Jim Shooter (editor in chief)

Brief Description: 

Oblivion destroys the Idiot and White Light for not successfully completing their mission. He then calls Kali and her army to track down their prey. Meanwhile the Sergeant of the police headquarters thanks Iceman for helping in the battle against the two villains earlier. As Iceman sleds over the Smith’s destroyed house he notices an interesting box that they had not noticed from before. Iceman decides to keep it and investigate it later. Though as Iceman enters through his bedroom window his parents are waiting on him and give him a stern talking to for bringing such shame to their family. After they leave, Bobby thinks of how he would like to see his parents when they were his age. Without knowing it though, Bobby was touching the box he had in his hand and it whisks him away to 1942 where he meets the same mutant hate like in the present. A police officer officer with the last name Ratchit shoots Iceman in the shoulder. As Iceman stumbles down an alleyway he faints in front of a doorway. When he wakes up he finds that William and Maddy, his still young parents (William is 22 and Maddy is 17) have taken care of him and bandaged his wounds. Later that evening they three discuss their dreams and hopes for the future. Bobby is surprised to hear their dreams and secretly cries for the love he now feels for his parents. Kali and her troops attack and Iceman forms a shield around his parents and pushes Kali to the streets below to keep his parents safe. Kali is holding Iceman ready to kill him when William rushes to Iceman’s side bringing the bounce-box that Iceman had found from earlier. Realizing the bounce-box could lead her to Marge, Kali orders her troops to take the box from William. He senses that the box is important and so it would not go to the wrong person he drops the box on the ground. The troopers get mad and smash William against the apartment wall. Iceman is watching all this, and almost being killed himself, he breaks free and freezes the troopers and tries to save his father. Meanwhile in 1892 Marge has bounced herself back to the past and she has been watching all that is transpiring with Iceman. Her family talks her into helping, which she finally does revealing herself to Kali and transporting them away to where she is and saving Iceman. In the end though William dies in Maddy’s arms and Iceman, who realizes if William died in 1942 then he never existed, fades away into oblivion himself.

Full Summary: 

“Somewhere that has no time or place, beyond the ken of mortals…” Oblivion waves his hand destroying his assistants White Light and The Idiot. Oblivion then calls for his other assistant Kali and tells her that if she fails, her fate will be the same as the other two. Kali informs Oblivion that failure is not her “way”. Kali has four arms one carries a sword, the other a mace, another a spear, and her fourth holds the reigns of her giant flying spider. She leads an army of Oblivion’ soldiers in search of her prey.
In Port Jefferson, Long Island, in the police station the Sergeant is shaking Iceman’s hand and thanking him for defeating those two “commie’s”. Iceman tells the Sergeant that if he hears from the Smiths that he wants the Sergeant to phone the “New Defenders Headquarters immediately”. Officer Ralph Ratchit taunts Iceman as he walks out of the headquarters saying how Iceman’s kind only attracts filth to the city. Iceman gets mad and throws an ice-ball in the officer’s face.
(recap of last issue)

Iceman remembers the events leading to his being at the jail. Iceman remembers his fight with his dad when Joel tried to talk him out of quitting college. Then he remembers meeting Marge and how great she made him feel. Though he remembers also the two villains coming in and ruining his date and even after he had defeated the two. The Smiths disappeared and so did the villains.
(present)

Iceman sleds over the damaged house and notices a black box in the wreckage and picks it up to examine it later. As Iceman lands inside his bedroom window his mom and dad are waiting on him. Madelaine Drake is crying worried about her son and William Drake is just mad because now all of the neighborhood and his family know about Bobby’s secret. William really lets Bobby have it calling him a “stupid kid” and that he never listens to them. William leaves the room and Bobby tries to continue the fight and follow his dad but his mom stops him. She tells Bobby that his father’s heart is not up to the stress Bobby puts on them and she begs him to stop killing William. Bobby remembers the time and looks at a picture of him when he was three with his parents and all of them at the beach. Bobby remembers about what he thought of his parent’s back then like they were some sort of Gods. Then the weird black box starts making noises and suddenly Bobby disappears from the room he was in.
(Somewhere in England, 1892)

Marge, who is calling herself Margaret now, walks into her cabin with her family sitting at the kitchen table. Margaret tells the family members they need to get out and enjoy the beautiful day. The family agrees but just then an alarm sounds off and Walter runs to check on what’s a matter and he sees Bobby trapped in time and he realizes that they had accidentally left a bounce-box in 1984 where they were last. Margaret’s family tries to convince her to help Bobby because he does not know how to even use the device and he might bounce himself out of existence. Margaret demands them to be silent or she will bounce them out of existence as well.
(In New York ,1942)

Bobby appears on the sidewalk and a police officer confronts him asking him why he is running around in his underwear. Bobby asks to know what year he is in and the officer tells him “1942 of course”. Bobby then turns into Iceman and sleds off to get away from the police officer. The officer though gets scared and pulls out his gun aiming it for Iceman and telling Iceman that “Huntz Ratchit’s bringing you in.” He shoots Iceman through the shoulder causing him to drop the bounce-box. Iceman swoops down to get it, turns back into Bobby and stumbles through the alleyway. Bobby wonders if all of this is not just another hallucination and faints in front of a doorway.
Bobby wakes up to see his younger father and mother’s faces. William tells Bobby to lie still that his Maddy is a nurse in training and she will fix him right up. Maddy tells Bobby though if it was not for William she would have turned him into the cops and Bobby thanks William for his help. Even William though tells Bobby he does not know why he saved him just that Bobby reminds him of William’s younger brother Georgie who was killed a couple of months back in the war. William says that he enlisted but the army would not take him because of his heart murmur. William starts to get depressed and he wonders why his little brother had to die and not him. Maddy tries to comfort him and Bobby decides that it would be best if he just left and to take his radio (the bounce-box) with him. William says that he knows Bobby is in trouble and he wants to help him any way he can. Bobby tells them he does not think anyone can help him and he feels so scared. Maddy even begs Bobby to stay telling him that for some reason she to feels the need to help him. Bobby fights the need to run into the seventeen-year-old Madelaine Bass, arms and cry “Mom get me out of this nightmare”. Bobby and his parents then sit down and discuss their dreams and their fears for hours and Bobby comes to the realization that these two people are not just his parents but their flesh and blood humans to. As morning comes Bobby feels a dam of emotions open up and he knows now that he loves these two people more than anything.
Just then Bobby looks out of the window to see Kali and her army riding their flying spiders coming closer to the building he is in. Bobby transforms into Iceman and erects a shield just in enough time to save him and his parents because Kali comes crashing through the apartment wall. Iceman encases Kali in shackles of ice and tries to remove her from the building in order to protect his parents. While he is doing this though he realizes that these people are not after him, they’re after Marge and he wonders who Marge is and where she could be. Kali tells Iceman that she does not know if he is the one she seeks but no matter Kali will destroy him. Just then the flying spider Kali was riding on shoots a laser beam from its harness destroying the shackles Iceman had holding Kali.
(England, 1892)

Margaret (Marge) is watching with her family all that is transpiring in 1942 and sees Bobby in trouble. Her family tells her she needs to do something or Iceman will die but she keeps saying she can not help him.
(New York, 1942)

William is telling Maddy that Bobby just saved their lives by luring Kali away and he has to find some way to help Iceman. Maddy tells William that they do not even know what Bobby turned into but both assume it has to be something to do with the war. William finds Iceman’s bounce-box on the floor and assumes it must be some kind of weapon and he heads off to give it to Iceman. Maddy begs him not to go but he does anyway.
Iceman is fighting Kali on the streets of New York and Iceman is telling Kali he does not know why she is after Marge or where she is. Iceman thinks to himself though that the bounce-box sent him back to 1942 because when he was touching it he wanted to see his parents when they were his age. As Iceman’s attention is distracted Kali is able to sneak up and capture Iceman in her four arms. Though once she grabs him, she is able to sense that he is human and “not one of her creations“. She says if he tells her where Marge is she will spare his life. Just then William runs in and brings the bounce-box to Iceman. Kali though realizing William has the box, sends her army after him and they swoop down and pick him up, but William not wanting them to get the box drops it to the ground breaking it. The troops get mad at him and throw him into the side of a building. As the troops pick William up ready to throw him against the wall once more, Iceman breaks free of Kali’s grasp and puts the army on ice, swooping down to save his father. In the sky above Kali, Marge’s face appears calling Kali an “idiot” and telling her to step through the doorway Marge had just created and come after her and leave Bobby alone. Which without hesitation Kali and her minions fly into the doorway after Marge.
Bobby holds his father in his lap, as William is having delusions calling Bobby George and telling him to take care of Maddy. William asks Maddy to hold his hand and William dies in her arms. Maddy cries saying how all this is Bobby’s fault and how her and William were going to get married. Bobby thinks to himself of how impossible it is for all this to happen because in 1944 William and Maddy were supposed to get married. In 1959 Bobby was supposed to be born but if all that never happened that means Bobby was never born. As Bobby fades into black he thinks all these things, and then Bobby himself is no more.

Characters Involved: 

Iceman

William and Madelaine Drake

Ralph Ratchit, a cop
Oblivion

White Light

The Idiot

Kali
In the past, 1942 :

William Drake

Madelaine Bass

Huntz Ratchit
Transported to the past, 1892 :

Margaret Smith / Marge Smith

Walter Smith

The Smiths

Mrs. Bronte

Story Notes: 
Issue Information: 
Written By: