Love Triangle

As manipulative as Moondragon could be, sometimes she was right. Take for example a biting remark she made about Iceman's attitudes toward women (New Defenders #132).

Moondragon: Mr. Drake, if you continue to demonstrate your subconscious hostility towards women, I'm afraid you'll never emerge from adolescence.

Although Iceman did not see himself this way, a pattern of chauvinism played out in his reactions toward Cloud. All of the New Defenders were startled at first when Cloud initially transformed from the woman they originally met (#123) into the form of a man (#136). Yet Iceman was particularly brusque whenever Cloud became male.

Iceman wanted to pursue a romantic relationship with the female Cloud and treated her male self as interference. The fact that Cloud typically was nude when transforming back and forth undoubtably made the situation all the more complicated for Iceman.

What Iceman couldn't fully accept, however, was that Cloud's female and male selves saw themselves as the same person—and that, male or female, Cloud's feelings toward Iceman were merely platonic.

In many ways, the situation with Cloud harked back to Iceman's earlier disappointment with Lorna Dane. During his time with the original X-Men, Iceman couldn't accept that Lorna Dane loved Havok instead of him. Rather, Iceman blamed Havok for interfering with his potential relationship.

This image of Cloud and Iceman comes from New Defenders #138.