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So, last weekend I was reading a bunch of older X-Men issues again. Issues from when I just started reading X-Men comics. Back in 1997, when I was 13 years old. And the Operation: Zero Tolerance X-Men event just started…

I was totally into the X-Men animated tv-series and I was already reading Uncanny X-Men (not monthly, but just sometimes), but I started reading monthly (X-Men and Uncanny) when OZT started. That was sooo cool. In these issues, my first X-Men issues, the X-Men are attacked by huge improved hi-tech Prime Sentinels. Bastion, professional liar and the men behind OZT, is supported by the government when he starts capturing mutants. He first takes down a team of X-Men. Bastion captures Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jean and Cannonball. At the same time the other half of the X-Men team (Rogue, Gambit, Joseph, Bishop and Beast) is in outerspace dealing with the Shi’Ar and the Phalanx and later the trial of Gambit.

And at that moment the story of the lonely, funny and dramatic Iceman starts. He is in New York when all other X-Men are captured and in space. He knows what to do when the Sentinels start hunting mutants. Iceman starts protecting other mutants and he starts with the sexy doc Cecillia Reyes. They escape from the Sentinels and later team up with the dangerous morlock Marrow and secret agent Sabra (also chicks! Yeah, Iceman is surrounded by girls in these issues). Together they run from the Sentinels and they attack Bastion. Eventually the government and S.H.I.E.L.D. help Iceman and his team to stop Bastion and his mutant-hating operation. In the next issue Iceman, still with Cecillia and Marrow,  goes to the X-Men mansion. To find out Bastion took everything. Literally everything. Iceman don’t know what to do, Cecillia starts crying and Marrow is just being mad at everything… but all other X-Men arrive (from space and prison) and a new era begins.

Scott Lobdell wrote the story and the dialogues of Operation: Zero Tolerance and I can only say: he did a great job! I recommend these issue to everybody who’s into good comics (X-Men #65-70 it is!). He wrote the Iceman that I like A LOT. In some recent X-Men issues Iceman acts like a kid. He’s just making stupid jokes, and I know, he’s always making stupid jokes, but he can also be a leader. He is not just a clown anymore. That’s what Operation: Zero Tolerance showed us. That’s, to me, who Iceman really is. A funny, but serious and terrific X-Man.