Stan Lee seemed surprised to find out this X-Men character is gay
Comic book legend Stan Lee appears to have been surprised during an interview to find out that the character Iceman is gay.
Marvel announced earlier this year that the character Iceman, one of the original X-Men, would be coming out as gay.
However the character’s creator, Stan Lee, told the BBC he was not involved in the decision, and until the interviewer told him, he had not known. 
He said: “I wasn’t involved in that – that may have been after i stopped writing the books. I didn’t really have any gay characters, I didn’t play up the fact that they were gay. I wasn’t aware of it. You’re telling me it is the first I’ve heard about it.”
“I don’t care what happens, as long as they tell good stories, and they do,” he went on.
The X-Men franchise has often dealt with issues of discrimination and oppression, with many similarities to LGBT rights struggles. The story of the “Legacy Virus” that only affects mutants is seen by many to be an allegory to the HIV crisis.
In X2, Iceman comes out as mutant to his parents, in a scene that strongly echoes coming out as LGBT.
Out gay director Bryan Singer directed three of the X-Men films, which starred Sir Ian McKellan as villain Magneto. It has been confirmed Sir Ian, along with long-time friend and colleague Sir Patrick Stewart, will not be returning to the franchise.
Lee in July poured cold water on suggestions that the superhero Spider Man should be bisexual in a future movie.
The 90-year-old joked that “one sex is enough for anyone” at the Fandomfest event in Louisville, Kentucky, at the weekend.
