I think the thing that is frustrating for people isn't that he is gay or whatever, it is the ret-conning of the story. Bobby clearly wasn't gay, he had a thing for Rogue at one point and in 50 years he has had a number of other girlfriends. I don't remember, as it was a while since I read them, but in the first X-men comics all four of the boys were running after Miss Grey.
For me it is annoying. It is less annoying than when they brought Elektra back. I'd imagine that was less annoying than when they brought Jean Grey back.
The neat thing about comic books is that there is a story and it goes a long way back.
I remember when I first started reading them that there would be those little * that would lead to the bottom of the panel where it would say "* see issue 125" or whatever.
You'd be aware of there being a bigger thing, that there was a history here, that something came before this and it was important and it had an impact on what is happening right now.
There was something to unravel and if you got that back issue you would find out the story.
With them changing characters like this it is difficult to have that feeling. Whether they are gay now or alive or a Skrull secret agent all along it robs that past of some of its meaning.
In the 70s it seems like they had some awareness that there weren't enough black characters in comics. So they made some attempts to put them in. Say what you will about the attempts, they were new characters designed to fit in.
They didn't just have someone become black.
In the movies they have made several characters black that weren't black originally. Where they haven't made a big deal out of it it didn't matter. Does anyone care that Deadshot is being played by a black guy? Not really.
They might care that he is being played by Will Smith. I do, while I like Will Smith I would hate for Suicide Squad to become a Will Smith movie. I like Will Smith movies too, even Will Smith superhero movies, but I think Suicide Squad should be an ensemble film.
A little off topic there, sorry.
No, it doesn't make Iceman less of a super hero because he is gay, but it does change a lot of history for a lot of people. That history is a lot of what makes the story for many of them.
To betray all of that for a gimmick seems cheap.
I understand why they are doing it. They want to sell comic books and generating controversy is a way to do it.
It just isn't a way to sell them to me anymore.
It is funny these days that the movies and TV are doing a better job of preserving the history, despite their changes, than the comic books themselves.
After many years of being hopeless at making good super hero films or TV they finally are really starting to nail it.