ICE BOY
ICE BOY
Real Name: Hamish Alain Carlyle (see comments)
Identity/Class: Human mutate; formerly human
Occupation: S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, combat specialist attached to rapid response unit
Group Membership: Task Force (Argento/Michele Argento, Blue Condor/Emilie Scholz, Dragonfly/Cornelia van der Valk, Tiger/Hughes Aït-Kaci)
Affiliations: Director François Borillon, Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan, EuroLab (Danger/Dolph Dongen, Deep Sight/Jane Melville, Key/Geyr Kluge, Nuage/Silvie Rouge, Picaro/Antonio Rey), EuroMind, European Union, Moloid Subterraneans, Salomé, S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate) European Branch, Moloid Subterraneans
Enemies: A.I.M., Lords of War (Kaneda, Oda, Sakuragi, others), S.H.A.P.E. (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) Commission, "Skrullified" subterranean Inhumans
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: EuroMind base, Spain
First Appearance: Europa#0 (April 1996)
Powers/Abilities: Exceedingly muscular, suggesting bodybuilding
and peak human strength, Iceboy was a highly trained combatant. Presumably
skilled both in hand-to-hand combat and a variety of weapons, in the brief
period we saw him prior to being mutated, he was only shown using one weapon,
a massive beltfed firearm.
Iceboy (and presumably his teammates) had a biochip implant that allowed his position to be tracked. Its range was unrevealed, but was sufficient to be detectable when he was within several hundred meters, but not the approximately 11,000 kilometers (6850 miles) between Spain and Malaysia.
After being mutated, Iceboy's height and musculature was massively increased to an unrevealed but presumably superhuman level (see comments). He also possessed claws and fangs.
Height: (human) 5'4"; (mutate) 7'6" (both by
approximation)
Weight: (human) 155 lbs.; (mutate) 500 lbs. (both by
approximation)
Eyes: (human) Brown; (mutate) solid yellow (no visible pupil or sclera)
Hair: (human) Black; (mutate) black beard, but bald head. His lumpy
head may indicate that head hair had fused into hardened keratin protrusions,
similar to rhino-horn.
History: (Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#4, Euroforce entry) - Alain Hamish Carlyle served with the Canadian Special Forces, picking up the nickname/codename Iceboy.
(Europa#0/text (fb) - BTS) - Iceboy was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D.
(Europa#4/2 (fb)) - Iceboy worked alongside and befriended Dum Dum Dugan.
(Europa#0/text (fb) - BTS) - Iceboy joined Task Force, a team of "intervention-ready" combat specialists led by Dragonfly. They were loaned to a European section of the agency called EuroMind, assigned to provide security and acting in emergencies as a rapid-response unit. EuroMind (and Task Force) were based in a secret location in Spain. Task Force was sometimes instructed to protect EuroMind's scientific research group, EuroLab.
(Europa#0/2) - EuroLab were sent to an archeological site in Spain to investigate alleged monster sightings, with Task Force assigned to provide back-up if it proved necessary. EuroLab descended into the caverns via a natural crevasse, and were attacked both by Moloid Subterraneans and by unidentified monsters. Task Force were deployed, dropping down into the caverns and into the fray. Task Force ignored the protestations of EuroLab's Danger about their use of lethal force, gunning down the monsters, but Nuage, EuroLab's telepath, shouted to them that the Subterraneans were not hostile, merely frightened and disoriented. Accepting this, and with more monsters than they could handle anyway, Task Force began defending the Subterraneans too, gunning down the monsters attacking them. Reaching out telepathically, Nuage convinced the Subterraneans that the monsters were a common enemy. Despite this, the heroes and Subterraneans risked being overwhelmed as more and more creatures arrived. Detecting thirty more creatures inbound, but also fresh air that hinted at an exit to the surface, they fled to another part of the caverns. The creatures pursued, and Dragonfly ordered Iceboy to join her in targeting a rock arch they had passed through. He did so, but noted that the arch seemed too solid for gunshots to bring down. With this in mind, and inspired by a comment Key made, Dragonfly switched to explosive rounds, and blew up the arch in an impressive pyrotechnic display.
Afterwards EuroLab and Task Force discovered inscriptions explaining that the "monsters" were descendants of Inhumans who had been captured by the Spanish Inquisition, and thrown into the gorge to die. A few survived the fall, and, unable to escape the caves, scraped a living, eating whatever they could find. Then the Inquisition dropped another group of "demons" into the precipice; the remains of a crashed Skrull ship and its crew. Eating the dead Skrulls caused a mutagenic change in the remaining Inhumans, driving them insane, and they had degenerated into a colony of predators.
(Europa#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Across Europe, there were several reported incidents of individuals undergoing spontaneous mutations, but the mutations always vanished before EuroMind could find them. When a report came in of a similar mutation incident taking place in Kuantan, the capital of the Pahang district of peninsular Malaysia, EuroMind tapped into local sources, including radar. A U.F.O. was detected, just as reports from the market announced the mutate's abrupt disappearance, but vanished near Mount Mulu, Sarawak (a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo). Task Force were swiftly deployed to investigate.
(Europa#1/2) - On the Malacan peninsula near Mount Mulu,
Task Force found plane wreckage with the insignia of French multinational
Nadir, Inc. With Tiger suspecting a trap, Dragonfly instructed Iceboy and
Blue Condor to patrol the perimeter, warning them that the team was in a
"hot zone." Blue Condor and Iceboy fanned out away from one another, but
Iceboy's instincts warned him that something was wrong. He checked Blue Condor's
location via radio, unaware of a red-armored figure (Oda) silently descending
from the sky and taking up position behind him. Spotting the threat, Blue
Condor raced to Iceboy's aid, though she responded to his radio call to say
she had not moved, presumably trying to avoid alerting the armored man of her imminent
arrival. The armored man charged up his left fist to strike, and Blue Condor
informed Iceboy over the comms that his nervousness was justified, completing
the sentence in person as she suddenly smashed into the would-be ambusher,
her timely intervention surprising and saving Iceboy. As the armored man
climbed back to his feet, wiping his jaw where he had been struck, Blue Condor
shouted to Iceboy to warn the others they were facing an Iron Man-wannabe.
Disparaging the comparison with "that two-bit Avenger" the armored figure
declared himself a Lord of War, and smashed Blue Condor to the ground with
a sudden lunge. Looming over the stunned woman, the Lord of War charged up
both fists with energy and told his victim that it was time to send her to
her god. As the energy flared, a horrified Iceboy screamed "no!" and opened
fire...
(Europa#1/2 - BTS) - and Blue Condor was killed by a shot to the head. Iceboy's retaliation proved ineffective, and he, too, was shot. Hit in the back, he was rendered unconscious.
(Europa#1/2) - Hearing the sounds of battle, the remaining members of Task Force raced to their friends' aid, but arrived to find a trio of armored Asian figures looming over their fallen comrades, with steam still rising from Iceboy's back and Blue Condor's head where they had been blasted. Swiftly realizing they were outgunned, the rest of Task Force escaped through a teleportation portal opened by Argento, though Dragonfly was fatally wounded, and they were forced to leave behind their fallen comrades.
(Europa#2/2 (fb) - BTS) - The Lords of War delivered the captured Iceboy to A.I.M. for experimentation.
(Europa#2/2 - BTS) - Back at EuroMind's Spanish research center, Tiger informed Key that he was sure Iceboy had been alive at the time Task Force had been forced to flee.
(Europa#2/2) - Meanwhile, somewhere in the Malay peninsula, Iceboy's captors attempts at reanimating him proved successful, and Iceboy began to wake up, feeling like he had been hit by a truck. He found himself unable to open his eyes, and became confused as to his whereabouts, recalling lots of light, shots and the forest.
Alerted by sensors monitoring Iceboy's brain activity, his captors intravenously injected tranquilizers to put him back to sleep, and entered the final phase of their experiment.
(Europa#3/2) - Euroforce, the team formed by Task Force's survivors
joining EuroLab, ignored orders to drop the case, evaded EuroMind forces
instructed to assassinate them, and went rogue.
Having deduced that French multinational Nadir Inc. was behind recent events, they snuck into a Nadir research facility on a private island in Malaysia, following Deep Sight's tracking of Iceboy's biochip.
Discovering A.I.M. agents within, Key ordered the team to split up, sending the others to break into the facility's computer archives while he and Tiger searched for Iceboy.
Detected as they progressed deeper into the secret underground facility beneath the research center, Key and Tiger narrowly made it to the lab where Iceboy was being held, sealing the doors behind themselves to buy a few moments respite from their heavily armed pursuers.
To their shock and horror, they found their missing comrade visible within a clear container of greenish fluid, his still-human face barely recognizable atop a monstrously mutated body.
(Europa#4/2) - Key tried to stablize Iceboy's condition so he could be released
without risking killing him, but A.I.M. security forces breached the doors
before he could do so and opened fire.
Tiger and Key ducked for cover, and the shots instead shattered the container, freeing that mutated Iceboy. Having entered an area beyond their meagre clearance, the security men paused, unsure what they were facing, and Tiger called to his friend to get to cover.
In
response one of the A.I.M. agents shot Tiger; but seeing the bullet strike
his friend stirred up memories in the mutate's dizzy mind, recalling his
past in S.H.I.E.L.D. , the recent death of his teammates, and his own capture.
Sensing that his unintentional release meant he only had seconds to live,
Iceboy surrendered to rage and ripped the A.I.M. agents to pieces before
collapsing.
Kneeling beside his fallen comrade, Tiger swore to Key that someone would pay for all his friends' deaths.
Arriving moments later, Argento was similarly distressed to see Iceboy's fate. Euroforce then fled to fight another day, leaving behind Iceboy's corpse.
Comments: Created by Xavier Marturet and Paco Diaz for Marvel Italia.
Iceboy's nationality and true name were revealed in Euroforce's updated entry in the hardcover handbooks. However, while working on his entry for the Appendix, I noticed a previously overlooked moment when Tiger calls out to the mutated Iceboy, saying "Alain!" Alain is usually a given name, but can also be a surname, so he's presumably Alain Hamish Carlyle, Hamish Alain Carlyle, or Hamish Carlyle Alain. Given the Scottish (Hamish) and French (Alain) names, he might be of mixed Nova Scotian and French Quebec ancestry.
After being mutated, he gained green skin (as did other mutates created alongside him, but not the one encountered by Danger near Italy). This might suggest that A.I.M. had started throwing gamma radiation into the mix, and certainly Iceboy's appearance has echoes both of the Hulk's exaggerated musculature and Abomination's reptilian skin. If this is the case, then his enhanced strength might potentially have been as high as theirs.
Between his mutated physique and the cursory inspection his teammates
made of his "corpse," it wouldn't be a stretch to discover Iceboy was still
alive or could have been easily revived by A.I.M.s scientists after Euroforce
fled.
Profile by Wolfhead and Loki, with invaluable aid from comic translator Angelo Mammone
CLARIFICATIONS:
Character name has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
All images from Europa issues, 2nd (Euroforce) stories:
#1, p10, panel 1 (main)
#0, p16, panel 4 (human headshot)
#4, p11, panel 3 (Iceboy and Dum Dum Dugan)
#3, p22, panel 1 (mutated Iceboy in container)
#4, p10, panel 1 (mutated Iceboy confronts A.I.M.)
#4, p10, panel 2 (mutated headshot)
#4, p12, panel 1 (Tiger mourns Iceboy and swears revenge)
#4, p11, panel 1 (headshot - mutated and human)
Appearances:
Euroforce#0-5 (April-October, 1996) - Xavier Marturet (writer),
Paco Diaz (art), Enrico Fornaroli; Marco M. Lupoi; Miguel Carrasco
(editors)
First Posted: 02/11/18
Last updated: 02/11/18
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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