A Little Ice

As we all know by now, Tora Olafsdottir, better known as Ice from the old Justice League, is alive and back and fighting the good fight. She's a little hesitant about leaping into Guy's arms right away, and really who can blame her? Well, actually I did for a bit, but last night I started going through ALL of my old "Warriors" issues.

Surprise, surprise, I had rather forgotten, that for quite a while there, Guy and Ice hadn't been getting along at all. This was of course, back in Guy's brain-dead days, and even though he did love her, he wasn't a particularly good boy friend. Their dates were occasionally on the bizarre side, he ignored her feelings far too often, and even had this habit of knocking her over or down the stairs on occasion.

Then she had her little schoolgirl crush on Superman. Needless to say, this didn't go over particularly well with Guy. I can't really blame him, however, because I noticed that during this particular time period when Superman joined the JLI, he was JUST as obnoxious as Batman. He ordered everybody around and was rather full of himself.

Then Guy lost his Green Lantern ring and a whole lot of self-esteem, and went a bit off of the rails. More than usual anyway, and Ice seemed to be finding it increasingly difficult to be supportive. Really, Guy WAS being an absolute jackass for a while there.

Then, she left to go back home, and find herself a little bit, and they ran into all that trouble with her evil brother. At least she has that in common with Guy! This is the point I believe, where her powers began to increase. Ice had certainly never been one of the heavyweights in the Justice League, her ice powers were ...cute perhaps, and she provided a lot of heart and some much-needed innocence, at least in contrast to all the rampaging egos around her. Now all of a sudden, she could DO stuff. I thought that it was a welcome development.

But it wasn't until I was reading GG:Warrior #19, that I was rather startled to discover that suddenly, Ice could fly! I didn't remember her being able to fly before! This is the issue where she's off feeding seals, and Guy, wearing a prototype armor that he borrowed from Beetle, goes off to find her, and tell her that he's changed. And he has, he's even apologizing and doing his level best to be nice. Ice is starting to weaken a little bit, when Guy's evil brother Mace shows up, in his Militia guise.

Guy's armor can't stand up to the beating that Militia is dishing out, and he can't use his yellow ring, because for some reason it's on the fritz. He's getting the stuffing knocked out of him, when Ice jumps in, and FLIES off and starts handing some whup-ass on Militia! My sweet little Ice! Of course Militia smacks her around pretty good,which ticks Guy off something fierce, and then lo and behold his ring comes back...with a vengeance! This is all apart of the Emerald Fallout story arc, which eventually leads to Hal as Parallax spanking Guy and most of the Justice League. Then while Guy is in a coma, and then in the Nabba jungle looking for new powers, Ice goes off and gets killed by the Overmaster.

So, she really only had her increased level of powers for a short time. What I want to know, is she still at this level, now that she's back? I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she could be flying with all of the Green Lanterns, or why she's off with Guy, Fire and Booster in the coming issue with the new Blue Beetle, but if she really CAN fly now, and her ice powers are at their higher level...well that makes her a pretty darned good addition to any superhero team, doesn't it?

I am glad that they put her back in her old costume, with the furry boots and the long sleeves and little white crop-top. The one that she was wearing when she was killed was a little on the egregious side. The cape was nice, but of all people, Tora should NOT have her breasts hanging out, and a decolletage cut down to her navel. It...it's just wrong.

I do hope that Mr. Tomassi is going to address the power level of Ice, and we can get some resolution on her relationship with Guy. 'Cause it's Tora...and who doesn't like Tora?