A leaked comic has confirmed that one of the original five X-Men, will come out as gay.

Due to be released this week, All-New X-Men #40, confirms that Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, is gay

The comic series centres around the five young original X-Men (Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Jean Grey) who time travel to the present day and fight alongside new members of the team.

In the new issue, Iceman makes a comment about their female professor’s “incredible hotness”, and gets pulled aside by psychic Jean Grey.

She questions why he says things like that – and reveals the she knows he is gay.

They discuss the fact that they have met Iceman’s older self, who is not gay, and Bobby suggests:

Maybe he couldn’t handle being a mutant and gay in a society that had issues with both? And one is easier to ‘put away’ than the other?”

He points out that his older self dated character Kitty Pryde, who was played by Ellen Page in two of the live-action X-Men films, and Jean reminds him:

And now she no longer lives on planet Earth.”

The X-Men franchise has often dealt with issues of discrimination and oppression, with many similarities to LGBT rights struggles.