There are certain historical figureheads who play prominent roles in assorted stories, implicitly tying different universes and mediums together through shared historical heritage. One even exists for a fan-favorite mutant from the Marvel Universe — with a variant of the founding X-Man that appears in Marvel’s Elseworld-Esque 1602 sharing a lineage with the non-Marvel character Nathan Drake.
Uncharted sets up the idea that Nathan Drake is related to one of England’s most famous explorers, Sir Francis Drake — a connection he shares with the 1602 incarnation of Iceman from the Marvel Universe, setting up the possibility the two characters may be theoretically related.
A major aspect of Nathan Drake’s backstory is that he traces his lineage back to Sir Francis Drake. The 16th century English Naval Commander was a legendary explorer, venturing further into the Pacific than almost anyone else in his era. Some of Nathan’s adventurous spirit and motivations to become an explorer in the first place seem to come from his apparent appreciation of his ancestor. It’s mentioned repeatedly in the videogames (where Francis Drake’s history plays a major part in the first and third entries in the series) as a possibility that Drake eventually disbelieves, while it’s seemingly confirmed to be their actual lineage in the film adaptation of Uncharted. However, they aren’t the only notable fictional characters to claim a direct connection to the explorer.
In the world of 1602 (by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert), the Marvel heroes and villains were born centuries early thanks to the time-traveling machinations of a future victorious variant of the Purple Man. Sending Captain America back in time as a means of removing him from his world, resulted in superpowers coming to prominence centuries early — including mutants. However, the world didn’t believe them to be genetic off-shoots, due to the sciences of the times not yet codifying views on mutation and genetics. Instead, mutants were considered demonic “Witch-Breed,” as society blamed their powers on nefarious supernatural elements. Luckily for the Witch-Breed, some of them had been assembled by Carlos Javier to receive training and protection as this world’s version of the X-Men.
This includes the 1602 variant of Iceman aka Roberto Trefusis, who used his powers to great effect in helping rescue the Angel of their world and in taking down the vulture legions employed by the Doctor Doom of this reality. While manning the ship after their victory with Ben Grimm at the helm, Roberto noted he could be of service as he’d actually been the nephew of Francis Drake and had spent time serving as a cabin boy on his exploration. It’s a minor but fun moment, seemingly tying at least one variant of Bobby Drake’s family to the famous explorer. But this also means that it’s possible that a reality exists where they all share that connection.
If the tie between Roberto Tresfusis and Francis Drake exists in the 1602 timeline, it may also exist in other Marvel Universes. In this sense, Iceman and Nathan Drake can lay claim to the same important lineage. It adds an additional layer of hilarity to Tom Holland’s connections to Marvel characters, as he plays Spider-Man in the MCU. He also plays Nathan Drake in Uncharted — meaning his character in the videogame franchise may nominally still be connected to a Marvel character in some form. There’s a potential connection between Nathan Drake and the X-Men as a result, all thanks to their potential connection through one of England’s most important explorers.
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