The X-Men have forgotten Emma Frost. That’s not a snide comment about the state of the line or her not being on the team since The Worst Emma Frost Story of All Time was published in Inhumans vs X-Men #6. Just two issues ago in the bi-monthly Uncanny X-Men, it was revealed that the main team of X-Men, including former lover Cyclops, frequent teammate Wolverine, et al, have completely forgotten the name of Emma Frost. Something–or someone–has taken away their memories.
Surely this is the nefarious work of Frost herself, the current Black King of the Hellfire Club? Or perhaps the work of her right hand Mystique? Only this week’s Uncanny X-Men #19 will tell us for sure but this does raise an interesting question: Is Emma Frost friend or foe? Is her true place fighting alongside the X-Men, or against them? I could write an entire book on the subject, but I’ll limit this to a few hundred words. Let’s put this thing to bed.
Frost was first introduced as the nefarious White Queen of the Hellfire Club, a frequent foe of Xavier’s merry mutants. Debuting January 1980 in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #129, she kidnaps the X-Men and gives newcomer Kitty Pryde a run for her money as the tipping point for what will always be collected as the first chapter in the Dark Phoenix Saga. Being the White Queen’s most read story, many can’t see her as more than a cackling villain.
But Frost’s lifespan as a villain is a mere twelve years, paltry when compared the more than two decades she spent alongside the X-Men. She was tapped by Charles Xavier himself to be headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy and lead a new team of young mutants to success. She shepherded the X-Men through M-Day (the utter decimation of their species), Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign, two Civil Wars, a Messiah Complex, a Second Coming, one Fear Itself, and was only brought low by the damn Phoenix Force–the lowest of low bringers.
Though over the years she was tempted and manipulated by Cassandra Nova, Sebastian Shaw, Norman Osborn, and the very best schemers in the Marvel universe, she stood fast until the concept of the X-Men died before her very eyes.
Very quickly, here is a rapid fire defense of Emma Frost’s lowest moments…
Didn’t Emma have a psychic affair with Cyclops while he was still married?
Yeah, and we’ve been hearing about that nonstop for almost twenty years now. It happened. People make mistakes. The affair was never physical until well after Jean Grey was dead once again. Let your own morality dictate the relative vileness of that for yourself. But to paraphrase our Black King herself, Jean’s nightmare was Emma’s love story.
Didn’t Emma spend about a year of comics in diamond form being kind of a jerk?
Only because she ripped the Void straight out the Sentry’s dang head and kept it locked up in her own. Sticking to diamond form was the only way to ensure one of the most powerful minds on Earth was not taken over by a being of pure evil.
Didn’t Emma, um, kill a few hundred Inhumans?
Can a character truly be held accountable for their worst storyline? Is Nightcrawler beholden to Holy War or The Draco? Is Lois Lane responsible for that time she turned black for a day? Is Green Lantern on the line for having an Inuit sidekick that he repeatedly referred to by a racial epithet? Yes, in a bit of character assassination that took Emma Frost further down the villain path than she had EVER BEEN, she turned some secret sentinels on some innocent Inhumans after a bloody war that she caused all because she was mad her boyfriend died.
Emma Frost is a survivor. She’s a self-made success story. She survived the slaughter of the Hellions, the destruction of Genosha, and more bad and messy events than almost anyone else. She’s the current Black King of the Hellfire Club and that is all Emma, baby. Through time logged, actions taken, and sheer dedication to the education of young mutants, she has more than proven that in spite of her shadowy past she is more X-Man than rogue. In this house, we stan a legend.
You can check out the current adventures of the White Queen in this week’s Uncanny X-Men #19, a fantastic issue that really gets to what this character is all about.
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