Emma Frost

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Emma Frost

Art by Jason Palmer & David Bullen

Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980)
Created by	Chris Claremont John Byrne

Characteristics
Alter ego	Emma Grace Frost
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Hellfire Club X-Men Xavier Institute The 198 Frost International Hellions Generation X
Notable aliases	White Queen
Abilities	Telepathy, Indestructible diamond form

Emma Grace^[1] Frost is a fictional comic book character appearing in the Marvel Comics Universe

Use

This template is for use as a shortcut when editing Marvel Comics-related articles. It provides links to both the Marvel Comics and Marvel Universe articles. </noinclude>. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, she first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980). An urbane, mutant telepath known for her revealing white attire, Frost has been both friend and foe of the X-Men. She was originally one of the wealthy, mutant elites who composed the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. She has had a lifelong interest in teaching the next generation and led the club’s junior team, the Hellions. After her students’ deaths, she joined Charles Xavier’s cause, mentoring the X-Men junior team Generation X. She later joined the X-Men and became headmistress of the Xavier Institute, although her ethics remain questionable.

Publication history

Emma Frost #1 (August 2003). Cover by Greg Horn.

From her initial appearance as the White Queen, Frost appeared in a few major storylines over the years. She frequently appeared in Uncanny X-Men and the original volume of the New Mutants alongside her Hellions. With Generation X and Grant Morrison's run of New X-Men, she was brought into the spotlight and has become a mainstay in the X-Men universe. In March 1986, Tom DeFalco, Mary Wilshire, and Stevie Leialoha were the creative team for the four issue Firestar mini-series, where Emma predominantly appeared alongside her Hellions. This series showcased the deceptiveness of her personality as she attempted to turn Angelica Jones into her own personal weapon. After recovering from her coma and aiming to redeem herself upon the knowledge her former students had been slaughtered, Frost played a pivotal role in the Phalanx Covenant which saw her team up with Banshee, Jubilee, and Sabretooth in an attempt to save the next generation of mutants. This led to her becoming a main character of the spin-off series Generation X which began in November 1994 under the creative eyes of Scott Lobdell, Chris Bachalo, and Mark Buckingham. The series ended after 75 issues and a minus one issue with Brian Wood, Ron Lim, Sandu Florea, and Randy Elliott ending the series. During the -1 issue, it is revealed that Emma was homeless and had met Banshee, who was working for the NYPD and an amnesiac Dark Beast from the Age of Apocalypse. After the series ended and all the X-Titles were revamped, Emma appeared in the first series of New X-Men where she started an affair with Cyclops. In August 2003, writer Karl Bollers penned an ongoing series showcasing her origins titled Emma Frost. The series, which lasted for 18 issues, began during her days as a private school student and ended before her days as a Hellfire Club member. It introduced her father Winston as well as her brother Christian, also exploring the early days of her two sisters Adrienne and Cordelia. Under Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, Emma became a main character in the third volume of Astonishing X-Men. She has been a major character in the on-going series, specifically during its third arc, Torn. She also frequently makes guest appearances in other Marvel titles, New X-Men in particular.

Background explored

In a flashback story told by Frost herself in Generation X #24, Frost details a time she spent in a mental institution after being sent there by her parents. However, the now cancelled Emma Frost series depicted Frost's early years. The series was supposed to cover Frost's life from high school until her first appearance as the White Queen, however, it was cancelled at issue #18. Generation X #-1, a part of the "Flashback" event which showed the first meeting of Emma Frost and the Dark Beast, seems to take place after the series. In X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Frost is shown after the events of her series and Generation X #-1. As a stripper at the Hellfire Club, Frost was approached by Professor X and Moira MacTaggert to join a new team of X-Men along with other characters introduced in the series. At first Emma refuses Xavier's offer, unimpressed by Emma's antics Xavier tries to psychically force Emma into joining his cause. However, to his dismay this task proves harder than he first anticipated and meets great resistance from Emma. Appalled by Xavier's behaviour and lack of tact she demands that he and Moira leave. But before their meeting is adjourned Xavier reminds Emma of the shadiness of the people she's getting involved with. Finally convinced that there may be some truth in Xavier's words Emma decides to leave only to meet resistance from a Psi-Shielded Hellfire Club Official. Vulcan then intervenes and frees her from her capture. Realizing how disturbingly powerful the Hellfire Club is and that they would eventually come after Emma, Xavier admits that he was mistaken and erases the event from everyone's mind, leaving Emma in the grasp of the Hellfire Club.

Fictional character biography

Emma Frost was born in Boston, Massachusetts to the wealthy Winston and Hazel Frost; she was the second of three daughters and also had an older brother, Christian. Winston was cold, ruthless, and domineering, often imposing impossibly high standards on his children, while Hazel abused prescription drugs to cope with the tensions of her household. Thus, Emma obtained no emotional support from her parents or her sisters Adrienne and Cordelia. The one sibling she got along with was her gay brother Christian. To her surprise, her father chose her to carry on his fortune, but after seeing her father betray her trust and commit Christian to a mental institution following a suicide attempt, Emma rejected his offer and decided to make her own way. After a period of homelessness, Emma engaged in a staged ransom situation with some minor thugs who wanted her father's fortune. Events took a turn for the worst and eventually become a real ransom situation, but by using her powers, Emma turned the thugs against one another and freed herself. She took the money and enrolled in a university, only later auditioning as a dancer for the Hellfire Club, an underground elite society that was later usurped into mutant control with her help by Sebastian Shaw.

White Queen of the Hellfire Club

Cover to Uncanny X-Men #131. Art by John Byrne.

Emma Frost first appeared as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, a group of superhumans who dressed in 18th century clothing, named themselves after chess pieces, and plotted world domination. Frost and the Club's agents captured several members of the X-Men. Frost engaged the cosmic being Phoenix in a psychic battle and was overpowered and on the verge of being murdered. Frost's incredible skill, guile and quick thinking allowed her to escape undetected leaving the Cosmic Being Phoenix and the great telepath Xavier to believe she committed suicide. In another encounter with the Hellfire Club, Frost switched minds with Storm in order to defeat the X-Men from within their own ranks; the process was soon reversed. It would not be the only time Frost switched minds with an X-Man. During her time with the Hellfire Club, Frost also ran the Massachusetts Academy, a school for mutants which served as a counterpoint to that of X-Men founder Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Frost's trainees became the super-villain team known as the Hellions and fought Xavier's young students, the New Mutants though the relationship between the two teams eventually turned into that of friendly rivalry. Frost also assisted the New Mutants after they had been killed and resurrected by the Beyonder, leaving them emotionally traumatized. While she used her psychic powers to erase their traumatic memories, she incorporated them into her Massachusetts Academy, increasing the familiarity and friendship of the New Mutants and Hellions. At one point, Frost began privately training a young mutant named Angelica Jones to be her personal bodyguard and assassin in reaction to political in-fighting among the Hellfire Club. Jones eventually discovered Frost was manipulating her and broke free from her control to later become the super-heroine Firestar.

Death of the Hellions

When the time traveling mutant Trevor Fitzroy unleashed the mutant-hunting robots called the Sentinels on Frost and the Hellions, Frost placed herself in a psychic coma in order to survive the ordeal and nearly all of her students were killed. One of the Hellions, Tarot, somehow returned to life several months later. The other two Hellions that managed to survive were Warpath and Empath. It was also during this period (behind the scenes) that Emma's egg cells were harvested by John Sublime. The X-Men cared for the comatose Frost at the Xavier Academy. Later, she awoke and possessed the body of the X-Man Iceman (Bobby Drake). In Drake's body, Frost made use of his ice powers in ways he had never dreamed and pushed the limits of his powers to escape the X-Mansion. When she discovered the deaths of her students, Xavier was able to coax the devastated Frost back into her own body. Later, Frost was attacked in one of her buildings by Iceman, who wanted to know how to utilize his untapped powers to fix damage he had undergone. His ice-form had been severely damaged and he feared if he turned to human, he would die. Despite the danger, Emma managed to talk Iceman into realizing it was simply pure willpower. With her emotional support, he was able to cure himself and return to normal.

Generation X

After being disrupted from her comatose state while the Phalanx invaded the mansion and replaced several X-Men, Frost teamed up with the X-Men Banshee (aka Sean Cassidy), Jubilee, as well as Sabretooth, and future student Synch. They battled the techno-organic lifeforms in order to rescue a select group of teenage mutants. Emma agreed to train them after deciding that the Hellions might have survived Fitzroy's Sentinel siege had they been exposed to Xavier's teachings as well as her own. The group of students became a superhero team known as Generation X and studied at Frost's Massachusetts Academy. Cassidy's trust of Frost was intermittent — at times he was suspicious of her, and at others he trusted her implicitly. Frost herself seemingly enjoyed flirting with Banshee, though this may have been for pure fun. Her students were also initially skeptical of her. Slowly, the headmistress earned their trust. Around this time, Frost also worked to earn back Firestar's trust. Emma became involved in the lives of many other young mutants besides her initial charges, including Marrow, Artie, Leech, and even Franklin Richards for a time. Unfortunately, for Leech, he was being used by evil forces to dampen Emma's powers and she had to knock him out with a kick to the head. Later, Leech, Artie, Franklin, and several other heroes would live in Emma's Danger Grotta (a version of the Danger Room) for some time. After Frost's business ventures took a bad turn, she turned to her estranged sister Adrienne for help. Adrienne, a psychometrist, offered financial assistance but demanded to be co-headmistress of the school in return. Adrienne secretly plotted against Emma and planted a bomb at the school, which killed Generation X member Synch. Frost tracked down and murdered Adrienne and then returned to the Academy, growing increasingly distant from her students in an effort to hide her crime. Monet even came to the realization that Emma had murdered her sister and informed the other students that they could no longer trust her. This, combined with Banshee's increasing depression and drunkenness following the death of his long-time lover Moira MacTaggert, led the students to leave, disbanding Generation X.

Joining the X-Men

Emma and Cyclops. Cover to New X-Men #156. Art by Salvador Larroca.

Afterwards, Frost traveled to the mutant haven island of Genosha, possibly at the request of Xavier due to her receiving an unrevealed request by him at the end of Generation X. There, Frost ran and taught at a mutant school until a genocidal Sentinel attack killed most of the island's population including all of her students. Frost survived only due to the sudden manifestation of her secondary mutation: the power to transform herself into a flexible, diamond-like substance that provides her near-invulnerability. Frost stays with the X-Men, who had rescued her from Genosha. After seemingly killing Cassandra Nova, Frost joins the X-Men team. When the Xavier Institute reforms into a regular school once again, she takes on a teaching position. Shortly thereafter, she drops her previous "White Queen" codename. She also started to look after and train a group of telepathic quintuplets known as the Stepford Cuckoos, who quickly became her prized pupils. Frost and the Cuckoos proved themselves when they helped fight and defeat Charles Xavier's evil twin sister Cassandra Nova when she returned. As a member of the X-Men, Frost began a psychic, quasi-sexual relationship with the X-Man Cyclops (Scott Summers), who had become distant from his wife Jean Grey as a result of his temporary physical and mental merger with the mutant immortal Apocalypse, and Jean's "remanifestation" of the Phoenix Force added to the disconnection. At first the psychic meetings had been a form of therapy, but soon turned into a full blown telepathic affair. While quelling a riot at the school, one of the Stepford Cuckoos, Sophie, was killed and the others left Frost, blaming her for the death. To get revenge on Frost, the remaining four Cuckoos telepathically contacted Jean Grey in order to tell her about Frost's and Cyclops's psychic affair. In the aftermath of the riot, Jean Grey caught Frost and Summers in bed together in their minds. Jean became enraged at the sight, and confronted Frost. Unleashing her re-ignited Phoenix abilities, Jean Grey unmercifully tore through Frost's mental defenses and forced her to face the self-denials of her past. Even so, Frost was adamant that Jean would not get the information she wanted. Angry and frustrated, Jean continued to try to torture the information out of Frost, threatening to make Frost experience the pain of reliving the deaths of all her previous students. Cyclops intervenes on Frost's behalf by giving a full account of what occurred between himself and Emma in Hong Kong. Frost was traumatized after the attack as the experience left her humiliated and emotionally shattered. However, in the end, the confrontation with Jean resulted in Emma confessing to Wolverine that she indeed truly loved Scott Summers. Soon afterwards, fellow X-Man Beast found her physically shattered in her diamond form. While other members of the school investigated the murder, Beast attempted to reassemble Emma piece by piece. Surprisingly, it was Jean Grey, again using her increasingly growing Phoenix powers, who successfully reassembled and fused Frost's body back together as she realized that Emma's consciousness was still clinging to her shattered body. Jean realized that Emma truly did love Scott and could help him in a way that Jean could not. Alive again, Frost was able to name her attempted murderer - Esme of the Stepford Cuckoos. Esme had mind controlled fellow student Angel Salvadore into shooting Frost in her single flaw with a diamond bullet, under the direction of Xorn/Magneto. Esme fled the mansion, and after her subsequent murder by Xorn/Magneto, the three remaining Cuckoos returned to Frost.

Leading Xavier's

Emma with her new team of Hellions.
Art by Clayton Henry

At the climactic battle against Xorn, Jean Grey was killed by the villain. Following her funeral, Emma approached Scott with the hopes of furthering their relationship and rebuilding the school. Initially a guilt ridden Cyclops was unable to move on with his life and walked away from Emma, which resulted in a horrible alternate future. Jean Grey, who had been reborn as the White Phoenix of the Crown, realized that in order to prevent that future, Cyclops needed a reason to stay. Using her cosmic powers, Jean Grey urged Cyclops to 'live' and start a new life with Emma. Afterwards Cyclops and Frost became lovers, despite the criticism from their teammates and family members, and the two took over the school after Professor Xavier stepped down. Frost became co-headmistress with Cyclops and adviser to a new team of Hellions. Frost developed a very antagonistic relationship with fellow teacher Kitty Pryde (The White Queen was the first villain she had encountered) and adviser Danielle Moonstar, who both, despite Emma's past record with the X-Men, did not trust her. Emma also had an antagonistic relationship with the daughter of Jean Grey and Cyclops, Rachel Grey, who was furious at her father for betraying Jean and for starting a relationship with Emma immediately after her death. This anger led to a telepathic battle on the astral plane while on a mission in Hong Kong. Although Rachel has access to near infinite reserves of psionic energy, Frost's telepathy was far more refined and trained, allowing her to humiliate Rachel. Frost then rather peacefully offered Rachel the chance to help her hone her telepathic skills. Rachel, though still wary, accepted the proposal. Following Decimation the student population has gone drastically down. Frost, without consulting Cyclops, decides to revamp the entire workings of the school, first by removing all now non-mutant students and teachers (Danielle Moonstar amongst them) and then by having one team of students to train as the New X-Men. To pick the squad members, she puts the students in the danger room to fight each other in an all-out brawl. Frost, feeling that X-23 is too dangerous to have on the team and at the school, promises Hellion that if he eliminates Laura during the brawl, he will appointed as leader of the team, even going so far as to telepathically freeze Laura during the fight. Hellion spares X-23 at the last minute, and Frost chooses six remaining students, four from her Hellions squad, to be New X-Men. Cyclops, who steadily grows more annoyed at Emma making these decisions without consulting him, then places X-23 who Emma had "forgotten" with the New X-Men squad. As punishment for Julian's disobedience, Emma appoints Surge as the team leader instead of Hellion. At this time the racist preacher William Stryker causes the subsequent deaths of most of the depowered students and tries to eliminate mutant kind. Once again Frost feels responsible for the loss of young student lives.

House of M and Civil War

Frost was pivotal to the plot of the House of M event. In this reality, she was married to Scott. Frost was the first X-Man Wolverine contacted for help after the Scarlet Witch altered reality, but it is unknown if Logan was actually trying to contact Scott. She was the first and one of two reawakened individuals (The other being Wolverine) to suggest the controversial opinion to kill the Scarlet Witch in order to return the world to normal. An unimpressed Frost announced to Iron Man that the Xavier Institute and the X-Men would not support the Superhuman Registration Act and remain neutral (see Civil War) as she fears that the registration of mutants would put them in more danger. Ms. Marvel's visit to the Institute in order to convince the X-Men to support the pro-registration heroes caused Frost to harshly criticize the Avengers for not showing any kind of support following the Genoshan genocide, which she had already done with Iron Man, and the mass deaths of the depowered students at the hands of William Stryker and his Purifiers while showing her psychic images to illustrate her point.

Phoenix - Endsong

In X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong the X-Men found themselves facing off against the Phoenix again. The Phoenix had returned to Earth after having been pre-maturely resurrected by the Shi'ar, and proceeded to resurrect its former host, Jean Grey, from her grave. In a plan to trap the Phoenix Force, Frost allowed her body to be used as a vessel for the Phoenix Force which would allow enough distraction for Cyclops to trap her into an egg-shaped containment cage. Frost is temporarily possessed by the Phoenix, allowing her access to its near-infinite powers, though she is unable to properly host it. The Phoenix refuses to leave Frost's body, however, Jean Grey is able to forcefully remove it. When Jean and the unstable Phoenix Force merged together, Jean started to lose control and began reverting to her Dark Phoenix persona. Under Cyclops' direction, Emma uses her telepathy to contact the remaining Stepford Cuckoos, who are connected to Cerebra, and instructs them to connect everyone's mind with every X-Man who ever loved Jean Grey. Emma and the Cuckoos direct all that love and support into Jean's mind in order to keep her grounded. This results in quenching the Phoenix's hunger and allowing Jean to gain control of the Phoenix Force once again which then allows her to regain her position as the White Phoenix of the Crown and save the X-Men from an impending Event Horizon, before returning to the White Hot Room to collect her missing pieces and heal.

Phoenix - Warsong

The third issue of X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong reveals that Emma's ova were the genetic templates used to clone thousands of identical female telepaths, five of which would become the Stepford Cuckoos. At the issue's conclusion, the encapsulated offspring, as well as Celeste Cuckoo, begin to refer to Frost as "mother" -- a title whose usage she later accepts. At the end of the Warsong Series, the Phoenix (inhabiting the body of Celeste Cuckoo) manages to destroy the thousands of additional clones, and the three cuckoos seal a fragment of the Phoenix Force within their diamond hearts. Emma, pained by the loss of her cloned children, declares revenge against the Phoenix, whether its form be that of the Force or Jean Grey.

A New Hellfire Club

Emma Frost with Cassandra Nova.
Art by John Cassaday.

An ongoing subplot in Astonishing X-Men depicts Frost's unusually antagonistic relationship with Kitty Pryde and possible domination of Scott Summers as possible evidence of disloyalty. Her secretive relationship with the surviving Stepford Cuckoos has also been presented as "evidence," and accusations are frequently made by other characters having reason to distrust her motives. In issue #12 (August 2005), the question of Frost's "true loyalties" are brought into focus as Frost abandons the team during a fight to confer with a shadowy figure, revealed on the final page to be one of a group of four individuals watching from the shadows. The group contains Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (a young telepath and former student of Frost's, who apparently died in Genosha), and a cloaked figure called Perfection, who discuss among themselves Frost's impending betrayal of the team.

Emma Frost taking off her hood from Astonishing X-Men #16, (2006).
Art by John Cassaday.

In Astonishing X-Men #13 (February, 2006), we are shown a vision of Frost's survival of the destruction of Genosha in New X-Men #115 portrayed as being due to Cassandra Nova creating Frost's secondary mutation, while in exchange, she was to assist Nova as part of a scheme to infiltrate the X-Men as a sleeper agent (Nova having supposedly erased the memory of their encounter and only restoring it recently). This may have occurred when Emma allowed a part of Nova to escape into her brain while she was trapping Nova into the Alien form Stuff during the X-men's last battle with Nova. She then played upon Emma's survivor guilt at surviving Genosha while her students died and her suppressed fear of her being evil while still seeking redemption, as well as her attempt to reconcile her real love for Cyclops while recognizing that she could possibly betray him by turning back to her roots. Using this and other elements of Emma's consciousness, she created physical manifestations of Cassandra in her human form, Sebastian Shaw, Emma's younger evil self in the Hellfire club calling itself "Perfection", and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, a former student of hers that was killed in Genosha. First, she began using her telepathy on Cyclops to appear as Phoenix, trying to reveal the lack of control he had over his optic blasts. It was revealed that shortly after he fell out of a plane with his younger brother Havok, Scott placed a deep mental block in his mind which prevented the controlled use of his powers. Encouraged by Frost, Scott revisits that moment in his life and reverses the decision, leaving him comatose. With Cyclops out of the way, Frost/Nova and the physical manifestations calling themselves the "Hellfire Club", assault the X-Mansion, incapacitating every X-Man, with the exception of Shadowcat. She manages to elude capture, but was eventually tricked by Nova/Emma Frost into helping Emma/Nova retrieve the "Stuff" body containing the rest of Nova. A depowered Cyclops with the help of Blindfold, and Hisako Ichiki, were able to defeat the "Hellfire Club" by figuring out they were fake, while Emma herself tried to get Kitty to shoot her in order to block Cassandra's escape, but was stopped by Cyclops. Undeterred, Nova then attempted to transfer her mind into Hisako. The ending was interrupted as everyone present was teleported away by S.W.O.R.D. onto their ship which was headed towards the Breakworld.

Breakworld

Emma, along with Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Beast, Shadowcat, Hisako, Ord, and Danger, were taken to deep space by S.W.O.R.D. and Agent Brand. The psychics on the S.W.O.R.D. ship did not detect Cassandra Nova in Emma's shattered psyche, effectively proving Emma's loyalty to the X-Men by her refusal to allow Nova into Hisako. Though emotionally wounded, Emma recovered fast enough to be present for the team's departure to the Breakworld. Separated, Emma, Scott, Beast, and Agent Brand discovered the temple of Attur-Hei ("The Palace of the Corpse.") Joined by teammates Wolverine and Hisako (now code named "Armor"), Emma conceded to Agent Brand's plan of separation. She and Scott left Attur-Hei on a single S.W.O.R.D. armed jet to rendezvous with the rest of the S.W.O.R.D. operatives on the Breakworld. While flying, several Breakworld fighter jets approached, attempting to knock Emma and Scott out of the air. The couple successfully repelled the Breakworld onslaught, exchanging heated words in the process. Amidst Emma's protestations that Scott was "acting as though [he knew] what [she's] been through," he finally professed his true love for Emma. Stunned, Emma could barely speak, except to utter an apology. Before her reasons behind apologizing were discussed, Scott noticed a blip on their radar. Danger appeared, utterly destroying the S.W.O.R.D. cruiser. Switching to diamond form in the nick of time, Emma was spared, however Scott was mortally injured. Cradling an injured Scott in her arms, Emma shed a tear. As the Danger room entity approached, Emma made a request of the machine. She asked that Danger kill her, and that 'she' do so quickly. However, this turns out to be another one of Emma's 'lessons' this time aimed at Danger, who in truth seems incapable of killing the X-Men due to her core programing. Emma offers Danger a deal in exchange for her help with the X-Men's mission. As X-Men proceed with their planned attack Breakworld weapon's installation, they are surrounded by Breakworld ships and Scott is forced to take a single battle cruiser to draw attention from the main team, being shot down and apparently dying in the process (with Emma feeling Scott's life flash before his eyes). Scott however is resurrected by their enemies, just as Colossus had been. It turns out Cyclops' sacrifice was all part of a master plan in order to distract their opponents so the rest of the team can carry out their own duties without as much difficulty.

Marauders and Mr. Sinister

Note that the Astonishing X-Men Hellfire and Breakworld arcs, discussed above, were a bit out of continuity from the rest of the rest of X-Men books in 2007. Namely, while the Astonishing X-Men team is in space for most of 2006 and 2007, in other X-Men books, Emma and the rest of the team is shown on Earth battling the Marauders and dealing with the aftermath of M-Day in terms of the survival of the mutant race. In the Fall 2007 X-Men story arcs, Cyclops, Emma, Beast, and Wolverine arrive to check on Rogue in Mississippi after Rogue's experience with Hecatomb. Emma performs a psychic diagnosis and learns that the eight billion minds trapped inside of Rogue's body are greatly weakening her conscious mind. As Emma prepares to psychically stabilize Rogue's shattered psyche, Omega Sentinel, possessed by a digitized version of Malice, who is part of the newly re-assembled Marauders, enters the room and blasts Emma with a biotoxin. Barely keeping herself conscious, Emma sifts through the Marauder's psionic shielding and transfers some of their goals and targets to Cannonball. The Marauders defeat the remaining X-Men, Rogue in tow, and collapse the house on the remaining X-Men. The Marauders, revealed to be working for Mister Sinister, are seeking different persons and items that can reveal the future (with the Destiny's Diaries being of prime importance). It is revealed that Kitty approached Scott and Emma with her concern of the diaries being discovered and the three formed a plan for Kitty to hide the diaries. Emma was to remove the memory of the hiding place and to make everyone believe that the decoys were the true diaries, thus securing not only the diaries, but also their location. The true location and memory could only be revealed by a trigger word spoken to Kitty.^[2]

Messiah Complex

Emma is part of the team that investigates the detection of a new mutant in Alaska. The story is ongoing.

Powers and abilities

Emma Frost is a metamorph capable of accessing both a human form with enormous^[3] ^[4] telepathic abilities and an organic diamond form with enhanced strength and durability. Since her introduction, Frost has displayed the telepathic standards of broadcasting and receiving thoughts, mind control, altering perceptions and memories, offensive blasts of psionic energy, astral projection, etc. She is highly skilled at creating electronic devices that amplify/block/engage psionic powers, as well as exploiting flaws in most electronic equipment.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] Frost is also very adept at performing 'psychic surgery': the utilization of pin-pointed psionic energy to exert absolute control over individual brain functions such that the physical form can be manipulated (i.e., injuries healed, disabilities repaired, the nervous system, etc), a subskill of telepathy unusual for even the most powerful of telepaths, but one that Emma is keen to utilize whenever the occasion benefits her. Frost's incredible power and conniving ways are evident in her first appearance whereby she manages to capture and sedate Charles Xavier.^[5]^[6]^[7] Frost has been cited as a "World-class telepath"^[11] and a "Psi of the Highest Order"^[12], capable of extraordinary telepathic feats.^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16] ^[17]^[18]^[19]^[20] ^[21]^[22]^[23] During the massacre of over 16 million mutants in Genosha, Frost developed a secondary mutation: the ability to transform herself into a perfectly smooth, flexible, translucent diamond-like substance. Her abilities have been inconsistent in this form. Although initially only her skin turns into diamond, she was shattered by a diamond bullet, indicating that her entire body turns into organic diamond. Frost is nearly impervious to all forms of physical damage and can use her indestructible body to support incredible amounts of weight, though different writers have shown varying accounts of her strength. Her diamond form also has a physical flaw, which, if exploited by a special bullet, can and has caused her to shatter. Though the exact location of the flaw in her diamond body has not been stated outright, several clues point to it being located in her face.^[24] Frost's full range of abilities between her diamond state and regular form have also been inconsistent^[25]^[26]; however recent occurrences^[27]^[28] reflect Morrison's initial depiction of her powers: that Frost cannot access her psychic powers in diamond form and vice versa. Also, Emma does not fatigue and has no need for water or food while she stays in her diamond form.^[25]. On top of that her Diamond Hard substance makes her "Impervious to cold"^[29] and resistant to heat.^[30]^[31]^[32] Throughout the years, it has been hinted that Frost is also a latent telekinetic. To save herself from Trevor Fitzroy, Jean Grey's displaced psyche was able to use Frost's brain to generate a strong telekinetic force-field and fly while it inhabited the White Queen's body.^[33] During the Onslaught Saga Frost unwittingly levitated several kitchen utensils while having a bad dream. ^[34] When the mutant known as Synch "synched" with Frosts powers, he was able to use them to levitate several objects and individuals in the room. This phenomena was referred to as telekinesis and credited to Frost's psi powers. ^[35]

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Emma Frost never joined the Hellfire Club, and was neither part of the X-Men nor of Apocalypse's forces. Instead, she was a member of the Human High Council, despite being a mutant. The AoA Frost had no psychic powers due to a lobotomy, which, regardless of it having been forced, saved her from Apocalypse's psychic mutants purge. Frost was one of the HHC leaders that lead the attack against Apocalypse, alongside Mariko Yashida and Brian Braddock, whom Frost both distrusted and disliked for his extreme anti-mutant stance.

House of M

The House of M reality was created by Scarlet Witch. In this reality mutants were in the majority and normal humans in the minority. Emma was married to Scott Summers in this reality.

Exiles

In a reality where the Legacy Virus became the black plague of mutantkind, Warlock bonded with Cypher in order to save him. However, the legacy virus mutated into a non-lethal techno-organic plague that infected mutants and humans alike, transforming them into Vi-locks, with Forge as its central consciousness. A crippled Emma is a member of the Avengers, the only superhero group remaining and that gathers all the non-infected superhumans of the reality. In another reality (Earth-27538), Emma is still a member of the Hellfire Club, alongside Donald Pierce, Sebastian Shaw and Harry Leland. The Exiles fight them to prevent the crashing of that reality. Emma senses the presence of something powerful (Proteus) in the mind of Morph and tries to unleash it, though she's stopped by Longshot, who throws a dagger in her head. Thanks to his luck powers, Emma, whose survival is vital for the fate of her native reality, survives the wound. However, the damage of Morph/Proteus' conditioning causes a fragment of Proteus' mind to manifest, causing Morph to speak with Proteus' Scottish accent.

Ultimate Emma Frost

First appearing in Ultimate X-Men #42, the Emma Frost of the Ultimate Universe is a former student of Professor Charles Xavier. The two became romantically involved, but they eventually split over ideological differences: Whereas Xavier believes in aggressive action and in protecting his students from society, Frost believes in an integrated approach to mutant/human relations. Frost believes Xavier to be too violent. This is humorous as she has several disturbing outbursts against her students and others. Frost returned to Chicago and became a teacher, giving mutant education seminars. The governor supported her cause and introduced her to the White House chief of staff. Through him, she meets the American president and organizes the New Mutants program, designed to educate humans about mutants and to cut the government's ties to Charles Xavier, whose reputation has been tarnished. During the group's first media appearance, they and the president are attacked by Sentinels and must be rescued by the X-Men. Xavier tries to convince Frost to stay with the X-Men, but she returns to her own school in Chicago. Her new program, the Academy of Tomorrow, accepts all talented students, regardless of genetic status. In the Ultimate X-Men comics, Frost can transform her skin into an organic diamond form, like her secondary mutation in the Marvel Universe; however, she does not display telepathic abilities, although, in her initial display to the President, she appears as though she is going on to mention other powers before she is cut off, so it remains to be seen whether there will be any similarities between the Ultimate and 616 Versions. She dresses much more conservatively than her 616 counterpart; generally wearing buttoned up shirts and knee-length skirts, as opposed to the main continuities' very revealing costumes. Even when appearing in a costume reminiscent of the original's outfit for a press conference, she still manages to show far less skin. However, despite her less provocative dress style, she is still considered extremely attractive by many of the male characters. For instance during the "Magnetic North" arc, she jokingly tells Cypher that she could kiss him after he manages to track down his rogue teammates. A clearly excited Cypher simply responds by saying, "Okay." It is revealed in Ultimate X-Men #88 that she is part of the Hellfire Club, who is trying to separate the Phoenix from Jean Grey. She now also wears the provocative clothing of her 616-counterpart when in the Club.

Marvel Mangaverse

In X-Men Ronin Comics, Emma Frost is part of the Hellfire Club, and is daughter of Professor X and sisters with Tessa. In this world she tries to recruit Jean Grey into the Hellfire Club, but is later killed by Wolverine. Also in the Avengers Mangaverse there is a character among Apocalypse's Horsemen called "White Queen" who can create psionic illusions. This would most likely be Emma Frost, although she has two different parts in this universe.

What If?

In What If Legion Had Killed Magneto? (Vol 2 #77), Emma is married to or dating Iceman, and they are both members of the Hellfire Club. The Hellfire Club is quickly decimated by the forces of Apocalypse.

In other media

As White Queen

She appears in the X-Men game for NES, at the end of the fourth level, "Battle on a Living Starship." As a boss, Frost morphs into the player's chosen character and mimics their attacks, periodically returning to her normal form. Unless players were able to decipher the hidden code written on the front of the game, this was the final level of the game.
In the 1989 PC game X-Men: Madness in Murderworld, she appears as a sub boss near the end of the game. The combat takes place in 2D "street fighter 2" style combat where moves around the room and throws light spears to damage the player's heroes.
In the 1989 animated television pilot, Pryde of the X-Men, she was portrayed as a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, with no mention of the Hellfire Club. In this cartoon she had the ability to fire mental bolts and fly. Susan Silo provided her voice.

She is the mid-boss of stage five in Konami's X-Men arcade game, which was largely based on Pryde of the X-Men. Susan Silo added her voice talents to the game with such infamous quotes as, "The White Queen welcomes you to die!" In the final stage Frost returns as the third boss of five (after Wendigo and before Master Mold) inside of Magneto's base in Asteroid M.

Emma Frost (as the White Queen) with Cyclops in X-Men: The Animated Series.

Frost made appearances in the 1992 X-Men animated series as the White Queen of the Inner Circle Club (the name used for the Hellfire Club in the series). Frost appears in the first three parts of the series' adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga; and is shown briefly among a group of telepaths in the episode, Beyond Good and Evil Part 4: End and Beginning.
Finola Hughes portrayed Emma Frost in a 1996 live-action television movie Generation X. As in the Generation X comics, Frost still used the code name White Queen.
Frost appeared as White Queen in the Generation X series of action figures.

As Emma Frost

Emma Frost is a playable character in the role-playing game X-Men Legends. In this game her powers are to confuse and scare away enemies with her telepathy, she has diamond form power as well. She returns as a non-player character in the sequel X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse where she is captured by Apocalypse, trying to find the Stepford Cuckoos. She is voiced by Bobby Holliday in both games.
In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance she is mentioned several times by Professor X, Iceman, and Storm. She also appears briefly in a "Doomsday" cinematic where she was among the heroes who were defeated by Doctor Doom.
In Wolverine and the X-Men, press materials show that Emma Frost will appear voiced by Kari Wahlgren.