One of the more beloved female characters in the X-Men, Emma Frost was first introduced
in 1980 as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club.
Adored for her dry wit, sharp leadership, her immense powers and her overall sex appeal,
Emma has served as both an ally and an antagonist force, and has appeared in the X-Men live
action films, animated shows, and even video games.
So today, we’re taking a closer look at the femme fatale with our top 10 emma frost
surprising facts list.
10 Inspiration
Emma Frost first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 during the Dark Phoenix Saga.
Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, her character and The Hellfire Club were inspired
by an episode of the 1961 espionage British television show, The Avengers, where the spy
duo protagonists infiltrate a hedonistic criminal underground society.
Frost was primarily inspired by one half of that duo, a character named Emma Peel, who
was played by Lady Olena herself, Diana Rigg, who, during the episode, wears a provocative
corset, sexy boot and a collar, and calls herself the Queen of Sin.
9 Her Powers
Emma’s powers are quite extensive.
She’s an Omega Class Telepath, and has a secondary mutation – an organic diamond
form that gives her superhuman strength, durability, stamina, and psychic immunity.
Her telepathic abilities have been known to rival those of Charles Xavier, and she even
defeated him in X-Men Legacy Vol 1, issue 216.
Aside from that, she’s capable of psionic shields (and the removal of them), telepathic
mind cloaking, illusions and camouflage, she can absorb and download information from an
individual’s mind, can astral project, heal mental trauma, possess a mind, induce mental
paralysis, sedation, alteration and amnesia, has mental detection, can telepathically track
someone, is capable of mind transferal, can do a neural jumpstart, and has a limited form
of psychometric powers.
And is capable of telekinesis.
But, she isn’t capable of accessing her telepathic powers in her diamond state.
8 She’s a bad cook
While she may be a woman of MANY talents, turns out cooking just isn’t one of them.
She once tried to substitute a ripe tomato with ketchup.
7 Had A Mental Affair with Scott Summers
Cyclops aka Scott Summers doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to fidelity.
So when Emma started helping him with the trauma he had gained after a particularly
brutal battle with Apocalype, and the two started having psychic therapy sessions.
Which turned into mental affairs.
That Jean Grey found out about.
And that didn’t go well.
But eventually, as per usual, Jean ended up kicking the can yet again, and Scott and Emma
got together, taking over the Xavier School, but that didn’t end overly well either.
6 Depiction of Sexuality One of Emma’s well known traits is how overtly
sexual she is.
This has been a hot subject, primarily for the debate of whether or not her sexuality
is an exception to the criticism towards over-sexualization of female characters in comics.
Those for that argument believe that she’s a depiction of a sexually empowered woman
who uses oppressive sexual norms to her advantage rather than just rejecting them.
This is due to Chris Claremont’s crafting of her character, and his writing for other
female characters in the X-Men that wasn’t exploitative or objectifying.
Claremont even goes as far as having Emma Frost argue that clothing preference and style
was a form of personal empowerment.
5 The White Queen
Emma has a thing for the colour white.
For ages, it was the only colour she wore in the comics, adopting the name The White
Queen from her days running the Hellfire Club.
So where does this love come from?
Well, most suspect it has to do with her brother, who she loved dearly.
He once told her that white was her colour.
4 Christian Frost
Speaking of, let’s take a closer look at that particular sibling, Christian Frost.
Christian was the only son of Winston and Hazel Frost, and brother to three sisters,
Adrienne, Cordelia and of course, Emma, who he was the closest to.
Christian was a gay man, and was disowned by his father when he came out.
His father even went to the extent of having his boyfriend framed and deported, which caused
Christian to fall into a cycle of substance abuse.
Emma approached her father to get help for Christian, but instead, he sent him to a mental
institution.
3 Mental Institution Christian wasn’t the only family member
that the Frosts sent to a mental institution.
In Generation X Vol 1, issue 24, in a story called Home for the Holidays, Emma reveals
that she was sent to a ‘special clinic’ when her telepathy first manifested.
The institution stuck her in a straight jacket and kept her on a lithium diet, but Emma learnt
how to make the most of the situation - she used it as a means to test her powers, manipulated
the guards and orderlies, which eventually led to her being set free.
It’s worth noting that this story somewhat contradicts her origin story found in Emma
Frost volume 1, issue 1 from 2003.
2 Killed her own sister
One part of her origin story has stayed the same, though; the murder of her eldest sister,
Adrienne Frost.
Adrienne had psychometric powers, and Emma and her had been estranged for years.
When Frost Enterprises was on the decline due to a stock market hit, Emma approached
her sister for financial backing, and as part of the deal, Adrienne requested to be made
a co-headmistress of Emma’s Massachusetts Academy; a school similar to Xavier’s.
But this was all part of an elaborate scheme to torture her sister with psychic illusions.
Adrienne claimed to be the new White Queen, stole over a million dollars from the London
Hellfire Club, threatened Emma that she’d reveal the Massachusetts Academy as a mutant
training school, and set a bomb that led to mutant Synch’s death.
So how did Emma resolve this?
Their powers didn’t work on one another since they were siblings - a common effect
seen amongst mutants like Cyclops and Havoc - so instead, Emma shot her.
1 Body Swaps
With an arsenal of telepathic abilities, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that
somewhere down the line, writers would use those powers to pull some body swapping mind
fuckery with other characters.
And that they did, by trapping not one, but three different characters inside her body
as she assumed their identities, but not always motivated by an intentional evil scheme.
Storm was trapped inside Emma during Uncanny X-Men #151 to 152.
That one was an evil scheme.
Jean Grey was trapped inside of her in Uncanny X-Men between issues 281 to 284, which happened
as an odd body swap after the two endured an intense battle.
And Emma ended up inside of Iceman’s body, too, after being comatose; she had taken possession
of Bobby’s body between Uncanny X-Men in issue 314.
This is what led to her to reform - she had been knocked out during a battle when her
Hellions were attacked by Sentinels and all slaughtered; something she carried an immense
amount of guilt over.
There we have it friends!
How many of these facts did you know about Emma?
Would you like us to do more lists on X-Men characters?
Let us know in those comments below!
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I’ve been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 nerd.
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