Emma Grace FrostEmma Frost

As one of the most formidable psionic Mutants out there, Emma Frost is a Hellfire Club villain turned X-Man that uses her telepathic abilities and skills at manipulation to protect others, especially her fellow brethren. 

A Manipulated Childhood

Emma Grace Frost grows up in a wealthy old Boston mercantile family, a family that arrived from England in the 1600s. As a teenager, Emma’s mutant mental powers manifest when she subconsciously uses them to excel at school, picking up ideas and thoughts from her classmates.

Achieving academic success, either through the use of her powers or by her father’s influence over the headmistress, Emma receives a peer teaching position by her teacher Ian Kendall, with whom she’s infatuated. When Emma tells her father, Winston, she wants to become a teacher, he becomes enraged, believing that Kendall had influenced Emma; Winston then manipulates events to have Kendall fired.

Realizing her father and sisters were dishonest schemers, Emma becomes deceitful herself. In an effort to teach Emma not to play his manipulative games, her father retaliates by manipulating Emma’s brother Christian (to whom Emma was close), eventually driving the young man to attempt suicide and turn to drugs. When Winston decides to choose a worthy heir to the family fortune, he picks Emma. Surprisingly, she refuses, choosing to make her own way through life. 

Emma soon becomes romantically involved with Troy Killkelly, but discovers he owes money to Lucien, a local loan shark. Emma then becomes entangled in a kidnapping scheme to blackmail her father for money, and when it fails, Lucien kills Troy. Emma uses her powers to turn her captors against each other, then escapes and claims the ransom for herself. Beginning a new life as an Empire State University student in New York City, she uses the ransom money to give herself a makeover, including breast implants and bleaching her hair blonde. 

During massive anti-mutant hysteria at the university, Emma defeats another telepath, Astrid Bloom, by instantaneously learning all of her training. After graduating, she inherits a good deal of wealth, but most of her large fortune results from her professional success. She ascends rapidly to the upper echelon of the business world on her keen intelligence, drive and personal charm, as well as the secret use of her mental powers.

Omega-Class Telepath 

Emma Frost has vast psionic powers. She can read minds and project her thoughts into the minds of others within a roughly 20-mile radius. Frost can also psionically manipulate the minds of others (for example, to make herself seem invisible), and project illusions into them. She can emit psionic force bolts that have no physical effects but can affect a victim’s mind so as to cause pain or unconsciousness. She can also induce mental pain merely by touching her victim’s brow and can cause temporary mental and/or physical paralysis, loss of particular memories or even total amnesia. At close range, Emma can manipulate almost any number of minds for such simple feats; however, she can only fully possess another being’s mind one at a time, and only if she is within that being’s physical presence. Emma can telepathically cause others to stop their hearts and “sedate” unconscious/sleeping victims so as to perpetuate that state of consciousness for as long as she wills it. It is unknown how effective her “sedating” ability is on victims who are awake. She can rearrange a person’s brain engrams so that they cannot be detected psionically or by mutant-detecting technology.

Emma can also sense the presence of other Mutants within a small radius of herself by perceiving their distinct mental radiations. In order to detect the presence of Mutants beyond this radius, she must amplify her powers. She often does this by using Cerebro, a device that is sensitive to the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that contains mental frequencies. Emma can project her astral form, the sheath of her life essence, onto abstract dimensions congruent to our own known as astral planes. There, she can use her powers to create ectoplasmic objects; however, she cannot engage in long-range astral projection on the earthly plane.

Emma can convert her entire body into an organic diamond-hard form at will, granting her enhanced speed and superhuman strength (lifting approximately 2 tons), endurance, and a high degree of resistance to bodily harm. Despite this, she can be damaged or even shattered if a projectile strikes a weak point at the proper angle with sufficient force. The transformation to diamond is virtually instantaneous, and she can remain in that form for an undetermined amount of time until she consciously wills herself back to normal; however, she reverts back to her normal form if she is rendered unconscious. Emma cannot become partially or selectively armored and her body gains additional mass from a presumably extradimensional source when she transforms. In diamond form, she can survive extremes of temperature from 70 degrees above absolute zero (-390 degrees Fahrenheit) to approximately 7362 Fahrenheit before melting. Her diamond body is virtually tireless since it does not produce fatigue-building poisons. While in diamond form, her body possesses light reflecting and transmitting properties, known as adamantine luster, which suppress her telepathic abilities. Emma’s diamond body also emits ultraviolet fluorescence, which triggers photons that end up as molecular vibrations. These vibrations are weakened by Wakandan Vibranium by disrupting her body’s vibrations and slowly reverting it to human form.

Emma is a superb businesswoman, an electronics expert and a skilled inventor of electronic devices utilizing psionic energy for various effects. She devised the mechanism by which her Hellfire Club cohort Jason Wyngarde, AKA Mastermind, projected his illusions directly into the mind of the Phoenix Force; the Hallucinator, used to induce hypnotic hallucinations to brainwash others; a gun-like device enabling her to exchange minds with another person; and her own mutant detector capable of monitoring the psionic levels of Mutants.

Dangerous Opposition

During Emma’s upbringing, she learns from her domineering father Winston to be manipulative, and they go head to head at times. When Emma attends high school and shows interest in her teacher, Ian Kendall, and in teaching as well, Winston blackmails her by threatening to destroy Kendall’s career and then does so anyway.

Trevor Fitzroy of Reality-1191 uses Sentinels to attack Emma Frost and her Hellions. The attack puts Emma into a coma for a time and the Sentinels slaughter some of her students.

Emma briefly allies with the Cabal led by Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, a group that wants to control the superhuman community, but secretly undermines his plans and defeats his agenda. She also aids the X-Men in defeating Madelyne Pryor and her Sisterhood.

After the Inhumans release Terrigen clouds and one of them kills Cyclops, Emma creates a hero’s death by projecting an image of Cyclops and has it battle and die by the Inhuman King Blackagar Boltagon, AKA Black Bolt. She then incites the X-Men to go to war with them and After the Inhuman Queen Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon, AKA Medusa, realizes how the Terrigen clouds affect Mutants, she destroys it. Emma’s anger over Cyclops’ death outweighs this positive development and she releases Sentinels upon the Inhumans. The Inhumans and X-Men team up and defeat Emma but she’s saved by Alex Summers, AKA Havok, in memory of his fallen brother. 

Merry Mutant Allies 

Born to Winston and Hazel Frost, Emma grows up in a manipulative environment alongside her sisters, Cordelia and Adrienne, and her brother Christian. Having a mind for business and learning how to manipulate people from her father and siblings, Emma inherits his company Frost International and serves as chairman and CEO.

She later works under the scrupulous Hellfire Club alongside mutant Sebastian Shaw. Together they stage a coup and seize control of the Hellfire Club’s Council of the Chosen, renaming it the Inner Circle. Frost becomes the new White Queen, Shaw the Black King. Under their leadership, Mutants dominate the Inner Circle. Emma starts a school, Massachusetts Academy and recruits genetically-gifted youngsters. She helps them hone their abilities and most become members of the Hellions, Emma’s first mutant super-team. 

Emma often crosses paths with the X-Men and the New Mutants as their adversary. But when she is attacked by Fitzroy and Sentinels kill her students, she allows X-Men’s founder, Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, to merge her school with his, the Xavier Institute. After recovering from her coma, she becomes headmistress and works alongside X-Man Sean Cassidy, AKA Banshee, to train Generation X, a new group of young Mutants.

Later, Emma mentors the telepathic quintuplets known as the Stepford Cuckoos, who are actually five of Emma’s Sublime-harvested genetic “daughters”: Esme, Sophie, Celeste, Mindee, and Phoebe. Esme though telepathically forces Barnell Bohusk, AKA Beak to kill Emma but Emma is saved by Jean-Grey Summers, AKA Phoenix).

Despite her time as the White Queen, she eventually gains the trust of the X-Men and shares leadership of the school with X-Man Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops. Emma falls in love with and shares a romantic relationship with Scott while he’s married to Jean. This affair leads to tension between Emma and Jean but Jean ultimately saves Emma’s life when it’s threatened. Jean later dies and Emma continues her relationship with Scott and they run Xavier’s school together. When Jean is later resurrected, Emma and Jean work together on Krakoa, a mutant nation-state, and bury the hatchet.

She has also been a part of Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin’s X-Men known as the Cabal and Legion Accursed. The Cabal proves to be anti-mutant in that it seeks to control the superhuman community, and Emma leaves her membership behind but not before she upends their schemes.

Villainous Past, Heroic Future

Eventually, Emma became the majority stockholder of a multibillion-dollar conglomerate principally involved in electronics and transportation—both the building of ships and aircraft, and their use for freight and passenger conveyance. Despite her relative youth, she was named chairwoman of the board and chief executive officer of the rechristened Frost International. She also became headmistress and chairwoman of the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Academy. 

Emma’s success caught the attention of the Hellfire Club, an elite social organization consisting of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful figures. When she learned that the club was hiring dancers, she promptly auditioned and used her telepathy to enhance her performance. Unlike the other females in the club, Emma was never uncomfortable with the strict dress code that required female members to wear lingerie at all times. She regarded her revealing wardrobe as one of many weapons in her arsenal, one that gave her an instant advantage over men. Frost quickly became an ally of fellow mutant Sebastian Shaw, a member of the club’s Council of the Chosen who were secretly conspiring to achieve world domination through economic and political means. At the time, the leaders of the club and council—its foremost Lords Cardinal, whose titles corresponded to the names of chess pieces—were White King Edward Buckman and White Queen Paris Seville. 

Buckman threw the council’s support behind Project Armageddon, scientist Steven Lang’s program to construct mutant-hunting Sentinel robots. Aware of Shaw’s genetic disposition, Buckman told him the initiative’s intent was to capture Mutants as a means of helping the council attain power. Using her psionic powers, Emma learned that the project’s actual purpose was the annihilation of all genetic deviants. After a Sentinel murdered Shaw’s lover, Lourdes Chantel, Shaw and Frost staged a coup and seized control of the Council of the Chosen, which they renamed the Inner Circle. Shaw took the title of Black King, and Frost became the new White Queen. Under Shaw and Frost’s leadership, Mutants dominated the Inner Circle. To strengthen the Club’s power base, Emma recruited genetically gifted youngsters and helped them hone their abilities at her school, Massachusetts Academy. Most of these students became members of the Hellions, Emma’s first mutant super-team. 

Emma initially encountered the X-Men when she unsuccessfully tried to recruit young Kate Pryde. Shortly after Frost recruited naïve teen Angelica Jones, AKA Firestar, into the Massachusetts Academy, mutant sorceress Selene arrogantly claimed a place among the Inner Circle’s leaders as the Black Queen. Frost and Shaw then conspired to assassinate Selene using the young Firestar, but failed when Firestar discovered Frost was manipulating her and quit the school. Subsequently, Emma crossed paths with the X-Men—and their protégés, the New Mutants—on a number of occasions, often as their adversary.

When the White Queen discovered Andrew Chord and Dwayne Taylor, AKA Night Thrasher, of the New Warriors had hacked into the Hellfire Club’s computers to gain information on Firestar, and later hacked again via the Thinker to gather information on Firestar’s powers for Genetech (a bioengineering firm specializing in superhuman genetics research), Frost traced the signals to the Warrior’s headquarters. Frost and the Hellions attacked the Warriors and subsequently made a bet with Tai, an elderly Cambodian mystic bent on world domination, over the fate of Firestar. After the Warriors defeated the Hellions, Frost rescinded any prior claims on Firestar, while staying open to welcoming her back if she apologized for her foolish idealistic naiveté.

Later, Selene recruited the Gamesmaster to arbitrate a game played by the wealthy and powerful Upstarts whereby Mutants were killed for points, with the winner receiving the resources and servitude of their fellow competitors; game participant and time-traveling terrorist Trevor Fitzroy (of Bishop’s timeline, Reality-1191) assaulted the Inner Circle’s Donald Pierce and Frost simultaneously using an army of Sentinels. While trying to escape a Sentinel attack, Pierce had the Aborigine mutant Gateway open a portal to the Hellfire Club’s base. In doing so, Pierce inadvertently allowed the Sentinels to follow through the portal, and despite a joint effort of the X-Men and Hellions to protect the White Queen, the assault plunged Emma into a deep coma and slaughtered the Hellions. While Emma’s consciousness was still active on the material plane, her body was kept in the med-lab at the X-Men’s mansion. Seeking to ensure her students’ welfare and the Massachusetts Academy’s future, Emma had willed responsibility for it to the X-Men’s founder, Xavier, and it was merged with the Xavier Institute. During her unconscious state, subversive sentient bacteria entity John Sublime, AKA Sublime, harvested over 1000 egg cells (oocytes) from Emma, which he fertilized via an unrevealed donor and developed into embryos.

While Emma’s corporeal form was in stasis, a short circuit in the mansion inadvertently caused her psyche to possess the X-Man Bobby Drake, AKA Iceman, while his mind was transferred into her body. Coerced by Xavier, Emma eventually reclaimed her own form and, after making a full recovery, she resumed her role as headmistress of the academy. Assisted by X-Men veteran Banshee, she began training Generation X, a new group of young Mutants. 

When the sinking stock market dealt Frost International a major blow, Emma swallowed her pride and sought the help of her older sister, Adrienne, who agreed to support her sibling’s flagging financial interests only if she were named co-headmaster. But Adrienne’s power play did not wind down when Emma acceded to her request, nor did it end when Adrienne named herself the Hellfire Club’s White Queen. After Adrienne telepathically incited a riot and planted bombs throughout the school, causing the death of student Everett Thomas, AKA Synch, Emma killed her sister with a gun and inherited her fortune.

Following the dissolution of Generation X and the closure of the Massachusetts Academy, Emma moved to the island nation of Genosha where she began teaching mutant children again. Soon after, a Sentinel attack wiped out nearly all of Genosha’s mutant population. The X-Men found Emma alive after having undergone a secondary mutagenic change that allowed her to survive the onslaught by turning to diamond. Emma came to teach at the Xavier Institute, and soon personally mentored the telepathic quintuplets known as the Stepford Cuckoos (who were actually five of Emma’s Sublime-harvested genetic “daughters”).

After the X-Man Cyclops was possessed by En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse, he was left with doubts about his marriage to Jean Grey. Emma counseled Cyclops, and the two soon began a telepathic affair. When Sophie, one of the Cuckoos, died during the riot at the Xavier Institute, the remaining sisters blamed Emma and told Jean of Emma’s affair with her husband. Confronted by Jean, Emma was forced to relive various painful moments of her past. Shortly afterwards, Esme telepathically forced Beak to shatter Emma’s body using a diamond bullet, seemingly killing her; however, Emma’s consciousness was trapped in her shattered remains, and Jean subsequently telekinetically fused Emma’s body back together. Upon being reassembled, Emma helped the X-Men and the Brotherhood defeat a Magneto imposter (Kuan-Yin Xorn, AKA Xorn), but not before Xorn killed both Jean and Esme.

Emma soon fell in love with Cyclops and became co-headmaster of the school alongside him after Xavier left to help rebuild Genosha. Shortly after dealing with the Phoenix Force’s resurrection of Jean followed by the depowering of Mutants on “M-Day,” which decimated the enrollment at Xavier’s school, the Office of National Emergency (O*N*E) placed a Sentinel Squad outside Xavier’s to keep tabs on the remaining Mutants. When James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, recruited Laura Kinney, AKA X-23, into the New X-Men youth squad, Emma disliked having a dangerous female pseudo-clone of Wolverine around the students and sought to convince X-23 to leave, but ultimately failed. 

Later, the anti-mutant fanatic Reverend William Stryker and his Purifiers assaulted the Institute’s students, leaving a path of death and destruction in their wake, forcing Emma to deal with the loss of even more students. Carol Danvers, AKA Ms. Marvel (later Captain Marvel) tried to convince the X-Men to support the new federal Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA), but once Frost telepathically showed Ms. Marvel the Institute’s recent tragic losses, Danvers departed full of regret for seeking their aid when her Avengers team had not helped the Institute during its time of need. When the Phoenix Force possessed the Stepford Cuckoos, Emma learned the girls were her genetic “daughters” and that Sublime had created over 1000 similar daughters to destroy mutantkind. After using the Phoenix Force to destroy the other daughters, the Cuckoos split the Phoenix Force into three and encased it within each of the Cuckoos’ now diamond hearts.

After facing more threats including Predator X, the alien Ord and the sentient mechanoid Danger, Emma became entangled in the Hellfire Club’s latest scheme to defeat the X-Men as the imprisoned Cassandra Nova tried to lure the X-Men into freeing her. Afterward Emma and the X-Men opposed the attempted destruction of Earth by Ord’s race of the Breakworld. Returning to Earth, Emma was among the X-Men who battled Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, when he threatened Professor X as part of his campaign against Xavier’s Illuminati alliance.

Later, the X-Men fought Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mister Sinister, and his Marauders as well as Stryker’s Purifiers to save the life of the first mutant child born since “M-Day.” To shield the child from those who would harm her, former X-Man Nathan Summers, AKA Cable, took her into the timestream. Afterward, the rogue X-Man Bishop, who sought to kill the baby in order to prevent his dystopian future from becoming reality, shot Xavier, seemingly killing him. Believing the Professor’s dream had died with him, Emma and Cyclops closed the Institute and disbanded the X-Men.

Emma and Scott soon reformed the X-Men in San Francisco, and offered protection to all Mutants there. After an alien Skrull invasion failed, Emma briefly served in Osborn’s Cabal, a group created to establish control within the superhuman community, and aided the X-Men in defeating Cyclops’ ex-wife, Madelyne Pryor and her Sisterhood. Emma then feigned membership in Osborn’s “X-Men,” secretly undermining his plans to control mutantkind, ultimately turning on him, and defeating his agendas. 

Not long after this, Emma and the X-Men then battled Selene and her resurrected mutant army, including Frost’s students, the Hellions. The X-Men then defended the mutant baby (now a time-traveling, teenage girl named Hope) from a massive anti-mutant campaign created by the Sentinel Sebastion Gilberti, AKA Bastion and Emma wiped Shaw of his memories.

After surviving the Serpent’s worldwide fear effect and being saved by Namor McKenzie, AKA Namor the Sub-Mariner, Emma joined the Extinction Team. Up against a resurrected Mister Sinister, she lost her arm while in diamond form and stayed that way until it could be reattached. 

When the Avengers and X-Men were at odds, Emma sided with the X-Men and protected Hope in Utopia. During the battle, Hope defeated Lights, Wolverine, and Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man and left afterward. Emma’s telepathy was blocked by Iron Man’s nanocloud, forcing her to rely on her diamond form. Though thanks to a ruse, Emma and other Mutants escaped and began to search for Hope.

On the hunt for Hope, Emma used her telepathy and located her on the Moon. Emma, along with Cyclops, Piotr Rasputin, AKA Colossus, Namor and Illyana Rasputin, AKA Magik, journeyed to the Moon to stop the Avengers from getting to her. Once there, Thor fell from the sky followed by the Phoenix. While the Avengers and X-Men fought, the Phoenix tried to make Hope their host. After being attacked by Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, the Phoenix made Emma, Cyclops, Majik, Colossus, and Namor into avatars known as The Phoenix Five. They returned Hope to Earth to prepare her for the Phoenix. After Namor was defeated by the Avengers, Emma received his part of the Phoenix. Emma’s powers increased so much so she began killing those that had harmed Mutants and then later received Colossus and Magik’s portions of the Phoenix Force as well. She tried to dominate the X-Men and taunted Cyclops to take her power but he couldn’t. The Avengers and the X-Men attacked them, and Cyclops took Emma’s portion of the Phoenix. When Xavier tried to stop Cyclops, Cyclops killed him and became the Dark Phoenix. Emma was later in custody of the New Avengers in San Francisco and was targeted by the Purifiers though they were defeated.

After having contact with the Phoenix Force, Emma’s powers were altered and she could not read people’s minds any longer. During a prison transfer, she was freed by Cyclops and Magneto and while hesitant to join them, she did so and along with Magik they started searching for new Mutants. Emma helped free several Mutants and later was displeased to hear that Jean Grey was alive and well. 

Emma observed how her fellow Mutants’ powers also changed, making fun of Magneto for his inability to control metal in the same way, and shocked to see Cyclops’ abilities increase to the point of utter destruction. She later accused Tony Stark for being responsible for the Phoenix Five. Still she continued to recruit Mutants like the time-displaced Angel, the Stepford Cuckoos and they fought Limbo’s forces. Emma also helped David Bond with controlling his powers.

When the Inhuman King Black Bolt released two clouds of Terrigen Mist into Earth’s atmosphere, one of the clouds killed Cyclops. Emma in her grief, being the only one aware of his death, decided it was not the death befitting a hero so she created a mental projection of him. She used this avatar in a plot to confront Black Bolt in public and he killed the projection. After Storm negotiated a truce with the Inhumans, Cyclops was buried. Emma only told Havok about his true death. The other Terrigen cloud threatened to make Earth uninhabitable for Mutants so Emma encouraged the X-Men to fight the Inhumans until the cloud could be destroyed. In realizing the cloud threatened the Mutants, the Inhuman Queen Medusa destroyed the cloud herself. Emma still blamed the Inhumans for Scott’s death but the truth came out about his death, and she unleashed Sentinels that she programmed against the Inhumans. Both the Mutants and Inhumans fought Emma and the Sentinels and she was defeated. Though before she could be captured, Havok teleported her away out of respect for Cyclops. 

An evil version of Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, prepared to conquer America and removed the mutant threat by giving them land, New Tian, with the condition that they could never come into America. He made Emma its ruler but she telepathically controlled Shen Xorn making him a controllable ruler so she could rule in secret. Though their sovereign country did not last when Captain America allowed Hydra to rule over America and the Mutants battled them all. The United States was liberated and New Tian was brought back into the U.S.

Though while New Tian existed, the Mothervine virus was used to enhance mutant abilities. Emma formed a cabal with Havok, Claudine Renko, AKA Miss Sinister, and Bastion to carry out the experimental study of the virus and eventually release it on a global scale. Their goal was to make mutantkind the dominant species on the planet. When Emma learned that those affected by the virus had their freewill removed, she turned on the cabal and freed the X-Men to confront Havok and Bastion. The cabal was defeated, and Emma with Polaris’ help inverted Havok’s psyche back to normal as he suffered from an inversion spell that had flip-flopped his personality. Emma then tried to reconcile with Magneto and put their differences aside, but he was unaccepting.

Cyclops was later resurrected by the Phoenix Force who had also resurrected Jean to be its host but Jean killed him as he should not have been brought back–Emma remained unaware that all this happened. It wasn’t until after his second resurrection by a teenage Cable and Paul Douek that Scott and Emma were reunited. On the sovereign nation of Krakoa which was made for Mutants by Charles Xavier, Magneto and Moira MacTaggert, Emma was tasked by Xavier and Magneto to oversee trade relations there. She held a seat on the governing body, the Quiet Council of Krakoa, and got the Black King Sebastian Shaw a seat on the council as well. She worked with the council to build out tenets of the new mutant society and pass judgment on Victor Creed, AKA Sabretooth, a psychopath and mutant criminal. Emma and Jean Grey combined their telepathy and silenced him while the council deliberated. The council sentenced him to remain in stasis, alive but immobile. Emma and Jean seemed to resolve their former rivalry and tossed back some pints with Cyclops.