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2 Emma Frost: The White Queen __________________________________________________________________ The 1970s saw the emergence of a number of super-heroines who were clearly created in response to the development of the feminist movement in the previous decade. Established super-heroines were also fundamentally re-vamped in order to appear more in tune with the changing social climate. The writer most active in this process at Marvel was Chris Claremont, who invented Ms Marvel and Storm, and re-invented Jean Grey (aka Marvel Girl) as the Phoenix. 1 At DC, Wonder Woman had always been a heroine who fought at close quarters, and whose superpowers included sheer physical strength. Supergirl and Power Girl are characters created in a similar tradition. 2 But until Ms Marvel's appearance in 1976, Marvel's superheroines were equipped with either what are sometimes called ‘stand and point" powers (such as The Scarlet Witch, or the original Marvel Girl) or with powers that required them to disappear from the action in order to be used (The Invisible Woman, The Wasp). 3 Claremont’s ambitions also included changing the way that female super-villains were portrayed, and his introduction of Emma Frost (aka The White Queen) into the X-Men should be seen in this wider context. Emma’s Frost’s first appearance was in Uncanny X-Men 129, cover-dated January 1980. The issue was written by Chris Claremont and pencilled by John Byrne, during their stellar run together on the title. 4 Issue 129 marks the beginning of a six-part story arc which narrates the X-Men’s first encounter with the Hellfire Club, a group of super-powered individuals in pursuit of global power from behind the cover of their eponymous and exclusive New York gentlemen’s club. The Hellfire Club narrative is itself part of a longer, nine-part story which culminates in the release of the Dark Phoenix from within the psyche of Jean Grey (aka Marvel Girl). 5 The overwhelming power of the Phoenix, first manifest within Grey in an earlier X-Men story, 6 causes her to undergo extreme personality changes. Into this storyline – arguably an example of the tendency to problematize the super-heroine who possesses too much power – is adduced Emma Frost, seemingly an example of a woman already completely corrupted by the superpowers she deploys. Frost is introduced to us as the Hellfire Club’s White Queen: their plan is that Jean Grey will subsequently replace her and become their Black Queen. 7 Frost is also Chair of the Trustees of the Massachusetts Academy, an educational institution in competition with Professor Xavier’s Westchester Academy for Gifted Youngsters. Both schools are in the business of recruiting and training young mutants. X-Men 129 sees the two academies competing head-to-head for another key character making her debut: 13-year-old Kitty Pryde. Despite being published during the crepuscular days of the Comics Code, 8 the Hellfire Club storyline is deeply concerned with the sexuality of its characters. The
<strong>Richard</strong> Reynolds 3 __________________________________________________________________ sex motif is ubiquitous. Wolverine comes close to murdering a drug store proprietor who asks him to pay for a copy of Penthouse he is exploring. Scott Summers and Jean Gray engage in passionate lovemaking in issue 132: ‘…no questions now, my love, no words. This is our moment. Let’s not waste it.’ Former X-Man Warren (Angel) Worthington provokes jealousy from his partner Candy Southern by kissing Jean a little to passionately at their reunion in issue 132. And even 13-year-old Kitty Pryde is checking out Colossus’s impressive physique (‘that guy pushing the wheelchair is so huge… kinda neat-looking too’). 9 Into this environment is inserted the hyper-sexualized White Queen. We first glimpse her at a board meeting of the Hellfire Club, 10 at which Jason (aka Mastermind) Wyngarde and Sebastian Shaw – rivals for control of the club – are plotting the capture of emerging mutants and the simultaneous elimination or capture of the X-Men. The board meeting is conducted in a dark, mysterious space, with Wyngarde and Shaw depicted in profile, in shadow, or at long range – every panel emphasizing the threat which they represent. On the final panel of page 14, the White Queen is clearly depicted for the first time - in a frontal, three-quarter length pose. 11 Emma Frost stands out from her surroundings as if spot-lit from above, her body sculpted by Byrne’s use of chiaroscuro. Her white cloak, basque, thigh-boots and sharply-bobbed blonde hair combine the super-heroine’s skin-tight fighting costume with well-established fetish signifiers. Emma’s slender waist and powerful, muscled thighs also present an idealized Dominatrix physique. We don’t – as yet – know anything about this new character’s super-powers. But those with eyes to see can tell that the White Queen’s power resides – at least partly – in her sexuality. Kitty Pryde, however, is immune to the White Queen’s seduction when Frost (now clad in a slit-skirted business suit) visits the Pryde’s family home in Chicago, to recruit Kitty for the Massachusetts Academy. Kitty reflects: ‘Where’d they dredge up that “Ms Frost” anyway? She looked at me like I was something good to eat. >Ick< She gives me the creeps.’ 12 As the plot develops, Colossus, Storm and Wolverine are captured by the White Queen. Storm is shackled to a high-tech St Andrews cross (that staple of the BDSM world), while Colossus and Wolverine are suspended in cages. 13 Frost clearly relishes her power over the captured X-Men, taking particular delight in torturing (or ‘psychically probing’) the helpless Storm with bolts of electrical energy:
Page 1: Emma Frost, The White Queen: Super-
Page 5 and 6: Richard Reynolds 5 ________________
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