EmmaFrostFiles.com

This section covers Emma Frost’s history as the White Queen, during her days with the Hellfire Club.

This section covers the gap between Emma Frost #18 and Classic X-Men #7.

Emma Frost needed a stable job to reinforce the money she took from Lucien’s gang. The Hellfire Club was hiring dancers in which Emma auditioned for. She took advantage of her beauty, talents, and, especially, her telepathy and performed the dance of the seven veils. The “mesmerized onlookers” were astonished by her performance and quickly hired her as a dancer for the Hellfire Club. Because Emma was a telepath and was able to force people into doing things, she usually took men into a private room and immediately mind controlled them to give them their money. Conclusively, she would mind wipe them, so that they wouldn’t remember the event.

One time, Professor Xavier needed new recruits for an “X-Men 1.5″ to rescue the other X-Men stranded on the “island” of Golgotha. Professor Xavier and Moira MacTaggert visited the Hellfire Club and asked Emma for a private dance. Emma attempted to immediately force Xavier to give her all his money, but because Xavier was a much more experienced telepath, her attempt failed. Xavier needed a quick recruit for his mission, so he immediately forced Emma into joining his cause but to no avail. Xavier and MacTaggert realized it a was a mistake to force Emma into joining their team and quickly mind wiped Emma and any one else who remembered the event.

Had Emma joined the team, she would have probably ended up dead. Read X-Men: Deadly Genesis for more information.

Emma quickly gained fame and fortune at the Hellfire Club’s public house. Added onto this, she was also gaining her fortune from owning stocks from a business that involved electronics and transportation. She eventually became a majority stockholder of this business and then became the CEO of this company, which she renamed to Frost International. During Emma’s business success, she also was the headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy located in Snow Valley, Massachusetts. This was a college preparatory school for children in grades seven to twelve.This led her an invitation to join the the higher ranks of the Hellfire Club, where she met Sebastian Shaw who would become one of her co-workers and lovers.

White Queen of the Hellfire Club

Sebastian Shaw discovered the leaders of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, Edward Buckman (Black King) and his wife Paris Seville (White Queen), were humans who had anti-mutant sentiments and even had access to Sentinels. Sebastian Shaw gathered his wife Lourdes, Emma Frost, Harry Leland, and Sage to take over the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Steven Lang and Edward Buckman released a Sentinel to attack the group of rebels which was destroyed but at the cost of Lourdes’ life. Shaw was stricken with grief and swore revenge on Edward Buckman.

At the end of the Hellfire Club’s Annual Gala, Emma Frost, under Shaw’s command, telepathically made Edward Buckman kill his own wife, Paris Seville. From there, Sebastian Shaw singlehandedly killed Edward Buckman and announced the leaders of the Hellfire Club were dead. Shaw then self-proclaimed himself as new Black King and Emma Frost as the new White Queen of the Hellfire Club.

Read Classic X-Men #7 for more information.

Emma’s First Encounter with the X-Men

Emma Frost continued to successfully run Frost International along with the Massachusetts Academy. In the Massachusetts Academy, there was a regular school being run, but also an underground school for the select few who were mutants and would eventually become known as the Hellions. During these years, the 13 year old mutant Kitty Pryde of Deerfield, Illinois, caught Emma’s attention for a possible new recruit. Emma Frost personally walked to the home of the Pryde family and offered Kitty a chance to be part of the Massachusetts Academy. Kitty’s parents felt comfortable with this, possibly due to Emma’s mental influence, thus her parents wanted Kitty to join the academy. Kitty was immediately uncomfortable with Emma’s appearance as her instincts felt she should stay home. However, after Emma left the Pryde’s home with her offer still open, the X-Men arrived and offered a much friendlier and warmer offer to Kitty. Kitty felt comfortable about this and allowed Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine to take her to an ice cream parlor in order to introduce themselves some more.

However, Emma Frost desperately needed Kitty as a new recruit and would not let the X-Men get in her way. She ambushed the X-Men to capture Kitty Pryde, however, Kitty managed to escape with the help of her newly formed phasing abilities. Emma took the remaining X-Men into the bowels of the Frost International and caged the remaining X-Men. She tortured these captured X-Men as Kitty hid behind a wall and watched in a state of horror. The young mutant managed to contact the rest of the X-Men who finally came to her aid. Emma’s first encounter with Jean Grey (Phoenix), who was undergoing major power transformations, was a telepathic duel between the two. Emma was the much weaker telepath in this duel and lost to Jean Grey. This left Emma in a weakened state, and it wasn’t until later she would recover.

This event also lead to the famous Dark Phoenix Saga, where the Hellfire Club seduced Jean Grey into the Black Queen, where she would unleash all power and eventually lose control of the Phoenix Force and slaughter billions of lives in another galaxy.

Read more of Emma’s first encounter with the X-Men in X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga (Uncanny X-Men 129 - 137).

The Second Attempt

Finally, Emma Frost fully recovered from the battle with Jean Grey and continued to recruit young mutants for the underground school in Massachusetts Academy. Emma was not done with Kitty Pryde and attempted to recruit her into the academy…again. Professor Xavier of the X-Men received a letter from Kitty’s parents requesting their daughter to withdraw from the X-Men and attend Emma Frost’s Massachusetts Academy instead. Unknown to the X-Men, it was Emma Frost who telepathically forced the Pryde parents to send the letter to Xavier. Storm drove Kitty to the new school - upon arrival, Emma used one of her electronic devices to switch minds with Storm. Meanwhile, Sebastian Shaw ordered Sentinels to attack the X-Men while Emma (in Storm’s body) drove back to the X-Men’s mansion and attacked them. At this time, it was also revealed that Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost indeed had a romantic relationship together. Emma, still in Storm’s body, withheld the X-Men but not for long. With the help of Kitty Pryde, the X-Men escaped their bonds and retaliated against the Hellfire Club. Storm, in the body of Emma Frost, was able to manage her telepathy and re-switch minds with Emma. The Hellfire Club lost to the X-Men and both teams promised to never interfere with each other again.

Read this summary in Uncanny X-Men 151 - 152!

The Hellions

Emma Frost still retained her position as the headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy and continued to recruit young mutants to reinforce the Hellfire Club’s power and prestige. The Hellions, who were part of the Massachusetts Academy’s “underground school,” had rigorous training schedules to help hone their mutant abilities. Emma frequently searched for young mutants to recruit using the Multivac, a system similar to the X-Men’s Cerebro; however, with the Multivac, one did not need to be a telepath in order to use the system. Using the Multivac, Emma discovered a mutant named Angelica Jones, who would later be known as Firestar. The girl’s powers manifested during puberty, which her father became very worried about. Emma the troubled father to have his daughter trained at the Massachusetts Academy. This offer was accepted and Emma took Angelica under her wings. Because Angelica was a special mutant and needed special training under Emma’s eyes, Angelica was kept separated from the rest of the students and Hellions.

Emma Frost was later attacked by Mastermind, a former colleague from the Hellfire Club, who seemed to have gone mentally insane and blamed others of his own failures. He blamed Emma for making a faulty mind control device that he used to attempt to seduce Jean Grey. Using his vast mental illusions, he attacked so hard that he made Emma fall into a deep coma for a period of months. During this time, Professor Xavier was aware of Emma’s mental state and offered to help, but was refused because the Hellfire Club was too prideful to accept help from an X-Man.

Emma Frost slowly recovered from her coma and continued as an active member of the Hellfire Club and the Massachusetts Academy. During this time, Kitty Pryde’s boyfriend Doug Ramsey received an invitation to the Massachusetts Academy, which Kitty became very worried about considering the school was run by the Hellfire Club. With the X-Men’s permission, Kitty decided to tag along with Doug to accompany him and also aid him if the Hellfire Club caused any harm. Xavier stayed in mental contact with the Kitty in case anything were to happen to her, however, the X-Men were taken away by the Beyonder during the Secret Wars. While Kitty lost her mental contact with Professor X, Emma Frost had other plans for Kitty. Kitty was then easily defeated and left helpless against the White Queen considering the X-Men were gone. However, Illyana Rasputin, also known as Magik, learned of Kitty’s fate and contacted the New Mutants for a rescue mission. They traveled to the Massachusetts Academy and made a surprise attack against Emma Frost and her Hellions. The New Mutants and Hellions tirelessly dueled together and made a decision to have an all out battle with Cannonball versus Jetstream. Cannonball won this battle, however, Frost and Shaw did not want to the New Mutants to leave so they attempted to confine them in academy. In the knick of time, however, Kitty Pryde was able to cause a confusion which allowed Magik to teleport them to safety.

Emma continued to teach her students and also continued to train Firestar separately. She paid extra attention to this student, periodically giving the child presents and gifts for cynical reasons. The naive Firestar continued to be loyal to Emma and was very optimistic about what her future would hold in Emma’s hands. However, Emma’s true motives to train Firestar was not so she could become a Hellion, but rather be Emma’s personal assassin trained to kill Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. A Hellfire guard, known as Randall, became aware of this and felt bad for Firestar’s innocence and naiveness; he knew that Firestar would be in grave danger if she continued to confide in Emma’s hands, so he informed her what was going on in the knick of time. Firestar became enraged and hurt and quickly attacked Emma. Firestar used her microwave powers, which Emma could not focus due to the excessive heat. Firestar then cornered Emma and aggressively confronted her and stated that she wanted to be left alone.

When the Beyonder killed the New Mutants and then brought them back to life, they were left in a psychological state of confusion and loss. Emma Frost knew this was the perfect opportunity to possibly recruit them for the Hellions. She offered telepathic treatment, which the students accepted as well as Magneto, who felt helpless and sad. Once they joined, Emma quickly erased their memories of the painful events. The students seemed to be back to normal, however something was still not right. Magneto found out that he was tricked by Empath to join Emma Frost, so he then attempted to get the kids out of Emma’s hands. Emma used Magneto’s bad reputation to her advantage and called the local authorities to have Magneto taken away. However, the New Mutants discovered about Magneto’s events and rescued him from the authorities. Emma Frost then decided to approach them a different way and offered to restore their minds with the help of Magneto. They accepted this and decided to part peacefully. Emma left her offer open to join the Hellions and told them to remember herself and the Hellions of fondness. Magneto knew that Emma was deceptive and tried to convince the students that Emma was evil. The students did not believe Magneto, as Emma seemed very generous of them.

The Hellfire Club and X-Men were forced to fight along with each other when Nimrod, a super Sentinel from the future, attacked them in Central Park. They were able to successfully defeat Nimrod, however, they lost Harry Leland in the process. The teams knew that mutants in general were in grave danger, so they formed an alliance together.

The Hellfire Club needed more reinforcements for their Inner Circle, so they offered Magneto a chance to be White King. Magneto accepted the position, convinced by Storm of the X-men. Shortly thereafter, the X-Men faked their deaths in Dallas, never telling the New Mutants or Magneto they were still alive. Emma took advantage of Magneto’s weakened state, as she saw him useful to counter Shaw and Selene’s positions in the club. Magneto and Shaw were constantly antagonistic towards each other; Magneto wanted to strengthen ties between the X-Men and the New Mutants as Shaw was only looking out for the interests of the club. Emma Frost greatly realized this and used this to her advantage and had Shaw voted out of the club. Magneto then assumed position as the only king of the club, so he then dubbed himself the Grey King. Emma and Magneto discussed how to get rid of Selene, however, nothing came out of it since then.

Later on, a New Mutant member named Magma realized she had feelings for a Hellion named Empath, so she transferred herself to the Massachusetts Academy. Emma stated that she would feel a lot more at home, considering the elegance and privacy of the Hellions’ estate. However, it was soon revealed that Emma commanded Empath to subtly influence Magma to change schools, as Emma needed Magma on her side to win the student’s father’s business interests.

Emma Frost still held a grudge on Firestar and wanted her back on the team. The Freedom Force was looking for Firestar’s real name and current location, so Emma provided the information to them, hoping that Firestar would become vulnerable to attacks. However, Firestar quickly learned of this and avoided Freedom Force, and then joined the New Warriors in the process. Emma Frost assumed that her vows to Firestar were void, so she and her Hellions attacked the New Warriors and hoped to gain Firestar back. Emma Frost and her Hellions lost the battle and Emma told the New Warriors to never cross her again. But before Emma and her Hellions departed, Emma criticized Firestar’s beliefs and told her that one day, she would come back to her and apologize of her mistaken beliefs.

Death of the Hellions & A New Beginning

Emma Frost invited the X-Men to a party in the Hellfire Club with to inform them that the Inner Circle was under attack by an unknown group. While the X-Men discussed and argued if they should really trust Emma, Trevor Fitzroy barged into the Reavers’ building and slaughtered them all with Sentinels. Just then Trevor Fitzroy teleported, along with a few Sentinels who escaped, and attacked Emma and her Hellions. Emma tried to defend her Hellions, however, Fitzroy was protected by a forcefield that canceled out her telepathic powers. The Sentinels and Fitzroy were able to kill two Hellions named Jetstream and Beef in the process and then, Emma was brutally attacked by three Sentinels. Empath tried to help Emma, however, he soon found out that he couldn’t sense her emotions and then pronounced the White Queen dead. Trevor Fitzroy then ordered the Sentinels to attack all of the Hellions and the X-Men. They managed to kill every one of the Hellions and also managed to psychically wound Jean Grey. The X-Men were able to escape with Jean Grey’s body as Fitzroy took Emma Frost’s body in the process and claimed her body as his trophy.

The X-Men were, of course, curious as to what psychically happened to Jean Grey. They soon found out that in order for Jean to save herself from the attack, she had to transfer her mind into the nearest telepath, which happened to be Emma Frost at the time. They quickly prepared for battle and attacked the headquarters of the Upstarts and successfully won and took Emma’s body as well. They headed back to the X-Mansion and Professor Xavier successfully transferred Jean’s mind out of Emma’s body, however, Emma Frost was left in a coma.

The X-Men left Emma Frost rest peacefully in their headquarters for several months until Bobby Drake checked on Emma’s status report. Emma suddenly woke up and transferred her mind into Bobby’s psyche. Emma Frost did not realize what was going on, so she assumed that the X-Men had her captured. She tried to escape and used Bobby’s powers in ways he never imagined. The X-Men had to convince her that she was not there as a prisoner and also inform her about the Hellions’ fate. Whilst in ice form, Emma Frost rushed to Frost International to use its computer resources to discover what happened to the Hellions. She quickly found out that they were dead, while the computer generated images of each student’s death. She then admitted it was her fault and asked them to forgive her, because she knew she would never forgive herself. Soon Emma found herself surrounded by the guards of the Frost Enterprise and she asked them to shoot her. Before they could have pulled the trigger, Professor Xavier walked in and reconfirmed that the Hellions indeed died. Emma Frost then admitted that the students she recruited would have been better off with him.

» Generation X