X-Men Black: Emma Frost (SPOILERS)

[PsychoEFrost]

Well, one side hoped Leah Williams would put Emma into the morally grey territory. One side thought JDW would slam the mustache twirling villainess role at her. As it turns out, both sides are right.

spoilers:

Emma talks the X-Men into taking out the Inner Circle members of the Hellfire Club, while she goes after Sebastian Shaw directly. He gains the upper hand in their fight, but Emma's careful planning and foresight allow her the victory. A victory in which she assumes control of the entire HFC as the new Black King. Guess she didn't want Selene's moniker. Can't think why. She then sends a nice letter to the X-Men, explaining that she needed to fix the broken world for mutants in her own way, essentially tossing out her membership for good. So we do get a non-teacher non-good guy Emma, but not as stupidly evil as she was in IvX and New Xion. I can see why it hurt Leah Williams to write this. She loves Emma as a teacher, and that probably isn't going to be her role moving forward.

end of spoilers

Solid enough issue.

[Tycon]

But we see that she took over the Hellfire Club for non-greedy reasons. She was tired of seeing all those resources wasted on stuff that doesn't matter, so she decided to usurp him. She can potentially start opening up safe havens for mutant children or schools or whatever Emma needs to keep mutants on the ups.

Also, RIP Shaw. And I might as well bring this over from the Emma Frost Appreciation Thread:

http://handaxe.tumblr.com/post/17961...t-made-me-very

Leah does clarify that this issue wasn't Emma turning her back on the X-Men but instead allowing herself to get all the resources she needs to make mutants safe.

[ExodusCloak]

Leah Williams and Bachalo do an amazing job getting Emma from where she was after IvX and Bunns handling (Rock bottom) to spoilers:

Black King

end of spoilers of the Hellfire Club.

The story begins with the same preview pages. Leah explores Emma's relationship with Rogue that originated with Peter Milligan and continued with Mike Carey.

Leah gets Emma, she gets the humor, the cynicism and intelligence.

Anyway Emma's plan is to strike the Hellfires Cardinals and wipe them out. The X-Men hestitantly agree.


Emma's target is Shaw.
Shaw the monster, abuser, womaniser.

Bachalo shows how dangerously fun Emma is in two pages as she infiltrates floors of Shaw's headquarters.

Anyway Shaw gets the jump on Emma and there's some gruesome images of him enjoying punching Emma's face. However, she's unscathed and flawless as she switches to diamond. And Emma shows why she's such a devious planer

Anyway to wrap things up Frost is Black King and has the resources of the Hellfire Club. She sends a comfort basket to the X-Men as an apology for using them.

Writing this from Disneyland Paris so not able to write everything I want. Thank God for comixology

Loved the issue thanks Leah

[Tenebrae]

This was posted too early so I hid it but now feel free to comment!

[Anduinel]

I can see why it hurt Leah Williams to write this. She loves Emma as a teacher, and that probably isn't going to be her role moving forward.

Yeah, I think we've seen the last of Headmistress Frost. That said, her new position doesn't preclude her taking a new protege, at least. Or bringing some of her former ones back into her orbit (Hellion, Empath, etc.).

[RAWRlrus]

This doesn’t sound much better than what we had to be honest.

[LordUltimus]

spoilers:

Emma taking the "King" title instead of "Queen" isn't anything new. For a while Storm and Magneto shared the White King title. I'm guessing that the names aren't gender dependent and are just relating the roles of the board game pieces with the roles in the organization, with "King" being the highest title.

end of spoilers

[Tycon]

Why would it be the end of that? That's just the beginning of Headmistress Emma. She now has the opportunities and resources to open as many safe havens and schools as she wants. Saying this is a another villainous turn wasn't Leah's intent.

[Fokken]

Sounds like a really excellent set up for folks to pick up on in future X-stories. I'm genuinely psyched and hopeful for Miss Frost.

[PrezValentine]

This was posted too early so I hid it but now feel free to comment!

Just to be sure, what's the proper time to post spoiler threads? Just to be sure in the future.

[Anduinel]

Just to be sure, what's the proper time to post spoiler threads? Just to be sure in the future.

From here:

NO REVIEW/SPOILER THREADS OF NEW COMIC RELEASES BEFORE 9AM EST

Threads to discuss newly-released comics may be created at 9:00 AM Eastern on the day the issues are officially released in the United States (typically Wednesday).

[Knives]

The scene of Emma invading the fortress was beautiful.

Well the ending was predictable but still interesting. Of course Emma had some secret and was using the X-mens to achieve her goals all for a noble cause .

That shows the direction the character must follow for the next two years. This gives marvel freedom to keep Emma as a wild card as a hero or villain depending on the circumstances.

[Tenebrae]

Just to be sure, what's the proper time to post spoiler threads? Just to be sure in the future.

Around 9am EST time, it's not super strict but if it's hours before that then it will get deleted.
https://community.cbr.com/announcement.php?f=2&a=1

[lurkerforyears]

I know editorial doesn't care much about continuity, but Shaw continuity is a mess
-he had his memories completely deleted by Emma
-after that he wasnt really a bad guy anymore, and had to learn from files about what he did in the past
-worked with Magneto in Bunns Uncanny, with Rogue and Cable in Duggan's Uncanny, with Emma in New Tian and lead a team that included XMen like Magik or Boom Boom
-Now it seems he is as evil as he ever was, or, at his most evil (the terrible Fraction retcon in which Shaw killed "easy women" for fun, as if he was Sabretooth)

the easiest solution would have been Miss Sinister giving him his memories back, or worse, giving him tampered (by her) memories, as she did with the mutants that came from the Ultimate Xmen dimension (they were amnesiac and she gave them fake memories that made them follow her)

I am not completely excited about this. I would prefer to have Emma in a very experimental book, like those of the early 2000s (the morrison new xmen, xstatic, exiles, district x period) to either having her as a villain, or a very classic hero living in the mansion with the xmen and playing softball (dont really find that very interesting)

[Tycon]

I know editorial doesn't care much about continuity, but Shaw continuity is a mess
-he had his memories completely deleted by Emma
-after that he wasnt really a bad guy anymore, and had to learn from files about what he did in the past
-worked with Magneto in Bunns Uncanny, with Rogue and Cable in Duggan's Uncanny, with Emma in New Tian and lead a team that included XMen like Magik or Boom Boom
-Now it seems he is as evil as he ever was, or, at his most evil (the terrible Fraction retcon in which Shaw killed "easy women" for fun, as if he was Sabretooth)

the easiest solution would have been Miss Sinister giving him his memories back, or worse, giving him tampered (by her) memories, as she did with the mutants that came from the Ultimate Xmen dimension (they were amnesiac and she gave them fake memories that made them follow her)

I am not completely excited about this. I would prefer to have Emma in a very experimental book, like those of the early 2000s (the morrison new xmen, xstatic, exiles, district x period) to either having her as a villain, or a very classic hero living in the mansion with the xmen and playing softball (dont really find that very interesting)

What??? How was Shaw not evil during the ivX tie-ins when he stoked Xorn and the Sleepers into using lethal force against the Inhumans and one another? Or when he tried to kill Magneto during Mothervinr? Or when he wanted to kill Scott and Jean as revenge at the end of Blue? Shaw's been a villain for awhile now, and that isn't editorial, it's just story progression.