What is it about Emma Frost?

[Ra-El]

I see it kind of the same as why Wolverine is popular: wish fulfillment. She says and does what lots of people wish they could.

This. Like Wolverine and Batman.

Most people don't wish to be Superman or Jean Grey, super powerful but always holding back and taking the high road and more reactive, they wish to be the person that get on the face of those more powerful and take care of business.

Look at Cyclops, when was the character at it's most popular fase? During the Utopia days and right after AvX, when he would act more like Batman, with his own plans and having his own agenda. Now he is just tamed, making dad jokes and geting ordered around.

[charliehustle415]

It's interesting just how far the character has come since her breakthrough under Morrison. Over the last 20 years she's remained a central figure in each era.

Even now, she probably appears more across the Xbooks than any single character and is consistently being used in the wider MU by writers, second only to Wolverine and maybe even more so recently.

At this stage given just how much she appears you could argue that she is now the X-Men's leading lady. Who's even come close to her in the last 15 years if we take them as a whole?

What is it about the character that has allowed her to break through like this, and why are so many creators drawn to her?

everyone is a sub in this sub

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

I agree. Always thought that was an awesome scene.

It was a beautiful and heroic moment. And it shouldn't have been walked back. Jean didn't go through that just to be hogtied to Cyke again.

Emma is the one that should be trapped lol

[houndsofluv]

It's interesting just how far the character has come since her breakthrough under Morrison. Over the last 20 years she's remained a central figure in each era.

Even now, she probably appears more across the Xbooks than any single character and is consistently being used in the wider MU by writers, second only to Wolverine and maybe even more so recently.

At this stage given just how much she appears you could argue that she is now the X-Men's leading lady. Who's even come close to her in the last 15 years if we take them as a whole?

What is it about the character that has allowed her to break through like this, and why are so many creators drawn to her?

boobs.123456

[Lucyinthesky]

I think this is why Emma Frost tends to be so popular. Sure the sex symbol thing is part of it, but I feel like the modern writers have done a good job of taming down her costume in the modern area to be more about high fashion. But the biggest part of Emma is that she has always been the pragmatist who stands in the middle between Charles and Eric. Just knowing Emma's history we all know that if pressed, she is much like Wolverine in that she will kill to protect her students. Emma started out as a more generic villain, but that has been flushed out over the years by several writers, include Claremont who went out of their way to make her more of an anti-hero. After Emma's second coma and return after the death of the Hellions, she has been an anti-hero ever since. Since the early 1990's Emma was completely separated from the Hellfire Club and she only returned to it in X-Men Black: Emma Frost, but what did Emma do after she took over from Sebastian, she legitimized the organization to support mutant rights through business investments and building school. On the day Emma was captured by the O.N.E. she was holding a business meeting with rich investors to build a new school for the gifted to replace the Xavier school that had been decimated by so many attacks.

I think writers enjoy using Emma Frost because she has a lot of attitude and it's fun to write someone like her. She cares about her students and can be a very good teacher, but at the same time she is ruthless at business, and absolutely ruthless in defending mutant rights and protecting mutant children. Does anyone have any doubt at all that if Emma Frost had been on the ship with Kate Pryde, she would have died to save Kate and stop Sebastian. Emma has shown that she is willing to throw her life down to protect people she cares about. In Genosha she tried to shield the children from the blast with her own body.

I liked how in Captain Marvel: The End, we never truly knew why Emma stayed in Diamond form until after she rescued Illyana, then we found out it was because Emma couldn't take all the loss of attachments, and because Magneto made her promise to stay alive to guide the survivors.

Agreed with all this Emma is just in a place where you can take her into any direction as is still fun to write and read, without being too extreme in one direction or another, she´s a grey character who can just go and lead a team of X-men while also keep her secrets from her time on the hellfire club and is pretty much unbothered by everything so yes I can see why writers and fans alike love her and her position allows her to easily make the jump from the X-titles to other marvel titles.

I would say the characters that approaches her more in this flexibility during this era has been Magik, Kwannon and Betsy and a lot of it has to do with the fact their stories have been told, while the other X-women have not been given as much attention.

I agree the characterization of the other X-women has become flat and one note in some stories and is a shame because they also have a lot of layers to them that motivates their actions:

Rogue is profoundly compromised with being a heroine and X-man because she´s grateful for having been given the opportunity but also because she´s proud to be one, she can also take risks when the situation calls for it, she´s a good leader, fun, sassy and is always ready to offer others the same opportunity she was given.

Storm has this mix of Queen/Elemental/Fighter in her that makes her very appealling, she can have knife fights with Callisto or Wolverine and then go have a meeting with T´Challa on Wakanda and go watch over Arrako or have phylosophical discussions with Charles or Magneto, the same day and her personality is complex enough to show all those layers inside of her.

Jean is heroic and poweful and pretty much the heart of the X-men but at the same time she can also lose her temper, attack with more force than neccesary and apply tough love when the situation calls for it as a phoenix she´s terrifiying which contrasts nicely to her heart of the X-men persona.

So I guess what I would like to see going forward is to see all those characters with their proper characterization, motivation and complexity, just like Emma has been shown.

[kevinism]

This means nothing. Going by CBR you'd think Wolverine was one of the most unpopular X-Men. Just because Emma's fans aren't as overzealous or obsessed with constantly posting the same feats over and over doesn't mean they aren't there; she's clearly a fan favorite which is why she's been constantly in use since the Morrison era. She's been part of some of the most iconic eras of the franchise's history.

We are at peace and don't need to argue for twenty pages at a time.

[Spiderfan001]

Everyone leave daddy (i.e., Bruce Wayne) out of this. It is my dream for him and Jean to pair up...

��������

This would not work, this is a disaster in the making.Jean and Batman have diff. views on everything, they might bang because writers love to do that w/ bruce but a relationship is a no-no.

Emma and Bruce on the other hand

Isn't there supposed to be five Frostitutes?

LMFAO

That, I think, would be a terrible pairing. Bruce is a control freak of a level that makes Scott look the The Dude in comparison. I'd give it a few days before Jean decides to pull a telepathic breakup - "You never met me, and if we meet again you will have no attraction to me in any way." I know that's more of an Emma thing, but dealing with Bruce's tendencies might make Jean decide that every now and again such actions are justified.

Tip of the iceberg but yes

boobs.123456

YES

We are at peace and don't need to argue for twenty pages at a time.

And this as well LMAO

[PsychicHobo]

This would not work, this is a disaster in the making.Jean and Batman have diff. views on everything, they might bang because writers love to do that w/ bruce but a relationship is a no-no.

Emma and Bruce on the other hand



LMFAO



Tip of the iceberg but yes



YES



And this as well LMAO

And here I thought I was the only one who thought the white queen would be great with the dark knight. The perfect combination of distrust and altruistic scheming. Although Bruce might have some concerns w Emma’s shadier history ��.

[Agent Z]

Oh, I think they should be much more complicated and they have been in the past. But, I really believe writers feel they can take real risks with Emma they can't with Jean, Storm, etc. without getting social media flack and that is a big part of why so many writers love Emma.

I meant the way you described them was simplistic. They have all been written as complex characters and aren't as one-dimensional as you are claiming. There is a huge middle ground between Emma and "pure and chaste" (the latter certainly hasn't applied to the X-Women since the 70s).

Antiheroes aren't inherently more complex than traditional ones.

[Agent Z]

Nailed it

Also some of female characters become mouth-pieces for political agendas like She-hulk Emma has avoided that

Some writers do ignore her misdeeds as pointed out, but even w/out everything else her visuals and personality alone make her fun to read.A conversation w/ Emma will be more fun than w/ anyone else, she's very good at character interaction and it's consistent unlike the rest like Doom or Spider-man where it can be great or mid or bad.Hers are almost always a hit.

So doesn't matter if she's written as villain, anti-hero or villain she does well.She just fun anywhere you put, thus both writers and readers like her.

And the bad B attitude is a power fantasy for gals like Spider-man/Superman is for guys in a way, she does bad stuff and yet wins most of the times.She takes what she wants and does it w/ style, people like that.And like Spidey/supes she has empathy as well w/ her past and her "for the children attitude".

So she's the baddest B who gets what she wants and does it in style in both personality and looks and yet can be empathetic as a character.It's a win-win, add that w/ the fact most writers love her rn it's easy to see why she's so big in the Krakoa era.

Comic book characters have always been mouth pieces for political agendas. Emma is no different.

[Vordan]

I see it kind of the same as why Wolverine is popular: wish fulfillment. She says and does what lots of people wish they could.

Bingo. When her enemies go low, Emma kicks them in the face and that’s very appealing. She’s hot, powerful, funny, intelligent, and very down to earth. She’s fun to write and fun to read and you can do stories with her that you couldn’t with others because of her moral flexibility. Emma is a power fantasy for a lot of people but she’s also a cool character with a lot of depth.

[Spiderfan001]

And here I thought I was the only one who thought the white queen would be great with the dark knight. The perfect combination of distrust and altruistic scheming. Although Bruce might have some concerns w Emma’s shadier history ��.

I think Bruce would def. keep tabs on her but at the same time see her as an equal which I can't say for many others.She's like Selina in that she makes her own way but 100x more succesful at it, and has the trauma Bruce has(which is how he and Cat connect in a deeper way).

I honestly can't think of anyone else in DC or Marvel who can challenge Bruce in a way Emma could, aside from maybe Luthor but Emma is still kinda on the good side and has the same love for children that Bruce does.

Comic book characters have always been mouth pieces for political agendas. Emma is no different.

There's a big diff. in characters having beliefs which are part of the stories and being mouthpieces for an agenda.

[Agent Z]

I think Bruce would def. keep tabs on her but at the same time see her as an equal which I can't say for many others.She's like Selina in that she makes her own way but 100x more succesful at it, and has the trauma Bruce has(which is how he and Cat connect in a deeper way).

I honestly can't think of anyone else in DC or Marvel who can challenge Bruce in a way Emma could, aside from maybe Luthor but Emma is still kinda on the good side and has the same love for children that Bruce does.



There's a big diff. in characters having beliefs which are part of the stories and being mouthpieces for an agenda.

Not much of a difference since both the story and the agenda are from the writers.

The real difference is whether or not readers care about the agenda in question but Emma isn't immune to being used as a mouth piece herself.

[Spiderfan001]

Not much of a difference since both the story and the agenda are from the writers.

The real difference is whether or not readers care about the agenda in question but Emma isn't immune to being used as a mouth piece herself.

No, there's a diff. b/w a character having agendas as part of their character(which everyone does specially Emma) and being used as a mouthpiece for the writers agenda(Like she-hulk).Her change made her a mouthpiece for thr writers agenda going against all her characterization before that, it never was part of her character before this.

And I agree she isn't immune to it, no one is.I said she avoided it, same way Daredevil avoids terrible runs and is always mediocre to excellent in his solo runs.

[marhawkman]

Yh but that's the thing though storm is best when morally ambiguous or at least leaning to it. Her mowhawk era was a perfect example of this. Many have this idea that she is a being that can do no wrong and that is simply not true as she has done much that can be considered a big no no.

Emma is exactly as you said. But lorna was never written well if I am going to be honest. She always seemed to be a sounding board for other charachters especially her father or Alex. Now she is being given agency and that is wonderful.

If I was to choose a version of Lorna I liked most... in general terms of writing overall? Acolyte Lorna. She's confident and competent, and at least mostly stable.