First off, thanks for the interest that you people are giving this series of posts. Really. I started this thinking it'd be this fun thing and it's turning out that I'm getting more comments than ever, as well as new readers.
Thank you for that, you bastards.
With that all said, let's get this going on.
The Mast's 30 Days of Comicdom (Day 3): Who Is Your Favourite Female Character?
I had three major candidates for this category and it drove me insane trying to chose. I thought about how I felt about them and their stories, I wrote down pros and cons, I weighed up legacy and influence. Characterisation, versatility and memorable nature all came into play when deciding the winner of this.
It's with pleasure, then, that I announce that my favourite female character is...
Emma Frost.
With the exception of My Favourite Character, things are probably going to be cut pretty fine in terms of who gets mentioned and who doesn't. This is without a doubt the tightest call I'd ever have to make on favourites. Many would expect Elektra, and for the longest time she WAS my favourite female in comics.
I had never really cared much for Emma Frost. I mean, we all knew her as The White Queen of The Hellfire Club. We all knew her as that blonde psychic chick who wore barely any clothes to speak of. So why is she my favourite female character? It wasn't until Grant Morrison brought her in and attached her to The X-Men, or New X-Men as it became known (Changing title at Uncanny X-Men #114, becoming New X-Men #114, I believe), that I really gravitated toward the character. I think it's the same for many people with her, and The X-Men in general.
How best to describe Emma Frost? Well...she has all the characteristics of someone your girlfriend would absolutely hate, but you'd have the major hots for. She's the kind of woman your eyes would pop out of your head for, but your girlfriend would stand there giving the screwface to. I don't think there has been a female in Marvel, or maybe even in comics, that walks the line of classy and trash as much as Emma Frost. In clothing, but especially attitude, she does this better than any female I've ever read. She walks that line like a model walks a runway.
Her earlier outfits very much did fall more onto the side of trashy more than classy, but the outfits she began donning during Morrison's run really reflected her attitude, or the attitude he brought out in her.
Emma Frost is extremely rich, traffic-stoppingly attractive and immensely powerful. She knows this, too. She isn't humble, she isn't fond of discretion. She has all of the qualities that, in any other woman, would make you turn away in an instant. She's a bitch to end all bitches and possibly the snobbiest woman you'll ever encounter. It's for this reason that her revival as an X-Men character is crucial. Not only did Morrison bring her back to the forefront, he had her join the team.
I found myself with a great distaste toward Emma Frost. Why? It's simple. I believe in faithfulness in dealing with the opposite/same sex, whatever your choice is. Honesty at the very least. Want something serious? Cool. Something casual? Cool. I don't dig infidelity, so it became a point of note for me when Emma Frost decided (Yes, decided) that she had taken a liking to Cyclops and wanted him, despite Jean Grey still being on the scene. Eventually, Cyke and Emma began having a psychic affair that went unnoticed by Jean.
Cyclops fell victim to this. Should he have? No. Thus is the lure of Emma Frost in all its strangeness. She's the kind of woman that will stand in front of you, look down her nose and tell you with the thickest air of snobbiness that you simply aren't good enough, and still somehow make you want to be with her for at least a night.
Emma's grooming of Cyclops was so deliciously intricate, but you didn't want it to stop because it was a train wreck waiting to happen. It was the boy scout leader actually getting himself into shit by being a bit of a, well, pussy hound. This was made all the more entertaining being that she's the hot blonde who has admitted to having brest implants. She IS the woman that Jean Grey or any other woman would have thought, "What do you see in her? She's not even that hot."
Jean eventually finds out and shit, to say the least, hits the fan.
Throughout her stint on Morrison's New X-Men and Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, Emma Frost became a centrepiece of The X-Men. Over time, though maintaining an unmistakably snobby and classy/bitchy exterior, Emma did fall in love with Cyclops genuinely and, after Jean's passing/blessing, they formed a relationship which runs to this day. They learned from each other; Emma learned that she doesn't have to be a total bitch all the time, what it means to be vulnerable and accept that. Cyclops learned that he needs to man the fuck up and just be a little like Emma sometimes.
She's that woman you wish with all your morality that you could hate, but you can't. It reminds me of that quote in Fight Club about Marla being that little flap of skin, you know? It'd go away if you stopped tonguing it, but you just can't. Except you have no control over Emma. If she decides she's going to be in your life, she will be until she decides to leave.
On top of all this, consider that she's one of mutantkind's most powerful ever telepaths. She's definitely not someone people need to be pissing off.
Her confidence is not an act, but she came from beginnings that aren't unfamiliar to girls everywhere. She's been rich for most of her life, owned Frost International and was born into a fairly rich family. However, it was recently revealed (To my knowledge at least) that her school years were fraught with torment from her peers. Day in and day out she would receive hateful notes about how she was flat-chested, ugly, gross and just plain unwanted.
The rest, as they say, is history. Give or take some bad decisions and her school (The Massachusetts Academy) being shut down due to most of the students getting killed, she's made a success of herself.
Something else I always loved about Emma Frost was that she had the sharpest wit. She could say the most sexually crude things in the most elegant or classiest of ways that it seemed so sexy, instead of slutty. There's one part where Nightcrawler asks her if she prays or if she's religious, to which she replies, "These are $200, Italian cashmere, Kiki de Montparnass stockings, Kurt. I won't kneel in them unless absolutely necessary."
We quite clearly know what kind of sexual innuendo that is, but it's said it such a snarky and charming manner that you don't think she's a slut for making an oral sex joke. You find it alluring. When Wolverine and Cyclops are arguing over, I believe, Jean Grey, she churns out another amazing line. She says to Beast, "I have scintillating wit and the best body money can buy, but I STILL rate below a corpse."
There's her classic line about being her own best friend because she can turn into diamond, and who can forget her constant baiting and tormenting of Shadowcat? So brilliantly written by Whedon.
Despite being forced into being independent growing up, despite all of the teasing and the abuse, Emma Frost realised she could let it ruin her or she could do what Emma Frost was destined to do. She grew up, used her powers and skill to make money, bought the best body money could buy with that money and decided to take the world by the mind, getting exactly what she wanted out of it, when she wanted and how she wanted. You've got to admire that, really.
Sadly, she isn't being written as she deserves to be at the moment. She hasn't been for some time. At her best, under Morrison and Whedon, Emma Frost is a woman you would wish was a just a TINY bit nicer than she was, but a woman you can't fault for being the way she is.
She is someone everyone loves to hate or hates to love, peers and readers alike, and that's just the way she likes it. It's why she's my favourite female character.
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That's another one down and I want to thank you all for reading YET AGAIN.
As stated, there's a new one every day until all 30 have been posted. Three down, 27 to go. I hope you have enjoyed this one, the others, and I hope you enjoy the rest to come.
Until next time, peace.
-The Mast
