Is Marvel Setting Up a Beloved X-Men For a Villain Turn?

Emma Frost has long been a fan-favorite, first appearing in the classic story “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. As the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Emma was a threat to the X-Men, but there was always a part of her that just wanted to be a teacher and make sure her students didn’t have to have the kind of life that she did. Emma was compassionate, but she was also a pragmatist, and taught her students in the Hellions to be like her. After the death of the Hellions, and her own return to life, she became a teacher’s Xavier’s Massachusetts Academy, helping to mold Generation X before moving to Genosha after Magneto took it over. The massacre of the island nation by the Mega-Sentinels drove her to the X-Men and for last twenty-four years, she’s been one of the most popular mutants in the X-Men.

Emma Frost has mostly been an exemplary X-Man in the 21st century, although there have been slip-ups. The first was because of the Phoenix Force and the second was because of the death of Cyclops from M-Pox, with her rejoining the Hellfire Club and becoming something of an antagonist for her former teammates. However, with the dawn of the Krakoa Era, Emma’s almost-evil tenure ended and she became a leader of the island. The loss of Krakoa greatly affected Emma, and that’s led her to where she is today, taking up the teaching role again in Exceptional X-Men. However, there have been clues lately that she might be going back to her old ways.

Emma Frost Has Every Reason to Turn Back to Evil

Currently, Emma Frost seems like she’s in a good place. She’s helping to teach three new mutants about their powers with Kitty Pryde and Iceman, two mutants she has a checkered history with, which could be part of the problem with her lately. However, that good place is filled with flaws. Her students don’t respect her, with the mutant Aro, who she has tried to take under her wing, constantly ghosting her. Being around Kitty and Iceman isn’t easy either. When Kitty returned to the X-Men after the death of Jean Grey, she found one of the first villains she ever fought in the bed of her dead friend’s husband, Cyclops. She and Emma did not get along well, and while that enmity turned to respect, Kitty and Emma still have a grudge against each other. Emma basically brought Kitty back into the mutant game in Exceptional X-Men and their relationship is more strained than ever.

Emma’s relationship with Iceman is also fraught with peril. The Hellions were killed by Sentinels in Uncanny X-Men #281, and Emma also “died” in the battle. However, she was able to shoot her mind out of her body and take residence inside Iceman’s mind. While there, she showed him the full extent of his powers and was eventually able to leave his body, going back to her own. The two of them have never really been friends since, more tolerating each other than anything else. Emma being forced to be around people she has such a negative history with, and her treatment by her new students, isn’t good for her.

RELATED: 5 X-Men Stories the MCU Should Adapt

The loss of Krakoa is also a weight on Emma. Krakoa was basically Emma’s dream come true. It was a place where young mutants could actually be safe and be themselves, learning to use their powers surrounded by love and support. Emma was one of Krakoa’s staunchest defenders and its most responsible leader; everything she did was to protect the island nation and make it more powerful. However, she failed, in no small part thanks to the way that the island’s other leaders messed up the whole thing. Emma worked as hard as she could, but the dream she embraced was rotten even before she ever found out about it.

The safety of Krakoa is gone and mutants are in more danger than ever. The genocidal Orchis Initiative is no more, but in its place is the mysterious force behind Graymalkin Prison, who are imprisoning and weaponizing mutants. She’s stuck with students who don’t respect her, and her fellow teachers are the X-Men she’s hurt the most that aren’t named Jean Grey. Her world has been shattered, and when Emma’s world is shattered, she’s been known to lash out.

Long Live the White Queen

The last time Emma Frost’s life fell apart led her down a dark road, one that saw her try to exterminate the Inhumans for their role in the death of Cyclops, the man she loved. In many ways, she was justified for this — the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mists had caused M-Pox, and they didn’t do nearly enough to mitigate its harmful effects on mutants. Even then, though, she still had some small measure of hope still and that hope paid off with the establishment of Krakoa. However, that ended in fire and blood, and she’s left shattered in ways she’s never been before (that’s right, even worse than “Murder at the Mansion”).

Now, all of that is gone. Emma is in a place that she hasn’t been since she was a teenager, when she left the wealth of her family behind to prove that she was better than them. She has nothing to look forward to and her current life is a shell of what she once had. The White Queen was where she went the last time she was hopeless and it wouldn’t be any surprise if she went back. That honestly seems the way they’re taking her. Emma Frost doesn’t take well to loss, and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before she makes the world pay for what it’s taken from her.

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!