The 5 Best Versions Of Emma Frost, Ranked

Emma Frost first appeared as the White Queen of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club in the monumental X-Men story “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. Frost has since become one of the most important mutants in the Marvel Universe, having grown immensely as a character since her villainous debut. Over the years, some amazing creators have worked on Emma Frost’s adventures, fleshing out the character until she became one of the most three dimensional characters in the Marvel Universe. Emma Frost has reached the stature of X-Women like Jean Grey, Storm, and Kitty Pryde, her role in the leadership of the X-Men and the mutant community in general earning her legions of fans.

Looking back over Emma Frost’s existence, there are five creators who did more with her as a character than any other creators — Chris Claremont, Scott Lobdell, Grant Morrison, Joss Whedon, and Kieron Gillen. Some people would include Gerry Duggan on this list, thanks to his time writing Frost in The Marauders, but Duggan didn’t really do much with Emma as a character that other creators haven’t. Claremont, Lobdell, Morrison, Whedon, and Gillen’s takes on Emma Frost have done the most for the characters, and we’re going to look at their work on the character and find out which one wrote the best Emma Frost.

5) Chris Claremont

Looking at the history of the X-Men, most of the best characters were created by Chris Claremont at some point during his career at Marvel. Chris Claremont is a revolutionary X-Men writer, having taken the characters and brought them to the next level. The White Queen is one of Claremont’s best creations, and he set up the basics of Emma Frost as a character, showing her vanity and rage, but also giving her softer side as the years went on. Claremont established her as the headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy, where she gathered and taught the Hellions, the Hellfire Club’s version of the New Mutants. Claremont’s White Queen was more of a villain than any of the other takes on this list, and wasn’t nearly as complex, but all of the seeds where planted by Claremont, allowing the character to grow into the character she’s become today.

4) Scott Lobdell

Scott Lobdell took over writing Uncanny X-Men after Chris Claremont left the X-Men books in 1991, helping plot the book with artists like Jim Lee and Whilce Potracio. After the Image exodus, Lobdell became the only writer of Uncanny X-Men and spent a good portion of the ’90s as the top X-Men writer. Lobdell started working with Emma Frost in Uncanny, revealing that she had survived the Sentinel attack in Uncanny X-Men #281 by shooting her consciousness into Iceman’s mind. He put her back in her body and then shifted her over to Generation X, the ’90s training X-Men book which took place at Frost’s Massachusetts Academy. Lobdell laid the groundwork for the Emma Frost we have today, making her love of teaching into one of the cores of her character — even when she was in Iceman’s body, she was showing him how to use his powers better — while also keeping the ruthlessness that was a core part of her character. Lobdell’s Emma was still vain and acerbic, but she was also loving to her students. Lobdell’s Emma was a huge step forward for the character, helping chart the course of her future.

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3) Joss Whedon

Grant Morrison positioned Emma Frost to take Jean Grey’s place as Cyclops’s girlfriend. However, it was writer Joss Whedon that pulled the trigger on making her the second most important mutant on the planet. Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men picked up where New X-Men left off with Emma, and Whedon wrote the character for 25 issues. Whedon’s Emma was basically the same as Morrison’s Emma.

The only real thing that Whedon added to the character was her place as Cyclops’s girlfriend, which Morrison had set up with the end of their run, and her grudge with Kitty Pryde, playing the two characters off each brilliantly. Whedon’s Emma Frost was consistently entertaining, and her place in Astonishing X-Men, a book that is often recommended to new X-Men readers, helped put her in front of all kinds of fans. Whedon was able to do an amazing job of spreading the love of Emma Frost, even if he didn’t really didn’t do much for the character compared to some of the other creators on this list.

2) Kieron Gillen

After Whedon left Astonishing X-Men, multiple writers took over writing Emma, with talents like Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey, Warren Ellis, and Matt Fraction all getting a chance to write the character. Then there was Kieron Gillen. Gillen joined Uncanny X-Men, which was the chief book that Emma appeared in, and wrote it with Fraction for a time before becoming the main writer of the book.

He would then relaunch the book in the “ReGenesis” event after X-Men: Schism and would write the character until Avengers Vs. X-Men. Gillen left Marvel for a few years, but returned and joined the X-Men for their revolutionary Krakoa Era after writer Jonathan Hickman left the X-Men books, writing Immortal X-Men, a flagship X-Men book that followed the Quiet Council, of which Emma was a member. Gillen’s Emma was the ultimate extension of the ones that built over the years by the creators that came before him. He did a good job with her in his first run on the X-Men, although she was never as much of a star as she was in other runs.

However, his time with Emma on Immortal is where his work on the character truly shines. She became the voice of reason on the Quiet Council, doing her best to hold the thing together. Duggan’s Krakoa Era Emma was a basic version of the character, but Gillen’s pushed her in better directions, showing facets of her we haven’t seen before.

1) Grant Morrison

Emma Frost became rather popular in the ’90s, and in 2001 was tapped for her biggest role to date. Writer Grant Morrison was given the reins of the X-Men, and wanted to bring Colossus onto their team, but the Russian mutant had just been killed. So, instead they chose Emma Frost, giving her the diamond skin mutation that would make her a physical powerhouse. Morrison’s New X-Men is an amazing series and a big part of that is their writing of Emma Frost.

Morrison took the seeds of Frost that Claremont and Lobdell set up and brought her to the next level. Morrison’s Emma was as bratty as ever, but there was a heart to her that wasn’t there before. She was a perfect character for the run; her biting sarcasm brought a lot of humor to the book, and her relationship with Cyclops started to show new sides of her. Morrison took Emma Frost from the B-list, where she had been ever since she left the world of villainy, and propelled her into the A-list of the X-Men. Emma Frost would still be somewhat popular without Morrison, but they positioned her to become the star that she is today.

Emma Frost is an amazing character, and there’s really no other way to describe her. Every era of the character has revealed new facets to her, and it’s really hard to pick the best one. For example, none of Emma’s successes would have been possible without Chris Claremont creating all of the basics of the character. Similarly, the same can be said of Lobdell’s work on Emma Frost. He took the character to another level; he could have easily made Emma betray the students of Generation X, but instead built her into exactly the kind of superhero that someone like Emma Frost would be.

Morrison and Whedon took the work of Claremont and Lobdell and built upon it, making Emma a much more well-rounded character that could rise to the top of the X-Men. Morrison and Whedon’s Emma still had the edge she once had, but also was more in touch with the softer sides of herself. Their version of the character had gone through tragedy after tragedy and was all about fighting to make sure that never happened again. Finally, Gillen took the character to even greater heights, showing her for the cunning and caring leader she truly is. If you’re loving Emma Frost in Exceptional X-Men, written by Eve Ewing, than it’s because of the work of these five creators.

However, for my money, Morrison’s Emma Frost is the best. Morrison found the right balance for Emma as a character. They gave her the right amount of vanity, sass, and heart. Morrison was taking a big chance pitting her against Jean Grey; X-Men fans love Jean Grey and will often choose her over other characters. However, Emma stood her own, and was able to take some of Jean’s spotlight away from her. Emma Frost’s shenanigans were a huge part of why reading New X-Men was so awesome. Morrison set Frost on the path she’s still on today, and the X-Men are better for it.

Who wrote your favorite version of Emma Frost? Sound off in the comments below.