They Say Diamonds Last Forever

It occurred to me randomly last week, as things often do, that Emma Frost has been what could be loosely considered a good guy since Generation X was going back in the mid-90s. So it's been 25 years.

Setting aside how old that makes me feel, villains becoming heroes isn't that unusual. Especially among the X-Men. But what's strange about it to me is that she's stayed on that side. I don't know the ratio, but it feels like a lot of villains ultimately backslide. Spider-Man's had several enemies who turned good over the years, but some of them went back to being villains. Sandman, Puma, Rocket Racer (if he's in money trouble). The Black Cat, obviously, and she actually backslide to the point she became a bigger villain than she was originally. (Crime boss is worse than high-class thief, right?) Venom, if you assume that the symbiote ever really changed.

Hawkeye turned good and stayed that way. Quicksilver goes back-and-forth. Scarlet Witch, I don't know if she ever really went back to being evil. People (writers) just keep fucking with her brain.

Fabian Nicieza rehabilitated Baron Zemo, then Ed Brubaker shifted Zemo right back in just a fraction of the time that Emma's spent with the X-Men. Deadpool shifts across a smaller range. He's rarely ever fully a hero, but also rarely been a full villain after his earliest days. Advantage of being a mercenary, I guess. Taskmater's only a hero if you pay him. Elektra? I'm not sure how to define her. 

Mystique is always a villain, because she's always going to betray you. Juggernaut drifts back and forth, seemingly depending on how weak he feels (if he feels weak, time to break bad). Moonstone is occasionally heroic, but I think mostly she's just self-interested. Songbird seems to have stuck as a hero (being in Avengers Forever may have helped). 

Magneto and Namor basically treat the whole concept like Homer Simpson jumping between America and Australia.

"Now I'm a villain! Now I'm a hero! Villain! Hero! Villain! Hero!" *gets punched in the face*

Although I imagine both of those guys would insist they are staying true to their goals and beliefs. Only their methods change, or it's all in the eyes of the beholder which they are. Which, maybe, until you hit the entire planet with an EMP and kill I don't know how many people in the plane crashes and various failures of hospital equipment. Doom is probably the same, in that his goal is always the same no matter what course of action he takes. Quicksilver would probably argue the same, but really, he just keeps having mental breakdowns.

Emma's had a few occasions where it looks like she switched sides. Whedon's X-Men run, the time when she joined Norman Osborn's Bad Guys Illuminati. It always turns out she acting as a mole, and she's still loyal to the X-Men. Which strikes me as strange, considering when she was in the Hellfire Club she seemed just as much into the manipulating, maneuvering and backstabbing as Shaw and all those other putzes. Wouldn't really expect loyalty to be a defining characteristic for her.

Who Invited the Jerk?

One of the things I hunted down in back issues last year was the Marvel Knights Fantastic Four series (unhelpfully titled "4") Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa wrote in the mid-2000s. It's not going to dislodge the Simonson or McDuffie runs as my personal favorites, but it's mostly solid.

There's one issue in there focused on Sue's birthday, where Reed appears to have forgotten, so she goes out on the town with some lady friends, most of whom make sense. She-Hulk, Alicia Masters, Sharon Ventura (the second Ms. Marvel, later the She-Thing). All old friends and acquaintances.

Emma Frost is also there.

Who in the fuck would think inviting Emma Frost along on your birthday romp is a good idea? She's arrogant, condescending, manipulative and rude. It'd be like inviting Namor or Quicksilver, with the added minus Emma is a telepath with no apparent regard for the sanctity of other people's minds. There's at least two times in that one issue she plucks a thought from Sue's mind and says it out loud to the others in an apparent attempt to embarrass/put her on the spot, and basically dismisses the ethical concerns of what she did with "your mind was practically shouting it, Sue."

Do the X-Men even like her? Respect her, sure. She's been on their side long enough, proven herself enough for that. But I don't know how many of them would consider her a friend, compared to how many would say the same about Nightcrawler or Rogue, for example.

Maybe some of her former students? I know Firestar doesn't care for her, due to the manipulative stuff, but I don't know about the rest of the Hellions (however many are still alive), or the Gen X kids. Again, I think there'd be respect, they might consider her a good mentor or sounding board for their questions (although even that seems doubtful. I could see her doing a lot of damage to a kid with self-esteem issues.) Beyond that, I don't know.

Some Thoughts About A Cover

I like the cover for Young Allies #6. Really, it's Emma Frost that I like, because the way Emma Rios drew Frost sums her up perfectly to me. She's calm, confident, she's provoking a reaction in someone else while remaining in control herself, and of course, she's looking down her nose at Firestar. Arrogance, composure, mind games? That's pretty much Ethe White Queen to me. I know there's more than that, but those have been the dominant traits in most of her appearances I've read, besides "evil" and/or "inexplicably attracted to Cyclops".

Maybe it's just me, but her face is drawn more sharply than Firestar's. Certainly in the noses, Emma's comes to a point, while Angelica's is more rounded. Someone who didn't know the characters might not read it this way, but the fact Frost's nose looks like it could stab an eye out works for a character who is very good at cutting with words. OK, "cut" and "stab" aren't precisely the same, but they're both methods of hurting others. Even though Firestar's the one who looks ready to attack, Emma Frost is the one who seems more dangerous. She's unfazed by Firestar's anger, standing there waiting for something to happen. She's daring Angelica to try something, because she's got things in hand, and that gives her control because she'll use that to her advantage. There's a hardened edge to her that Firestar lacks.

Also, I like that both characters' hair is blowing backwards. It implies the clash of their personalities, the conflict between them creating a noticeable blowback.