Adrienne Frost
| Adrienne Frost | |
|---|---|
 Adrienne Frost as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Generation X #48 (February 1999) |
| Created by | Jay Faerber (writer) Terry Dodson (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Species | Human mutant |
| Team affiliations | Generation X Hellfire Club |
| Notable aliases | White Queen |
| Abilities | Psychometry |
Adrienne Frost is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Jay Faerber and Terry Dodson, Adrienne Frost first appeared in Generation X #48 (February 1999). The character appeared in stories set in the Marvel Universe, commonly in association with the X-Men. She is the older sister of Emma Frost, Christian Frost, and Cordelia Frost.
Publication history
Adrienne Frost made her debut in Generation X #48 (February 1999),[1] and was created by writer Jay Faerber and artist Terry Dodson.
Fictional character biography
Early years
Adrienne is the first-born child of Hazel and Winston Frost.[2] Her siblings, Christian, Emma, and Cordelia, were born later. Adrienne established herself as the "perfect child" and was the favorite of their father, with her hoping to gain his favor and inherit the Frost family fortune.
Adrienne is a power monger and shows little remorse or emotion when hurting her siblings, both emotionally and physically. At an early age, Adrienne discovers her mutant ability of psychometry: the ability to touch an object and instantly know the object's history in terms of events surrounding its past, present, and future owners.[3] Her power reveals to her what she had always known: Winston, her father, intended to pick the child whom he perceived as being able to guide his company into a state of growth and prosperity.
Adrienne becomes cold and distant from the world, seeing others as her pawns. Her powers allow her to become a top 'A' student, excel in all her endeavors, and continue to earn her father's favor. However, Emma's rebellion against Winston leads to Winston developing a profound new interest in her. To demoralize her, Adrienne outs Christian, to whom Emma is closest,[4] causing Christian to attempt suicide.[5][1][6]
Despite her plans, Adrienne has no control over the fact that her father saw Emma as akin to him when he was young. Confident, Adrienne and her siblings meet with Winston, who chooses Emma as his heir. Emma has grown sick of her father's manipulation and leaves to succeed on her own, leaving Adrienne as the second choice.
Headmistress of Generation X and revenge
Emma approaches Adrienne seeking to borrow money after her Massachusetts Academy falls into debt. Initially turning Emma down because of their history, Adrienne accepts her offer after learning that the academy is secretly the home of Generation X.[2] She becomes co-headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy and convinces Emma to re-open the school to the public to raise the funds necessary to keep the school open.[7] As a result of the new human student body, the members of Generation X are forced to hide their identities.[8]
Using a combination of her powers and the Danger Room, Adrienne traps Generation X in a simulation recreating the deaths of the Hellions, Emma's original group of students, at the hands of Trevor Fitzroy. While Emma and Generation X escape this illusion, Adrienne, now calling herself the new White Queen, escapes.[9][10]
Adrienne travels to London, where she embezzles millions of dollars from the Hellfire Club. She plots revenge on Emma by returning to the school, demanding that she be reinstated as headmistress, or she will expose the school as a mutant sanctuary. She reveals the school's mutant students regardless, starting riots among the human students and planting bombs at the school. The bombs are stopped by Synch, who dies containing the blast.[11][1][12][13]
Emma later confronts Adrienne, who makes it clear that she intended to escalate the violence and endanger more students. Recognizing that her powers do not work on Adrienne, Emma shoots and kills her.[11][10] Emma initially hides Adrienne's death from her students, going so far as to wipe the mind of an investigating policeman. Generation X's eventual discovery of Adrienne's murder causes them to no longer trust Emma.
Powers and abilities
Adrienne had the mutant ability of psychometry. She was able to touch an object and instantly know a history of many events concerning the object, such as all of its previous owners, events that took place around the object, and the possible future of the object and its future owners.[3] It allowed Adrienne to gather otherwise private information which she turned towards investigation, extortion, and espionage. Emma could not user her powers on Adrienne as the two were sisters, cancelling each other's powers.
Adrienne was also an exceptionally skilled and intelligent businesswoman and expert manipulator.
References
- ^ a b c Guy, Daniel (December 5, 2020). "X-Men: How Marvel's OTHER White Queen Ended a Mutant Generation". CBR. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ a b Generation X #49 (March 1999)
- ^ a b C. B. R. Staff (July 8, 2018). "The 20 Most Powerful Families In Marvel Comics, Officially Ranked". CBR. Archived from the original on October 11, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
The series Generation X reveals Emma's long-lost sister Adrienne who is also a mutant. She has psychometry which allows her to know the history of objects when she touches them.
- ^ Emma Frost #4 (December 2003)
- ^ Emma Frost #5 (January 2004)
- ^ Schlesinger, Alex (February 3, 2022). "X-Men's Iceman Makes History With The Prom Date His Fans Dreamed Of". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
Winston Frost, Christian and Emma's dad, was truly a monster. He disowned Christian after he came out, had his boyfriend deported, and then manipulated him into going to gay conversion therapy after Christian became depressed, starting using drugs, and attempted suicide.
- ^ Generation X #50 (April 1999)
- ^ Generation X #51 (May 1999)
- ^ Generation X #56 (October 1999)
- ^ a b Witiw, John (August 10, 2022). "10 Worst Sisters In Comics". CBR. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
In the X-Men series, Emma Frost is hardly an ingénue, so it's saying something when her sister, Adrienne, manages to come off as the darker of the two. Envious of her sister, she's resorted to threatening her and her students, and at one point became the second White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Emma eventually shoots and kills Adrienne, ending her evil reign.
- ^ a b Generation X #70 (December 2000)
- ^ Pulliam-Moore, Charles (January 29, 2020). "For Some X-Men, Death Still Matters". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
In Generation X #70, the X-Men Synch met his untimely end at the hands of Emma Frost's sister Adrienne. She'd planted a number of bombs around Emma's mutant academy in Massachusetts in order to sow chaos among the school's mixed population of human and mutant students. Despite being a powerful mutant when physically near other mutants whose powers he can "sync" with and replicate, Synch was too far away from his fellow X-Men at the moment one of Adrienne's bombs exploded.
- ^ Zender, AJ (June 9, 2017). "GENERATION X: A History of Misfits". ComicsVerse. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020.
When Emma's sister, Adrienne, manipulated the human student body of the academy against the mutants, Synch was killed attempting to stop her. Absorbing the strength powers of Monet, the only mutant close enough, he sacrificed himself to save all of the human students present.