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Ok...who thinks that....

  
 
Wayne
06:26 / 12.12.01
Emma Frost has to be one of the most surprising things Morrison had for New Xmen? I never woulda guessed hed put her in his line up, but boy am I glad...I love her whole ..I dunno...bitch attitude? She went very quickly to becoming my favorite in those books, and Ive been reading em for 17 years now......
Just wanted to say she kicks ass, and if you havent read New Xmen yet..you should give it a try....

Jean Grey: What makes you such a bitch, Emma?
Emma Frost: BREEDING, Darling. Top class breeding....
--New X-men 116
Heh, need i say more? just my 2 cents worth......
 
 
Analogues On
06:26 / 12.12.01
My X-Men family history is a little fuzzy cos I stopped reading them after Uncanny 275 (got sick of the split em up/ kill em off/ put em back together, isn’t this fun? – no, its fucking boring soap-opera bullshit), and last I knew Emma was still in her Hellfire/ Academy phase, appropriating power from the men-folk, reading minds and being a sultry tart.

I only started back recently with New X-Men which has been a revelation in both approach and attitude, and I’m really enjoying Grant’s new direction and characterisations. I especially like Emma’s new role at Xavier’s and the fact that Grant has maintained her aloof and kinky appeal in such formerly frigid surroundings, mining genuine (heh) diamonds from the Claremont rough.

I also love the possibility that Jean may be taking some cues from Emma lately. About bloody time! Jean was always a great character, stuck too long in Cyke’s neurotic shadow. And that Cyke-Emma did they/didn’t they plot might just pop up again soon (hey, I’m just waiting for the psychis equivalent of the infamous Crystal Carrington –v-Alexis Colby bitchslap-in-the-fountain Dynasty routine).

Overall I think that the women really sum the team at the moment, and Emma is very much at the heart of the group.
Appropriating power from the men-folk, reading minds and being sultry tart is what being an X-Bitch should be about.

Bootylicious.
 
 
Captain Zoom
12:41 / 12.12.01
I've really liked Emma since my New Mutant-collecting days, and even more so in Gen X. If you like her here, you ought to check out at least the last little bit of Gen X, the whole Counter-X run. She's very good in it. Or very bad I suppose.

Zoom.
 
 
Sandfarmer
13:07 / 12.12.01
How could Morrison not use Frost. She's always been the resident dominatrix.
 
 
The Packard Goose
13:43 / 12.12.01
I agree. The White Queen rocks.

What I like is that Emma is so very up-front about her goal in life: to make the world a better place for Emma.

"Your X-MEN are currently the only credible alternative to a world where mutants are simply ghettoized, persecuted, and exterminated," she tells Cyke after he lectures her from his ever-present high horse. Emma's not pursuing anyone else's agenda; she's simply acting as she sees fit.

A big problem I've always had with the X-Men mythos is Professor X's "Dream." If you've ever read a single issue of any X-Men related comic, you've read about "The Dream," right? It's what defines the X-Men: you either believe in The Dream, or you're a threat. And Cyclops and Jean Grey and Beast and Angel and Storm and all the rest, sooner or later, look to Xavier's Dream of the future to guide their actions as X-Men, as human beings. Someone who violates the terms of The Dream will either be subjected to a lenghty course of severe behavior modification or expelled from the flock.

So it's great for me to see Emma strutting around, snapping the necks of people who shouldn't (according to her) get away with certain things, teaching the kids at the school to implant deceptive erotic images into the minds of their enemies ("Yes, Miss Frost."), expressing and acting upon her desire to feel the heat of Cyclops' one-eyed monster, and dropping the mob of protesters outside the institute gates with one mighty telepathic push of their bliss buttons.

Here's a lady who knows the way her world is supposed to be, who has a Dream of her own, and who is doing whatever she must to make her world match-up with her Dream. In that respect, she reminds me of Jenny Sparks. I'm hoping that she'll inspire Scott and Jean and Hank and the others to quit following Xavier's Dream (even though it is noble and good and blah blah blah) and to have the courage to live according to their own Dreams. If you're gonna be a mutant, then be a freakin' mutant, right? Not some crippled old man's personal angel.

I'm hoping that Emma will inspire the likes of Cyclops to give up his whole attempt at being "good" as defined by Xavier's Dreamworld, and finally shag Logan like he's been wanting to do for years. You think Midnighter and Apollo were a hot pair? Imagine Wolverine and Cyclops. That'd free Jean to move beyond all of this needing-to-define-myself-by-the-man-I'm-with crap and finally live...

Sorry. Got a bit carried away. Whiskey and 8 AM don't always go together smoothly. To sum up:

Emma Frost rocks, Grant rocks for using her the way he does (or allowing her to use him), and NEW X MEN rocks.

Bootylicious, indeed.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
13:49 / 12.12.01
I think the best thing about Emma other than some things that have already been mentioned is that she is a far less compassionate person than her colleagues, and that line about her not wanting to 'wave the flag of X-Liberalism' is fascinating... It's good to see that the politics of mutants has a left and right wing, and that the X-Men is not a group that homogenous in its political ideals.
 
 
Hush
14:05 / 12.12.01
Emma is a narrative device that combines strong sexuality, a secondary motherly protective persona, with an 'outsiders outsider' aspect that Grant uses fairly consistently. cf Crazy Jane in Doom Patrol and Robin in (Whats that thing he wrote with grenades and that?).

Interesting to see Su Storm stepping into those shoes in 1234.
 
 
Mr Tricks
18:43 / 12.12.01
While I agree with pretty much all that' said here... I must admit that GM's use of Emma isn't much of a surprise...

Granted few write her better...

"I was all doped out of alcohol & drugs back then..."

Still the Diamond aspect is novel & the X-man have always needed their "thorney" charactor...

Wolvie...
Marrow...

now Emma...

There is certainly an evolution in the works...
 
 
The Natural Way
06:44 / 13.12.01
Goose, the only thing wrong with your dream argument is that it seems very pre-Morrison. I don't think Morrison's Prof X is some kind of namby-pamby idealist. I think you may find Xavier's vison becomes more clearly defined over the coming months (in fact I believe it already is) - less ephemeral/nebulous. Morrison's big on utopia.

I do agree that Emma is a raging individualist, however.
 
 
yawn - thing's buddy
08:06 / 13.12.01
the great thing about emma is that she is a total ride.
 
 
penitentvandal
08:22 / 13.12.01
And how does Wolvie fit into the whole 'dream' thing? Everyone knows he's only in it so he can beat people up and smoke cigars...
 
 
The Packard Goose
13:33 / 13.12.01
Gun Runce--Right. I should have expressed myself more clearly. The whole dream-thing applies to pre-Morrison X-Men. I agree that Grant's Xavier is going to be a very different creature from any we've seen before. Heck, that's true already.
I was just, I suppose, using Emma as an example of the same very Morrisonesque changes in this book that you refer to.
Time was, if an X-Man felt his or her dream differing too greatly from THE DREAM (Xavier's utopia), he or she would split. Velvetvandal brings up Wolverine...whenever he really needs to cut loose, he takes a sabbatical from the X-Men. But Logan seems to know that he needs Xavier and the whole family-environment of the X-Men to keep his berserker in check. He's afraid of what he'll become should he allow himself to go wild again, in the forest where he almost killed the Hudsons way back when, in the streets of NYC, or in the Savage Land. At least, that was Wolvie's m.o. pre-Morrison. Now Logan's meditating on hillsides, alpha waves causing him to glow, attracting cute lil' deer and cute telepathic redheads. Reminds me of King Mob sitting on the mountain in India, chanting "I'm cool as BruceLee, I'm cool as Bruce Lee, I'm cool as Bruce Lee..."
But to get to the point: Remember the scene in The Invisibles where King Mob explains to de Sade that they're trying to pull off a scenario wherein everybody gets the world/apocalypse he or she wants, even the enemy? I think Grant is going to work that same theme in NEW X MEN, I think he's working it already, and for me, Emma is the character that most clearly demonstrates that at this point. It's not "good" mutants vs. "bad" mutants anymore, it's not "mutants" vs. "humans" or "heroes" vs. "villians" or one species vs. second species vs. third species, although some characters haven't figured that out yet. It's not Xavier versus other leaders/messiahs/utopian visionaries anymore, now that Grant's arranging the pieces and players. It's, cheesy as this may sound, Emma being the best Emma she can be, Scott being the best Scott, Hank being the best Hank, Charles being the best Charles, et cetera. You know: not a war, a rescue mission. Standard Morrison, and I love seeing it in the X-Men fictionverse. That's all.

Did that clarify my interpretation, or make me sound like even more of a tool?
 
 
bio k9
15:08 / 13.12.01
Plus: Hey, check out that diamond crotch!

(I'd do the rolling eyes but I dont know how.)
 
 
Mr Tricks
18:59 / 13.12.01
here...
  
 
The Packard Goose
20:58 / 13.12.01
Oh, yeah! Speaking of diamond crotches:

With Emma's new second-skin, is she safe from Cyke's optic blasts? Has poor Scott Summers at last found a woman with whom he can have unprotected (shadeless) sex?

  
 
Matthew Fluxington
09:16 / 14.12.01
Ever since Claremont wrote the book, it was always noted that Jean has the ability to psychically keep Scott's power in check, so she can be with him with no glasses on if she keeps her mind on it.

Also, if the guy can blow up all kinds of metals and giant boulders with his eyebeams, he can shoot right through diamond too.

Which doesn't explain how he can ricochet beams off of Colossus, but blow holes through steel walls... but hey, it's just silly comics...

[ 14-12-2001: Message edited by: Flux = Mute Superstar ]
 
 
Mr Tricks
09:28 / 14.12.01
quote:
Which doesn't explain how he can ricochet beams off of Colossus, but blow holes through steel walls... but hey, it's just silly comics...


I often wondered about that as well... it's been written that his inability to consciously "control" his beams were a result of childhood braindamage... <geek power activate> but in actuallity it's more psychological and he can control his beams in very indirect manors like the ricochet... In my mind, his fulfilled potential would enable him to change the direction of the beam in midair... defying all the laws of physics... since already, the "light" he generates creates "force" but neither "heat" or actual "illumination" </geek power de-activate>
 
 
Sharkgrin
09:36 / 14.12.01
The Cyclops rot/drift/hyperspace tangent has the Mallrats flavor to it:

quote: Does the Thing have a big, rocky, orange dork?
Does all of Mr. Fantastic's body parts stretch? null

<Notices that his 'package' has no mild-mannered alter ego>
 
 
Mr Tricks
09:36 / 14.12.01
<hyperthredrot> er... I always figured Ben Grimm's *** shriveled up into his rocky hide in the same manner as his last 2 fingers fused into one!!!

Why ELSE would he be such a mopey depresed bastard???
</hyperthredrot>
 
 
Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?
09:36 / 14.12.01
IT'S NOBENVYIN' TIME!
 
 
The Natural Way
09:36 / 14.12.01
No, Goose, you don't sound like a tool: I agree.
 
  
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