With his work on New X-Men, Grant Morrison has sparked my interest in a number of Marvel's mutant characters that I cared little for in the past. One of them is Emma Frost, the one-time White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Here, Karl Bollers is passed the ball, and his first run is to tell the secret origin of the character. It's a familiar story, and there are elements that just don't seem all that genuine. On top of that, Green's artwork just isn't my cup of tea. But an interesting role reversal in the script points to some potential here as well.
Today, Emma Frost is a powerful telepath, a sexual predator and a keen tactician and manipulator. But years ago, she was just an average teenage girl cursed by exceptional circumstances. Born to a family of emotionally distant overachievers, Emma struggles to raise herself up to a more worthy status, but the weight of her family's legacy drags her down and robs her of normal friendships. The only bright lights in her life are her caring brother and a teacher who sympathizes with the withdrawn girl. But even they cannot help her with the growing migraines and the strange intuition she seems to have about her classmates.
Randy Green's artwork shows a clear Rob (Youngblood... someday, maybe) Liefeld influence, and it's one I just don't care for. To be completely fair, he tells the story clearly and capably, though a few scenes boasts a sketchy, rushed look. I am pleased that he presents the title character in her youth as a girl, not the buxom seductress depicted on the cover. Mind you, other characters -- like Emma's older brother and her teacher -- seem to be about the same age as her, and the script's cues clearly indicate they're several years older.
The greatest strength of this story is that Bollers turns the outcast-student archetype story on its ear. Instead of the underprivileged, brainy kid being picked on, Emma -- an average student who comes from remarkable wealth -- is bullied and rejected by her peers in the private-school setting. Her privileged circumstances could have easily alienated the reader, but Bollers gets the reader on her side quickly and enables him to relate to her easily.
The point where Bollers lost me, though, was the introduction of Emma's parents. They're so implausibly cold that it robs the rather grounded (and familiar) plot of credibility. None of us got along with our parents, but the Frosts are ridiculously one-dimensional. There has to be something human in them, but there's not even a hint of it.
