Emma Frost X-Men Costumes Ranked

Tabla de contenidos

• 22. Gen X Bodysuit
• 21. Feathered-Arm
• 20. Ultimate Emma
• 19. Dark X-Men
• 18. Fishscale Emma
• 17. Xenogenesis
• 16. Hellfire Gala Outfit #1
• 15. Extinction Team
• 14. Headmistress Emma
• 13. Hellfire Gala Outfit #2
• 12. Giant-Size Emma
• 11. Fugitive Emma
• 10. New X-Men Emma
• 9. Phoenix 5 Emma
• 8. House of X
• 7. Hellfire Gala Outfit #3
• 6. New Tian Emma
• 5. Generation X Teacher
• 4. San Francisco
• 3. Astonishing X-Men Emma
• 1. The White Queen

The 5th instalment of Russel Dauterman’s “X-Men Costumes throughout the years” series features Emma Frost and it is the variant cover for Inferno #3.

This cover features Emma Frost in pretty much every single outfit that she’s ever worn into battle, and then some. There’s an incredible 22 costumes featured, and I can’t really think of any notable exclusions here. 

Perhaps the biggest two omissions are her AOA costume and that long green morph suit she wore during the Phalanx Covenant, but neither of those really fit the vibe of this white queen dream, so I can see why they were excluded.

My opinion of Emma Frost is that she is the modernist’s answer to rejuvenating the X-line. She’s the only notable new-ish member who has a comparable level of popularity today as all of the other mainstays do, like Jean and Storm and Psylocke and Kitty.

By new-ish I mean someone who joined the team in the past two decades or so. When you look at that timeline, there’s a whole slew of new characters like Pixie and Armor who – while popular in their ways – are nowhere near the almost household-name level that Emma is. 

It’s not really fair to compare the levels of popularity, though, because Emma has been around far longer than any of the new characters introduced in the 2000s. She was a villainous member of the Hellfire Club for the 80’s, and then a headmistress of Generation X for the 90’s, so the comic world has already been super-saturated with Emma Frost for years on end by the time she was a full-fledged X-Man.

But I still think it’s a commendable act for Emma to have lasted as long as she has among the X-Men and still come across as fresh. No one lasts in the X-Men lineup the way the mainstays do, so you’re gonna get a team with a Rogue and a Cyclops and a Gambit for sure, but the others who have been introduced to the x-line since the end of the 90’s usually come and go like the wind.

I mean when was the last time Wraith did anything of interest?

I think it’s a credit to the development of Emma’s character that she has lasted as long as she has in the x-franchise, and just as a team member, but as a main character too. She’s often placed in the middle of whatever main plot point is happening and is never really regulated to the sidelines. I could never imagine the x-office trying to sideline Emma, though – I’m sure it’s baked into her contract to forbid that from happening.

A lot of the x-characters are already well-developed, but Emma was able to give the team something that it lacked, and that’s really what is most interesting about her for me. None of the core group really has the same icy exterior and sardonic wit that she carries with her 24/7. She’s got a haughty attitude, and she flaunts it, whereas everyone else keeps it pretty heroic and humble. Throwing her into the mix really gave the intra-team dynamics some great inherent conflict. And you’re DEFINITELY not gonna get that from a Pixie or an Armor. 

I think without a doubt Emma is one of the greatest X-Men of all time, even considering that her actual time on the team is pretty short-lived compared to so many of the others. But enough of that, let’s get into the ranking!

Here are 22 Emma Frost costumes ranked from my least favorite to my most favorite.

22. Gen X Bodysuit

This costume is probably Emma at her most basic, and basic is not a word often used to describe Emma Frost. 

The white bodysuit was something that Emma wore as her second Generation X costume. For pretty much the entire Generation X series, the students all wore similar-ish costumes that were like red bodysuits, but this was the first time that Emma followed suit and also suited up in a bodysuit.

This is what she wore toward the tail-end of the series when she was faced with a bunch of her old rivals who came looking to settle some old scores with her. One of them was Bianca La Neige, who was a former business tycoon that Emma embarrassed, but she didn’t last for long and who knows where she’s at now.

More prominently, this was also the era when she faced off against her own sister, Adrienne Frost. Emma needed her help financially, and Adrienne agreed, but in the process she tried usurping Emma’s role as the Headmistress of the school and as White Queen of the Hellfire Club.

“Adrienne’s intervention was the breaking point for Emma, and after the revelation of Adrienne’s true nature resulted in the loss of Synch, Emma decided to put an end to her sister’s actions. Thus concluded the story of Generation X, with some of its characters achieving great feats, while others met less fortunate fates, such as Skin, or surprising transformations, such as Jubilee becoming a vampire mother.”

Even though Emma was bad-ass during this time, I don’t really think the costume did much for her. Seeing her in a full length bodysuit is fine, and it can be considered a nice change of pace from her usual scantily clad attire, but nothing about this bodysuit in particular is all that exciting to me.

The gauntlets and the boots and the belt make it super-hero, which actually kind of veers on being a little too kitschy for Emma Frost, but at the end of the day it really is just a solid white bodysuit with a zipper, and I mean there’s nothing about that to write home about.

It kind of reminds me of the wetsuit that Psylocke wore for a little while on Utopia, mostly just because of the zipper though.

But that’s the problem with Emma wearing something like this – it’s just too generic for someone like her. Say what you will about Emma’s usual attire, whether you like it skimpy or not, but the one thing that it objectively always is that it’s distinct. 

It can’t be said that anything Emma wears is reminiscent of anything other people wear. In fact, it would probably be the other way around: seeing someone in a white outfit would probably evoke thoughts like “oh, that outfit reminds me of Emma Frost.” Emma is a reference point in the comics, she’s a trendsetter, so putting her in something as basic as this does her wardrobe a disservice.

I mean it’s still nice. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just a little bit too blasé. Like all I really get from it are shades of other skin tight bodysuits worn by the likes of Colleen Wing or Dagger or even Monet to a certain extent. 

Luckily this costume hasn’t made the rounds for her yet on Krakoa, and hopefully it never does.

21. Feathered-Arm

Since moving to Krakoa, Emma hasn’t really worn one single steadfast garment to call her costume. Whereas pretty much everyone else has been seen making the rounds in their superhero outfits of yore, Emma has opted to go with a rotating wardrobe of lots of different new garments, rarely to be seen wearing the same thing twice.

And I mean it feels very Emma Frost to do that. 

Some of the outfits I think are great and I hope to see more of, whereas others are a little more ho-hum to me, and I hate to say it, but this feather-armed bodysuit was one of the most ho-hums.

Emma was seen wearing this during the early days of the Marauders series while she was enacting one of her many manipulations over Sebastian Shaw. I really hated how the X-Office painted Sebastian was somewhat incompetent during Marauders. He’s supposed to be like a mastermind and have a super-intimidating presence, but he keeps getting one-upped by Emma & Kitty to the point that it’s making him seem like a joke. 

At least he managed to temporarily eliminate Kitty, which was a big blow to Emma’s plans and gave him that menacing supervillain temperament to match.

But I mean, Kitty’s death only lasted until her inevitable resurrection, so while it was cool to see one of her plots fully executed, we knew it was only a temporary, fleeting victory over the x-girls. The whole thing felt a little cheap, and Shaw has been Emma’s laughing stock pretty much ever since.

I like watching Emma get cocky, but I expect Sebastian to match her in cockiness as well, otherwise the battlefield doesn’t feel level and so the feud just isn’t as interesting as it could be.

This feather-arm’d outfit is only slightly better than the Gen X bodysuit because, in effect, this too is a white bodysuit. It got some bonus points for the plumage on the arm, but I hate to say that seeing it only on the one side actually makes the garment feel unfinished.

Something about the way the feathers just kind of hang off her real limp-like makes the costume look like an incomplete thought – like she grabbed it off of Jumbo Carnation’s rack even though he protested that it wasn’t done yet.

And when the feathers aren’t looking limp, then they stand out in what looks to be like the wrong way. Like sometimes they are too pronounced to the point that they have Emma looking like she’s conjuring up some eldritch armor on her arm, like Illyana used to do back in the 80’s when she called forth her soulsword. 

Maybe if there was more going on within the bodysuit, or if she had a matching pair of feathered arms, I would like the outfit more, but for now I just think it needs to go back to the designer. 

Ultimately I was disappointed with how the outfit looked on the page, because on the cover for the Marauders solicit I was like “Wow, whatever this outfit is, it looks beautiful!” Like the detail on the feathers made it look really opulent.

But now, after seeing the full rotation of this outfit, I think what made it look so great on that cover was the fact that we could only see half of it. After the full thing was revealed and in plain sight that I was just kinda like….oh. A bit underwhelming. 

Some birds of a feather are meant to flock together, but unfortunately for me, this one was meant to frock alone.

20. Ultimate Emma

Oh man, the poor Ultimate universe just couldn’t get anything right when it came to costuming. At least not for me. I guess that’s what you get for trying to deviate away from being too superhero-y and trying to be more edgy. You end up with costumes that are too, like, specific to be iconic.

Emma’s first costume in the ultimate universe is what is featured here, and it makes her look like a bit of a boxy scientist from the future. 

In this world, Emma Frost was a government employee who attempted to create her own mutant squadron based on role modeling and mutant marketability. She was a former student of Professor X, but while he wanted a mutant militia segregated from the world, Emma’s vision for the future of mutants was much more peaceful and inclusive, and she believed that the main mutant superhero team should encompass those traits and values rather than be seen as renegades.

She assembled some people, like the punk rock Dazzler of this world, but the team didn’t last long because even though they read great in the market research, in practice they just didn’t live up to snuff on the battlefield.

As for this outfit, I don’t really dislike it at all. As I said, it gives off an air of scientist , and I think the long white trench coat is quite nice. It’s cut nicely, and I like how it’s buttoned up to the high collar and then has an interesting slit at the bottom.

It’s not really something the Emma of the 616 would be caught dead wearing, but in a way that’s what makes it even more interesting to me, too. 

I wouldn’t say this outfit is particularly beautiful in any sense of the word, but I don’t mind it, and I think it’s always good to show a little versatility in one’s wardrobe, especially when you’re known for not wearing much at all.

19. Dark X-Men

The Dark X-Men came about at the time when Norman Osbourne became the new kingpin of all things superhero related. The Skrulls had just been defeated during the Secret Invasion, and SHIELD was officially in the lurch, so the government gave Osbourne a free hand to do as he pleased, and he decided to shake up a bunch of teams, the X-Men included.

Emma was one of the members of Norman’s Dark Illuminati, a secret cabal of villains and ex-villains, and thanks to that association they created the Dark X-Men team, which wasn’t actually THAT dark when you consider who was part of the Dark Avengers. I mean, Namor and Cloak and “Dagger” have been playing heroes for years, so it’s not like this team was evil to the core, but with Emma leading the team it seemed like she betrayed Cyclops and the gang and went all in on Norman Osborne’s plan.

The Dark X-Men didn’t do anything too notable during their brief tenure. They arrested some wayward X-Men and played nice for the media coverage, but overall it was a pretty lacklustre team, and Emma’s heart was never really in it to begin with.

She ended up betraying Norman after she learned that he was keeping Beast & Xavier as prisoners, and the whole arc ended with Namor, Cloak, & Dagger joining Emma in returning to Utopia and fighting off Osborne’s Dark Avengers. I’m a huge Cloak & Dagger fan, so even though this arc wasn’t anything too special in the end, I still really enjoyed it because anything that puts those two street rats up front and centre is a-ok by me.

In terms of Emma’s outfit, I mean, White Queen no more – she was channeling all that Selene Black Queen energy and decided to dress the part.

I don’t really care to see Emma dressed up as the Black Queen because – woman, stay in your lane – but I don’t think this costume looks bad on her either. I like the overall design of it, even though it looks like she pulled out her old oversized Gen X belt for this one and strapped it back on. 

The furry collar of the cape I could probably do without, it’s not like it’s cold there anything so it just comes off as like a weird frill here, but as far as the pants and the top are concerned, I think they both look nice and they do a good job in portraying her new darker role with this team.

Still, I really don’t think black is Emma’s color, so unfortunately I couldn’t score this outfit any higher.

18. Fishscale Emma

This fishscale outfit is what Emma wore to celebrate Kate’s resurrection. For the life of me, I swear I thought I saw it at least on other notable time, but in preparing for this ranking I conducted a pretty thorough sweep of the line, and I’m pretty sure this was the only time she ever wore this.

There’s really not much to say about Emma’s characterization during this “period” of her life, since it’s technically still her current life period, but what can be said is that this is what she was wearing when both Kate and Emma plotted their revenge on Sebastian for taking out Kate in the first place.

I liked this outfit, but just like the feather-arm thing, something about it feels unfinished and underwhelming. It’s juzshy, and that’s what I enjoy about it, but the more I look at it the more I’m like – it needs an extra oomph somewhere.

Maybe it’s like more presence around the collar is needed, like a statement shoulder-piece, or maybe that little capelet in the back needs to extend down further. Whatever it is, she’s kind of just looking like a female wrestler or a drag queen preparing for a dance number, and it’s missing an element of regalia that makes Emma’s costumes so smug. 

I mean, it’s pretty overall, and I like seeing her with those scales that I think are reminiscent of diamond shards, maybe? However, in my opinion, it’s weird as a resurrection costume, and would be better suited as a night out number in the main green lagoon setting.

17. Xenogenesis

Ohh man. The Xenogenesis series. What a weird moment in time.

This is definitely the cheesecakiest of all Emma’s costumes, and I’ll let you all decide for yourselves if that’s a good or bad thing.

The Xenogensis mini-series took the Astonishing X-Men team to Africa so they could investigate some strange happenings in a little village. The X-Men are hopeful that they’ll discover the rebirth of the mutant species here, but it just ends up being their old British foe The Fury, and an epics battle takes over. 

Emma’s characterization during this series was utterly on point. She was precisely the sassy, stubborn, socialite you expect her to be, but oh man – some of these panels with her are just so cringey.

I know it’s a stylized choice on purpose, but I literally laughed out loud half in amusement and half in cringe when I saw some of the art depictions of Emma.

I’m not, like, criticizing the artist’s personal tastes or anything, but I think this style of design is a VERY Specific taste, and like I’m totally into camp and cheesecake and all that stuff, but I was just very taken by surprise with how HEAVILY the cake was caked onto Emma.

Literally breasts all over the place. Which is his thing, in his own way, but this was kind of on an outrageous Animaniacs level, so he took it to a cartoonish extreme that, at that point, ceases to be what I look for in X-Men comics.

I mean, the sum of the parts of her outfit is really cute: A mini dress with a window to see a little further out, long platform boots, and that straight, heavy hair. I don’t know a lot of fashion references, but am I getting like Austin Powers go-go dancer or something from this?

I think it’s a lot of fun, and I’d love to see it drawn by a different artist just to see what their version would be, but the way it was drawn in this series with his clothes permanently peeking out the whole time made it a little too sleazy and sensationalistic for me to enjoy the overall effect of the costume.

That said, I love that Emma uses her personality to get her way. It’s something Emma clearly does in her conquests, so in that sense, it makes sense that she would wear this costume. It’s not like all the women in the series were depicted as Emma, as if Storm was “normal,” so it was certainly a deliberate choice in terms of the character to make Emma look like this, and I think it’s a choice that can actually be supported by who Emma is.

We saw her use her personality very recently in an issue of Marauders where she chose to unbuckle to get her way rather than immediately resort to telepathy, so it’s not uncommon for Emma to flaunt her body openly in this way.

Admittedly, this series takes a risk with the art and takes Emma – who is already a risky character – and portrays her in an even riskier way. But man, I can’t overlook some of the insanely overt cues here, and I’m no prude, but some of them made me blush!

I really loved the character work in Xenogenesis, and I think the series certainly has its merits, but I can’t say I’ll necessarily remember it fondly for its art, and specifically not really it’s art of Emma.

16. Hellfire Gala Outfit #1

The Hellfire Gala was the big event of summer 2021, and the lead-up to it was HYPED with all sorts of swanky outfit reveals that the mutants would be wearing.

Emma’s reveal showed that she would be wearing three outfits for the event, and I remember audibly gasping whenever I saw Emma’s outfits because I thought all three were super gorgeous, and I still do to this day. 

The first of her outfits for the evening was this huge white fur jacket that encompassed her entire body, with a glorious crystal hat that adorned her head, and some cinderella-esque crystal heels which can’t be too comfortable.

This was one of the more ostentatious outfits at Hellfire Gala, but I thought it was done in a classy way without being too try-hard. Emma’s outfit here exemplifies the difference between trying to stand-out for standing-out’s sake, and then standing-out simply by means of looking good. There were lots of Hellfire Gala outfits that I thought were just there to get a reaction, but this is one that I think merits getting the reaction, because it’s just so beautiful.

There’s a side of me that wants to shout, “but it eats her up! It doesn’t give her any shape! There’s no body!”, but I kind of like that about it. I like that she’s just one big puff of fur here taking up space. Part of being a hostess and having a presence, and in this outfit Emma most certainly has a presence even just by standing there.

It’s kind of unfair pitting this outfit against her crime-fighting costumes in a ranking like this, because there’s nothing practical at all about this one that could give her the upper hand in a fight, but I mean, none of her costumes really ever lend themselves to any practicality in a fight, so I guess it’s sorta even-stevens.

Emma didn’t do a whole lot in this outfit during the Gala. She pretty much only wore it to welcome everyone to the event and then to get the show started by introducing Rhapsody and the telepathic sextet. I can’t really blame her for wanting a quick change either, because it had to be boiling hot underneath all that fur.

But heavy is the head that wears the crystal crown of fashion, and Emma most certainly wore it well on this night.

15. Extinction Team

The schism between Cyclops and Wolverine divided the X-Men into two competing worlds of philosophy – Wolverine wanted to go back to basics and so he opened the Jean Grey school and invited mutants to study and learn, whereas Cyclops maintained his military mindset and wanted mutants to be prepared to fight battles against their oppressors. 

Emma opted to remain with Cyclops during this time, and she was made a member of his Extinction Team, which was essentially a group of heavy hitters who would handle the threats made to mutantkind. It was like a super-team of people and they went around fighting other super-level threats like Mr Sinister and Unit. 

This was also the beginning of when trouble started brewing in Emma & Cyclops’ relationship, as the lust between Namor and Emma became more apparent than ever. Cyclops’ concern about Emma started waning a bit as well, like when she lost her arm in battle with Sinister and he didn’t really seem to care too much about the process it took for her to reattach it.

As far as this costume goes, it’s one of her nicer white bodysuit in my opinion. I prefer how this one is cut compared to how the other ones were. This was just seems to have a bit more personality and it says “Emma!” a lot more than the other bodysuit did.

I mean that’s probably because this one is more revealing than those ones, but hey, that’s the brand

I also prefer Emma’s accessories in this bodysuit compared to her other ones. The X-Belt actually looks subtle and like it’s an extension of the same garment here, whereas the x-belt of her Gen X costume really stood out in a sore thumb kind of way. I want to say it was comic book-y and in a bad way, because even though yes, Emma is a comic book character, it’s not like her outfits ever read totally Comic Book in that traditional slapsticky way.

There are lots of nice subtleties about this bodysuit that make it more unique than the other ones, like how the cuffs of her sleeves are slightly oversized compared to the rest of the arm, and even just the choker with the X symbol is a nice touch.

She didn’t wear this costume for a long time, because the Avengers vs X-Men storyline began shortly afterwards, but I wouldn’t be mad if this costume came back for a spell or two. It still feels like it has some fight left in it, even if it is just another bodysuit.

14. Headmistress Emma

Emma has been a teacher for a good portion of her adult life, and this was one of the outfits she wore when she took up teaching at Xavier’s school after Generation X disbanded. 

Before being at Xavier’s though, she was briefly teaching at Genosha (while it was ruled by Magneto), and this was the exact outfit that she wore when Genosha was decimated by Cassandra Nova.

After the devastation, it was the first time we saw Emma’s secondary mutation, diamond skin, take shape, and she manifested it just in time to protect herself from being one of the 16 million mutants by the Sentinels’ attack.

I love watching Emma in class. As much as I adore her rich and haughty attitude, I think she is only fully realized when she is teaching. It’s really what she was meant to do.

At her core, Emma wants mutant children to succeed and flourish, and that’s what her real motivation is as a whole. The children are what drive her in the fight for mutant rights, partially as atonement for what happened when the Hellions were in her care, but also just because that’s what she believes in the most.

I think this was Emma’s breakthrough moment in the x-comics. She had always been a fan-favorite, but was pretty much a secondary player until now, and I think her portrayal here catapulted her into the superstardom that she’s familiar with now.

In terms of the outfit, I think it’s great. It’s practical without being too revealing, and I think the trench coat adds a really fun Gambit-like element to Emma that we hadn’t really seen yet in her costuming. 

She didn’t always wear the trench coat with it though, and whenever she didn’t I actually felt that the costume looked less complete than when she did, but overall I thought this was an easy return into the x-fold costume for her to wear that was still very Emma without being too in-your-face Emma.

13. Hellfire Gala Outfit #2

Emma’s second Hellfire Gala outfit is actually the outfit that she wore for the majority of the event. She was wearing it while she schmoozed and boozed with all of the non-krakoan guests, like Captain America and the Shi’ar, and it’s also what she was wearing when she confronted Sage about the trouble that was brewing with the Terra Verde ambassadors.

When I was ranking my initial reactions to the Hellfire Gala outfits back when they were first revealed, I placed Emma as my top overall pick because I just thought it was so perfect of her to have 3 gorgeous outfits for 1 singular event.

But if I’m being honest, I wasn’t really too enamoured with the design of this second outfit. I just thought it fell kind of flat in comparison to the other two. It’s basically just a little bodysuit with a few white accoutrements on it, and to me that didn’t really sell the garment in the way that other gala garments were being sold.

But then when I saw it on the page, and especially on that gorgeous cover for the Marauders tie-in issue, I totally changed my tune. I thought it looked really beautiful and somewhat classy even, just by her having the sleeves with the long-trained cape.

The hat I was always a bit iffy on, just because it kind of makes her head look like a planet, but maybe it was supposed to represent her psionic signature, so I get it. The only part I still didn’t really like here was the shoes, because it just looked like she threw some white coverings over the diamond shoes from her first look, and it reads kind of sloppy to me, which is not something Emma Frost is known for.

I think overall though this look was way more of a hit than the miss I had originally thought it might have ended up being, and I think it was the correct outfit choice for her to spend the majority of the hellfire gala in while she schmoozed and boozed.

12. Giant-Size Emma

This outfit is another one that’s in Emma’s rotation of Krakoan costumes, and it was most notably worn during the Giant Size X-Men: Jean Grey & Emma Frost issue, when she and Jean entered Storm’s psyche to perform some quiet psychic surgery on Storm.

The entire issue is an homage to New X-Men #121, where Emma & Jean had a similar team up situation, but instead of it being for Storm, it was to rescue Charles Xavier from Cassandra Nova’s mind. 

This was a really gorgeous issue and I think one of the better ones of the Giant-Size series. It was fun watching Emma & Jean team-up this way after all that has gone down between them. Even though these two will never be friends – and nor should they be, in my opinion – I like seeing them paired up and behaving cordially with each other, if not with an underlying sense of contempt that’s omni-presently there.

In terms of the outfit, I think this one has an air of elegance and sophistication that most of her other costumes don’t have. It looks very high-end, and I think that’s mostly because of the way she has accessorized it with the tiny glovelets and the fur-collared short jacket. It’s all very swanky. 

Even the way her hair is styled here with like that subtle pushback over one of her ears just brings this whole look together into feeling like it’s a more trendy outfit than Emma is accustomed to wearing, and for that reason I enjoy it a lot.

11. Fugitive Emma

This was the look Emma wore during the Mutant Revolution era. She & Cyclops had been jail sprung from their respective prisons where they were being kept after the Phoenix Five debacle, and they were now leading an underground team of X-Men who were pretty much on the run from the law while simultaneously trying to help and recruit and train new mutants.

This team was in stark contrast to Wolverine’s team, as he was still running the Jean Grey School, and it was fun to see how Wolverine was now the straight-laced headmaster of the more, um, officialschool, and how Cyclops was now the renegade of the books running the makeshift New Xavier school.

Emma and Cyclops both suffered damage to their mutant abilities after their dance with Phoenix, and Emma recruited the Cuckoos to the school in order for them to help re-train her in re-controlling her telepathy. 

Emma and Cyclops were also freshly broken up at this point too, and so it was fun watching them still work together even though the dust had barely settled yet on their new normals.

To say this was a darker period in Emma’s journey would be an understatement. Her sass was colder and more cut throat than ever before, and she seemed to lack the jovial careless spirit that usually follows her around. I think the dankness of her situation got to her, and it made her a less fun person to be around than usual, hence the dark clothes.

Normally I don’t care to see Emma in black, but given the turn of her character during this era and the gravity of the situation she was in, I can see why she took up with the dark side.

Everyone else was wearing black costumes too, and while Emma isn’t one to follow the crowd, I think it was a good move on her part to stick with the color scheme because it gave them all a much more severe presence when they were all together. 

I also really like the costume design. It’s very Lady Mastermind in the impractical way it’s uncovered in the middle with that huge open stripe, but then again, who reads comics for their realism?

It’s actually ironic that I think this outfit reminds me of Lady Mastermind, because Emma once told Regan to her face that her outfit makes her look low class, so I mean, if Emma’s dressing that way now, then has she changed her tune on Lady Mastermind’s wardrobe, or is she just acknowledging that her x-team has fallen down a few rungs on the social ladder?

I think my favorite parts of this outfit are the skinny black trenchcoat with the bulky, football shoulder pads and the huge overstated belt buckle. And even though I approve of this whole ensemble being black, I can’t help but wonder what it would have looked like had she gone with white, and I struggle to fully reconcile this costume in the great pantheon of Emma’s costumes simply because of the color choice.

Picky, I know, but hey that’s what these rankings are all about.

10. New X-Men Emma

Kicking off my top 10 is Emma’s other New X-Men outfit. When she wasn’t wearing her Teaching outfit, she was usually wearing this one, or some combination of them both. 

As I talked about earlier, Emma’s run in New X-Men really helped to cement her as a main player in the X-Men’s world, and it’s why I think she is the only “modern” new member who has joined the X-Men to really have achieved the same level of popularity as the other more legacy characters.

Probably the most notable thing about Emma during this era was the psychic affair she instigated with Cyclops that led to the dissolution of his & Jean Grey’s relationship.

I wanna say it started off innocently enough, with Emma acting as a sort of psychic therapist for him – giving him room to vent and say things that he couldn’t say to Jean directly – but was any of it really innocent? Emma was still highly manipulative during this time, and I’m pretty sure she was working on Scott’s seduction since the onset of their “sessions”

This was definitely a power flex against Jean, as Emma just wanted to show her up.

Similar to how Selene was Emma’s foil within the Hellfire Club, Emma was Jean’s foil here in the X-Men. She was like Jean’s shadow-self, and had an attitude and a flair that Jean could never possess.

At the very least, if it was any conciliation to Jean, Emma’s flirtation with Scott really did turn into true love, so the whole affair and the breakup wasn’t done in vain.

I think Emma’s successful ‘corruption‘ of Cyclops here really helped shape his character and give him more depth, away from the old ‘Boy Scout’ personality that he was always associated with.

Emma helped to give him a brand new edge that Jean never really would have been able to, and even though I think Cyclops & Jean are the penultimate couple in X-Men comics, I actually think he’s a lot more fun and enjoyable and tolerable a character when he’s with Emma.

Now as far as this outfit goes, it is definitely one of Emma’s more revealing ones. I love a little cheesecake as much as anyone, but I don’t care for it to go too far, and this one borders on being too far for me.

I mean, the top alone (if you can call it that) is basically just what, two pasties stuck on there? There’s really not a lot of fabric here to talk about, which is both my criticism of it and also, in a stranger way, its appeal.

Even though I’m not sure how it’s all staying on there, the outfit overall looks super uncomplicated, which is a bonus for it. There aren’t a lot of bingles and bangles hanging all over the place – it’s super clean with smooth lines and it looks like it has been tailored perfectly for her body. 

It’s really pretty simple when you boil it all down, and sometimes simple is just what works best.

My favorite aspect of this outfit is the shoes, and bless Emma Frost for daring to go to battle with the towering Baby Spice platforms. I have to applaud the CONFIDENCE Emma shows in wearing them. Not only is she fearless, but she also dares to break an ankle, and that’s the kind of bravery we want from our heroes.

She’s a bad girl, not to be bothered with this outfit, and she knows it very well.

9. Phoenix 5 Emma

Now this is a glorious costume. 

Emma was one of the five 5 phoenix hosts when the force came back to Earth looking for Hope, but the force got diverted by Iron Man and it ended up in a random bunch of X-Men instead.

Together with the other Phoenix 5, Emma began rebuilding Earth in what they considered to be their image of perfection and peace, and specifically for Emma, that entailed eradicating all traces of anti-mutant technology such as Sentinels. 

The Avengers eventually came into dispute with the Phoenix 5 over their omnipotent dominance of Earth, and it all ended with Cyclops absorbing all of the Phoenix Force and manifesting his own Dark Phoenix personality and taking out Professor X before Hope and Scarlet Witch banished the Phoenix from Earth.

This debacle also marked the end of Emma & Cyclops’ relationship, as Emma confessed to having a psychic affair with Namor, much like Cyclops had with Emma back in the day. You know what they say about Psychic Affairs, once is never enough.

I was totally shocked when the Phoenix 5 became a thing. It was so out of left field for me, and I thought the phoenix returning to earth was totally just gonna go possess Hope or just resurrect Jean or something predictable like that, so I definitely commend Marvel on giving a twist that I didn’t expect.

As for Emma’s Phoenix Form, I think she looks like an Amazon princess. She definitely has aspects of Wonder Woman and Hippolyta, especially in the way she seems to be wearing those Greek-style strappy boots, and I think she looks very beautiful and intimidating without it being overdone or too much.

When I think of the Jean version of this suit, the white suit from the crown phoenix immediately comes to mind. It has similar color tones to Emma’s, but I think putting them side by side really helps to show how different these two women are in their personal tastes.

And even though this is I think the first time we’ve ever seen Emma really dabble in gold, I think she pulls it off extremely well. It’s usually always white and diamonds with her, but this white and gold mix looks just as fantastic on her and I dare say she should dabble in warmer colors more often!

8. House of X

When the plans for Krakoa first started taking shape, Emma was one of the first people who Xavier & Magneto approached to get on board with the idea and to sit on their quiet council. 

They convinced her to bring the Hellfire Corporation into the game as the exclusive distributor of the Krakoan wonderdrug, and she would serve as the face of their legitimate trade dealings all across the globe. 

Emma was also the person who saved Sabretooth from having to deal with the human prison system after he was tried for his petty insanity in Damage Control. The Fantastic Four had initially arrested him, and although Cyclops tried to negotiate his release on the spot, it didn’t work, and he eventually pleaded guilty to all of his charges in court.

It took Emma Frost barging into the courthouse wearing this fabulous number and verily-threatening the human judicial system under the guise of Krakoan diplomatic immunity for the court to agree to hand Sabretooth over to her so they could dole out their own Mutant justice.

From there Sabretooth was sentenced to spend the rest of his days exiled in the hole, but with a brand new Sabretooth Mini Series coming out soon, I can’t wait to read about his inevitable jailbreak.

Of all the new costumes that Emma has been wearing around Krakoa, this one is probably my favorite. I think it does a very good job of marrying some classic silhouettes of Emma’s into a kind of contemporary, but mostly retro look. 

The big fur cape is a nod to her role as the White Queen in the Hellfire Club, but what strikes me most is the white dress she’s wearing. There’s something about it that looks very 1960s to me, which is funny, because it was in the 1960s when the X-Men debuted and when Jean Grey started wearing her little green Marvel Girl dress, which she has since worn again in Krakoa, and if I put these two side by side, I can’t help but wonder if Emma is trying to out-Jean Jean by wearing a dress with a similar shape but a more interesting cut.

Even though I hope to god Emma isn’t going to regress and backtrack into chasing after Scott again, I don’t mind the idea of Emma competing with Jean regardless of the man-candy involved. I really enjoy their happy rivalry, and they kind of co-exist as frenemies now on Krakoa; like colleagues who can work together and grab a drink together, but they aren’t going to spend quality time with each other. And I like that there’s that distance between them.

And so I can’t help but wonder if Emma saw Jean wearing that dress and thought, “hmm, that ol’ thing? I’ll do you one better” and had this slinky little white number made. I’m totally over Jean’s dress, but Emma’s gives the look a refreshing new spin, and I wouldn’t be mad if Emma decided to make this more of her full time look.

7. Hellfire Gala Outfit #3

The final outfit that Emma wore during the Hellfire Gala was also her best of the three, in my opinion. This is the one that really made my jaw drop when it was first revealed, and I thought it was completely stunning head to toe. 

This was the outfit she was wearing when she connected all of the guests’ minds at the end of the gala and gave way to the big reveal of the X-Men having terraformed Mars. 

She also met up with a few diplomatic emissaries whilst in this gorgeous gown, like the British ambassadors who told her that they were cutting ties with Krakoa, and two people from a nameless city in a hidden society from whom she asks for something called the Kara Kutuca, which I am pretty sure we still don’t know anything about yet.

I mean this outfit is practically perfect from head to toe. I love the sparkly fringe that covers her diamond body, and because it’s diamond on diamond, the whole thing looks like it’s one big outfit.

I don’t think it works as well when she’s not in her diamond form though, and when she’s just wearing it with her regular skin it actually doesn’t look great at all. I also don’t care for the white gloves and white ankle straps with this look. I think it would have been stronger if it was 100% diamond throughout and through without those little pops of color.

The best part of it for me is that slicked back hair. I think it mirrors the draping of the fringe really well and so the whole thing just looks super sleek and like a million billion dollars.

6. New Tian Emma

The New Tian saga was a dark time in the X-Men line. Marvel was trying to sideline the mutants to make way for Inhuman mania, so the X-Men comic line was pretty much sliced & diced, and whatever stories we did get from them were not great.

There was an X-Men vs Inhumans storyline where the Inhumans’ terrigen mists were infecting the mutant population and giving them the M-Pox, which was basically just an accelerated legacy virus, and it was just another thing that was killing off the mutant species.

Emma kind of ended up being the big bad of the series after she sought revenge against the Inhumans for their part in Cyclops’ death, so the Inhumans and the X-Men had to team up to take her down.

This all led to Emma becoming more of a villainous role in the X-Men’s world again, and she eventually became the secret leader of a new sovereign nation for mutants called New Tian, which was pretty much just all of California with Utopia being its capital.

On the surface Xorn was New Tian’s ruler, but behind the scenes Emma was controlling him and she had formed her own inner circle of sorts consisting of herself, Bastion, Miss Sinister, and a personality-inverted Havok.

Their goal was to increase the mutant population, so they created a supervirus called Mothervine that would do just that, but Emma betrayed her own cabal after she learned the virus subjugated the victims’ wills, and she teamed up with the X-Men to stop the virus from being widespread.

One of the more personal things Emma did during this era was try to eradicate the younger, time-displaced Cyclops’ personality by implanting her own memories of the older Cyclops into his mind.

This would have effectively transformed the young Cyclops into the Cyclops that Emma had loved. Even though Emma was “over” Cyclops and their relationship had been ended for a little bit now, deep down she still loved and missed him, so it was wild to see her try to literally mind control this boy into becoming her former lover.

Of course Jean intervened and it didn’t work out for Emma, but this little moment just went to show how broken Emma really was at this point in her life.

Even though New Tian didn’t last for long, and it wasn’t my favorite storyline to come out of the X-Men books, I did really enjoy the outfit that Emma wore as the nation’s secret ruler. It was a married mix of her Hellfire Club White Queen personality amplifying the more common X-Men attire she had been seen wearing for like the past decade.

I really liked the criss-crossing straps from her top. Even though she wasn’t formally associated with the X-Men at this time, it still felt like a little nod from her to them being like “yo, I know you think I’m evil again, but really I’m on your side”.

I thought the high collar with the cape and the little tufts of fur on her shoulders were the highlight here, and they took the outfit from looking like one of her modern superhero outfits into making her feel much more Queenly and holier-than-thou, which is very much the attitude I want from Emma all the time.

I just think that Emma looked very strong in this outfit, and even though she was a little bit crazy at the time, it was nice seeing her act without morals for at least a little while, while she was trying to achieve a specific end goal.

5. Generation X Teacher

Emma was adopted by the X-Men after her Hellions were slaughtered by Fitzroy & The Sentinels, and though she was a bit of a reluctant house guest, she really had nowhere else to go. 

After her consciousness briefly possessed Iceman where she pushed his powers to their limits, the Phalanx attacked and captured most of the X-Men and were hunting the next generation of mutants with only Emma & Banshee around to save them.

The Phalanx was successfully defeated and this gave birth to Xavier’s new school at Emma’s converted Massachusettes academy where Generation X was formed. 

Generation X was an awesome new title that gave a breath of fresh air into the x-line at the time, and it was Emma’s first foray into being somewhat heroic, even though she was really only in the game for the sake of the students and wasn’t actively looking to become a superhero herself.

She didn’t really have the same star-power that she has now back in these Generation X days, but she was still just as quick with the quips as she is today, and in my opinion, Gen X is a severely underrated period of her life.

Her and Banshee’s relationship often flies under the radar now, but back then their frenemy-ship and competing teaching styles were highlights of the series and it’s a shame that these two aren’t depicted as being closer than they actually are.

I thought the outfit she wore in the first half of Generation X was fantastic. She had a teacher vibe, with the corset, leggings and business blazer over the top.

I mention her hair a lot when judging these outfits, because it really does add a level of flair to them, and I think the short bob here is no exception. I think it complimented Emma’s personality really well, almost like the shortness of the cut was meant to mirror the shortness of her responses to Banshee whenever he asked her for explanations or whatever.

This is probably one of Emma’s more”appropriate” outfits, as it’s not TOO revealing, which is probably a good thing considering she was serving as a co-headmaster to a bunch of teenagers at this time. 

I just think this outfit looks great on Emma for this time of her life, and I think she looks beautiful and can still pull it off even while she’s grading papers.

4. San Francisco

After the Messiah Complex storyline where every mutant on earth was vying for baby Hope, the X-Men needed a change of scenery from their usual stomping grounds of Westchester, so they relocated to San Francisco, declaring it as a safe haven for all mutants.

This was the Manifest Destiny era for X-Men, and it was all about reclaiming good vibes after having the old Xavier institute destroyed for the last and final time.

Emma was a central figure in the X-books by this time, and a lot of the panels around this era were just her and Cyclops in bed talking about their problems with each other or with the mutant issues or whatever. 

It was also when Namor joined the X-Men, and when she and he began their little romance. He only joined under the premise that Emma would take down Sebastian Shaw, which of course she didn’t, but she lied to him and pretended she had, when in fact he was being held captive as a prisoner in the X-Men’s dungeon.

Some of the major storylines to happen around this era were the Dark Reign where Emma got involved in Norman Osborne’s cabal, the Secret Invasion during which the X-Men helped keep San Fran safe from the skrulls, the formation of the Sisterhood, Selene’s Necrosha event, and of course the biggest of them all – X-Men vs Avengers.

Emma was a pretty central character in pretty much all of these storylines in like one way or another, and it really did feel like Emma had become the top selling figure of the X-Men line.

This outfit is now one of her more go-to superhero outfits I’d say. I think when people think of contemporary Emma Frost, this costume might be the one that they conjure in their minds. I think it’s quintessential Emma and it nails pretty much everything she likes in a costume – It’s white, it’s sexy, it’s moderately functional, and it’s a bit scantily clad.

I can’t help but enjoy this costume. I like the stringy little corset thing that she uses as a top, and the cape that’s attached to it with the x-badge as her branding logo. It’s not really much to talk about to be honest, but as I’ve said before sometimes simplicity is key, and with Emma usually simple works best – there’s already so much going on with her that she doesn’t need the clothes to compete with herself.

I think this is a great costume, and it’s a great segue into my number three selection…

3. Astonishing X-Men Emma

So this costume is basically exactly the same as the San Francisco costume, but this one came first and is just a little cleaner in my opinion. 

I mentioned that simplicity works best with Emma, and this costume is a tad simpler than the other one, pretty much just trading in the laced corset for her typical crop-top apparel. The change is small, but it does clean the costume up by getting rid of unnecessary frills that are neither here nor there in terms of function.

This was the costume that she debuted in the critically acclaimed Astonishing X-Men series. Emma was pretty much everywhere in the X-Men line at this point, as she was co-headmistress with Cyclops at the school with her own new squad of Hellons, and was helping Havok with his own X-Men team, and she even became an avatar for the Phoenix very briefly when it came back to earth desperately seeking Jean Grey – but all of those things aside, the Astonishing book is really where Emma was fully realized as a character during this era in my opinion.

The amazing team was very well written, and one of the highlights of the series was undoubtedly the relationship between Emma and Kitty. Emma was constantly a thorn in Kitty’s side, as these two didn’t get along at all, but Emma knew that Kitty would keep her honest, so it was a double-edged sword.

They have a complicated history with each other, so forcing them to work together on this team was definitely a choice, but these are the kind of team dynamics that make a book super fun to read, so I appreciated the team-up.

The Astonishing team did some cool stuff like fight a giant bullet, and stop the release of a mutant cure, and they also freed the sentient Shi’ar alien Danger from the Danger Room where she was being kept against her will for years and years.

Probably Emma’s biggest story during this initial Astonishing Era was whenever she was infected with Cassandra Nova’s consciousness. She was made to believe that she was evil again and part of a new Hellfire Club, but the whole thing just ended up being Emma’s own psychic insecurity acting out against the X-Men, and none of the Hellfire Club members were actually real.

This costume was around for most of these contemporary Emma storylines, and it’s probably the one she has frequented the most over the past 15 years. I think it’s a great representation of who Emma is as a character, as she’s unapologetically flaunting what she’s got, but in a classy stylish way.

It’s usually a toss-up between this one or the San Francisco one as to which costume she is going to wear into battle, but since they are pretty much one and the same, it really doesn’t make a whole lotta difference which one she chooses, because she’s gonna look fabulous before she steps out onto the battlefield either way!

One of the defining, core moments of Emma’s character history is whenever she was the teacher of the Hellions.

The Hellions were essentially created as an antithesis team to go up as the nemeses for the New Mutants. Like their name suggests, The Hellions were the bad kids under Emma’s tutelage at the Hellfire Club, whereas the New Mutants were the goody-goody super-hero type who were schooling at Xavier’s.

Some of the best issues from the original New Mutants series are whenever these two teams cross paths, because what made them interesting is that they were all of the same age and essentially contemporaries with each other, but the Hellions had looser morals and murkier ethics than the New Mutants. 

Emma was constantly on the recruit for her squad, and she tried to get Kitty Pryde and Firestar to join it, but most people saw the Hellfire Club for what it really was and wanted nothing to do with her. Magma was one of the only characters to actually transfer from the New Mutants to join the Hellions, but she was probably being controlled by Empath around that time so I dunno if it really counts.

As much as being a teacher was important to Emma, she kind of did herself dirty by not teaching these guys great team-work skills, and it really showed later whenever Fitzroy led the Sentinels to the Hellfire Club and pretty much all of her Hellions were killed on the spot. 

This was the critical juncture for Emma’s character, and she ended up in a coma for a while because of the ordeal, but the death of the Hellions is ironically one of the best things to have happened to her, because after she woke up and remembered everything that happened, she decided to turn of a new leaf and atone for her past by giving superheroes a go.

Guilt can be a heavy motivator and nothing weighs more on Emma’s conscience than having led the Hellions to their early graves.

As for the outfits she wore during her tenure as Director of Hellions, they varied among the usual range of full outfits. Sometimes she wore a corset and pants combination, and other times straight-up bikini bottoms. At this point she was still the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, so the skimpy outfits she chose were on par with the typical dress code of the club.

Something that was consistent during this era though, and what was my absolute favorite part of the costuming, was her cape with those pointy shoulders! They. Are. STUNNING.

If you are a villainess trying to make it in the Super Villain world, then listen up, because if your shoulders aren’t cut severe enough to poke somebody’s eye out, then honey – you are only putting in half the effort! How else were we to know just how evil Emma was without those shoulders giving it away?! They tell a story, and the story is that she’s a bad bad girl.

One of my favorite villainesses in the world is Xayide from the never-ending story II, and I thought her shoulders were always pretty impressive, but now I think Emma has really given her a run for her money with these ones.

Another aspect about the cape that I enjoy is the circular clasp that she uses right in the front. It’s big, it’s ostentatious, and it’s the only aspect of actual jewelry she’s wearing so why not give it a prime location like right above her bosom?

The only things I don’t really care for in this costume are the multi-leveled boots. Sometimes they go up high on one leg and cut real low on the other leg. Is this supposed to look good? Because I really don’t think it does. Maybe that was the Hellfire Club’s attempt at looking more ‘superhero-y”, but to me, it just looks kind of messy and like she couldn’t decide which length of boot to wear today, so she decided to wear both.

Maybe it’s supposed to add a bit of camp and silliness to Emma’s costume, but given the height and sharpness of the shoulders, I think we have enough camp to contend with and a single-lengthed boot will be just fine.

1. The White Queen

As if there could be any doubt for which costume would be number one. Emma Frost’s Hellfire Club White Queen couture is iconic. It’s how the character was first introduced way back in Uncanny X-Men # 129, and it’s pretty much what she’s been known for for the entire existence of her character, even though she wasn’t directly tied to the Hellfire Club anymore for like a good 20 years or so.

There have been plenty of contemporary references to the time she spent as the White Queen, and it’s a role that she will never escape so long as her character may live, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

Emma is the epitome of a bad girl gone good, because even though she did despicable things while she was the White Queen – like switching bodies with Storm, and helping Mastermind corrupt Phoenix into becoming the Black Queen, and manipulating Firestar into almost taking out Selene but actually resulting in the death of her poor horse, Butterrum – Emma managed to come back from all those browns against her name and do a lot of good, even if it took a long time for people to trust her.

What I like most about Emma today is that she hasn’t lost the spunk that she had when she was the White Queen. She’s a bit softer, sure, but there’s still an impenetrable iciness to her that comes out in moments of either stress or boredom or if she just plainly doesn’t like someone. That’s what’s most compelling about Emma Frost as a character and it’s why she’s one of the most popular characters of today.

Emma was ruthless when it came to climbing the ranks in the Hellfire Club, and she looked great while doing it. Despite the Club’s dress code screaming objectification of women, Emma had an interesting exchange with one of the maids in a Classic X-Men back-up story, where she explained that those clothes are what gives her power over men.

I mean that’s still sexism, it’s just her harnessing the sexism to achieve her own ends, which is mighty entrepreneurial of her.

This mindset of using sexuality as her body armour doesn’t change over the years, and it’s apparent in the outfits she wears right to the current days of Krakoa when she was recently shown to unbutton her own blouse in order to woo a few men in her favor. Emma knows her body can be both her armour and her weapon and she knows how to use them as both, figuratively and literally.

I think what she means is that she is the one who chooses how and when to use her sexuality and that, when she does, it is always to achieve her own goals, rather than being pressured by others to achieve theirs.

I’m a total sucker for the skimpy White Queen apparel, partially because I find it so ridiculous, but also because I enjoy the Hellfire Club’s general dress code theme of being like stuck in the 18th century. I like that the club is this superpower with old-school values, because I don’t really agree with that in general, so it helps to add another dimension of villainy to them for me. 

I also just think that she looks great in what she’s wearing – like those long boots, with the opera gloves, the impossibly cinched corset, and the big furry cape are none of them fit for battle, but Emma wasn’t doing any fighting that wasn’t taking place in the astral plane these days, so she didn’t need to dress the part of a warrior.

Hers was always a refined stratagem that she could enact from either behind the scenes or from far away, and so with that in mind, why not go ham with the outfit and simply dress in whatever the hell you want?

And that’s it for my Emma costume reviews! Please let me know what you think of my ranking in the comments, and if you agree or disagree, and what you think some of Emma’s best or worst costumes have been.

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