Marvel Fans Are Angry Over One X-Men '97 Character (And They're Not Wrong)

This article contains spoilers for "X-Men '97" Season 2, Episode 2, "A Force to Be Reckoned With."

"X-Men '97" Season 2 is here, and it's pretty damn excellent (read our review here). But for all its acclaim, "X-Men" fans are taking issue with one specific characterization in the three-episode season premiere.

"A Force to Be Reckoned With" features Emma Frost (Zehra Fazal), the diamond-skinned telepath and former White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Since surviving the Genosha genocide back in Season 1, she's relocated to London and set herself up as a "matchmaker" of business deals. X-Force drops in for intel on one of her clients — Apocalypse. But Emma leads them to an abandoned base where the government-sponsored mutant hunters X-Factor are waiting for them. Evidently, Emma's been working with X-Factor to round up other mutants so that they don't turn their sights on her. 

As the two X-Teams clash, Emma sits by looking at her nails, turning to diamond to avoid any damage. Jubilee (Holly Chou) says Emma "really is a total-" but Miss Frost cuts her off: "In these times, amnesty is everything." (No prizes for guessing Jubilee was thinking of a word that rhymes with "itch.")

That sentiment is something Emma Frost fans are not having. Since the Season 2 premiere, those fans have been criticizing "X-Men '97" for a regressive take on a character who has long since moved past being a bad guy.

As @BIBlBIB on Twitter said: "My condolences to Emma Frost fans." @ChampagnePuthy added, "Even as a villain, Emma Frost would NEVER give up mutant children to the government." One Reddit thread on the r/XmenUncensored community asked: "'X-Men '97' – What on earth are they doing to Emma Frost?"

The X-Men are the A-list superhero team with the most reformed villains in their ranks, and Emma Frost is a key example. She debuted as a femme fatale in Chris Claremont and John Byrne's 1980 "Dark Phoenix Saga." She stayed an antagonist throughout the 1980s, running a competing mutant academy and leading her students as the Hellions. But she slowly became more sympathetic. 

Emma came into the X-Men's fold in the 1990s, starring in the series "Generation X" where she put her teaching talents to more heroic ends. Even her dominatrix-coded sexualization has been reframed in more empowering terms; Emma controls men with her telepathy and by flaunting her body.

Now, the original "X-Men" animated series never adapted this arc; Emma was still the White Queen when that show ended. But "X-Men '97" Season 1 teed up her redemption by adapting the Genosha genocide, and Emma surviving it by turning diamond-hard, from Grant Morrison's "New X-Men." Morrison used Emma as part of the book's main cast, cementing her as one of the X-Men's leaders, not one of their nemeses. 

After "X-Men '97" Season 1, fans were expecting to see a more heroic Emma Frost moving forward. Instead, Season 2 has depicted her as a collaborator of mutant oppression and greedy profiteer. Comic Emma is a capitalist who leverages wealth and commerce to help mutants, not throw them under the bus. @ReignOfPride on Twitter summed it up well: 

"It's been bothering me but why is Emma Frost still a villain after the events of Genosha being wiped out? That was literally the whole catalyst of her joining the X-Men and protecting her students but in this show she's working for the government..."

The criticized characterization of Emma Frost in "X-Men '97" has been laid at the feet of former showrunner Beau DeMayo. In now-deleted tweets from 2022, DeMayo said he "love[s] Emma Frost," but argued her romantic influence on Cyclops made Scott into a less heroic character. That prompted accusations of misogyny, a criticism that has reared its head again among the complaints about Emma's portrayal in Season 2. DeMayo nonetheless reaffirmed his love for Emma's character in 2024 after "X-Men '97" Season 1 premiered, claiming "I began her journey toward the Emma we know and love from the comics." 

"X-Men" fans can be precious about their favorite mutants and they might be jumping the gun here. "X-Men '97" Season 2 has six more episodes to go, and it's already been renewed for Seasons 3 and 4, too. There's plenty of time for Emma to grow into a heroic character. Yet that potential can't brush away all the criticisms of her arc's current state. Emma's a teacher, and she loves children. Working with X-Factor as they're locking up mutant kids? That rings false.

X-Factor is also led by government agent Val Cooper, who was part of the Operation: Zero Tolerance that destroyed Genosha (even if she later turned against them). Compare Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's "Astonishing X-Men," when Emma's first lesson for a new class is that humans will never trust mutants — delivered by a holographic Sentinel attack evoking Emma's post-Genosha PTSD.

Since "X-Men '97" Episode 1, Emma has been shown on the villains' side in the title sequence, but that opening has evolved to reflect story changes. Hopefully, Emma's place in it will eventually change as well.

"X-Men '97" is streaming on Disney+.