Emma Frost: The White Queen #5 // Review
Emma had always suspected that there was something sinister going on in her organization. Of course, the organization in question was the Hellfire Club, so a good deal of the sinister nature of the organization was pretty apparent to anyone who was inside it. However, Emma Suspected that there was a mole within the group’s Inner Circle who had been conspiring with their enemies. She aims to figure out who that might be in Emma Frost: The White Queen #5. Writer Amy Chu concludes her mini-series with artist Andrea DiVito and colorist Antonio Fabela. It’s a fun ending that feels just a bit abrupt.
There is a formal event taking place at the Hellfire Club in New York City. Everything seems to be in place. It all feels perfectly decadent and over the top in a classical kind of classiness. The organization is preparing to crown a new White Queen. The only thing is: there's already a White Queen. And she's more than a little upset about the whole situation. But she is perfectly calm about it. She holds all of the cards. At least most of them. Certainly she is in a position to see her way through to a beneficial resolution for herself.
Chu closes-up everything at the end in a way that feels cold and final. It also feels perfectly well integrated with the X-Men end of the Marvel Universe of the 1980s. There's a delicate balance that needs to be maintained in order for Chu’s work to fit in with the overall thrust of the narrative that had been developed by Claremont and Byrne nearly half a century ago.Chu manages to find the right balance between respect for what had gone before and telling a truly new story. It's very sharp work.
DiVito’s art continues to feel a little stiff where it comes to action. Thankfully, this issue is mostly about the drama. The clever framing of dramatic elements fits the page almost perfectly. Everything feels very well tailored and very well framed from beginning to end. There's a very sharp sense of execution throughout. It may not be perfectly compelling throughout. However, the fashions and the architectural renderings in the background and some of the more clever elements of Emma's poise, make it to the page quite well. Fabela’s colors embrace the page in a way it feels suitably vibrant without being garish.
The Iron Frost series vet continues beyond this one feels like a stronger departure from the traditional with respect to Emma. She's been cast at odd angles throughout the past several decades. It's hard to really get a coherent picture of what she is and who she is even though she's quite clearly on the page in a way that is quite unmistakably her. The character clearly has her appeal. And it would only be a matter of getting the right energy into developing a narrative momentum that would give Emma her own ongoing hit solo series.
