Emma Frost: White Queen #1 // Review
Emma is attending as high-class social function in Buenos Ares. The president of the country is going to be there, but she’s not too concerned about that as there are other matters of business to have to contend with in Emma Frost: White Queen #1. Writer Amy Chu opens a whole new exploration of the powerful mutant with artist Andrea Di Vito and colorist Andronia Fabela. It’s a strikingly simple iteration of the villain that firmly holds the most appealing aspects of the character in the heart of the plot and moves with it. It’s a promising opening issue.
She’s going to be receiving guests. The president is immaterial. Emma is looking to meet with others from the inner circle. There’s some concern about the death of one of their own. They’re going to need to find a replacement for the late Black Rook. Of course...there ARE others who have other concerns that they would like to see addressed, but things get particularly dice involving a young anti-fascist mutant revolutionary and the heroes who come looking to rescue him from slavery within the bowels of the Hellfire Club. Emma is going to have to act fast if she’s going to be able to protect the sanctity of her organization.
Chu frames Emma as a formidable anti-hero who has a certain degree of appeal. The problem with the firs issue is that Chu isn’t allowing her enough charisma to really sell the idea of her as a main character. In order to place her at the center of a book, she really needs to have something about her that might go beyons those things that have made her such a powerful supporting character. There needs to be more of a hook with her specifically to make her at home in the center of the page and Chu hasn’t quite managed that in the first issue.
Di VIto’s lines are remarkably clean. This works well in the decadent world Emma inhabits. It’s too bad that there isn’t more of a sense of opulence about her world. The traditional iconography of the Hellfire Club as originated by co-creator John Byrne has always been excessively ornate with classy flourishes and details around the edges of everything. Di Vito isn’t quite delivering that level of detail needed to really make White Queen’s world feel as immersive as it could be. Febella’s colors DO add a respectable amount of depth and atmosphere, but without all the requisite detail added-in to the rendering, it all feels a little vacuous.
Emma is incredibly appealing as a character on quite a few different levels. There really isn’t another villai nin any universe who is quite exactly like her. There’s really no question that Emma could sit quite well on the throne of her own series if given the proper opportunity Chu has some of the proper elements in place in order to be able to do so, but there are more than a few things that are keeping her from truly being able to embrace Emma’s potential.
