Emma Frost: White Queen #3 // Review
Emma’s waking-up in Rome. A couple of masked, aromerd gaurds are trying to hold her down. It’s not the best situation, but she can handle it. SHe’s powerful. Of course...she’s not exactly safe where she is, so she’s going to have to find a new location...somewhere that her pursuers can’t find her in Emma Frost: White Queen #3. Writer Amy Chu continues a deeply enjoyable suspense drama with one of the more appealing characters frrom the coerners of The Uncanny X-Men. Artist Andrea Di Vtito and colorist Antonio Favela beautifully bring the story to the page.
One of the single most powerful and secretive organizations on the planet is after her. They have people in every country waiting for her. What’s worse: itt’s the same organization that she’s been a part of until this time and nearly everyone she knows who could help her out is a part of the organization. Emma’s a powerful and resourceful person, though. And she’s managed to make it to the airport and buy every single ticket for every single flight that leaves within the hour, so there’s no way of knowing where she’s heading. Just like the organization that’s after her, Emma has contacts all over the world.
Chu plays Emma’s story as an elegant fusion of Claremont-inspired superhuman politics and taut espionage suspense. It’s a clever fusion that serves the series well. There would theroetically be a lot of different ways of approaching a solo series starring Emma Frost. Chu chooses to make Frost relatable...giving her a backstory that continues to develop as the origin of her current personality becomes a bit clearer. She’s such a dominant force that it becomes difficult to make her relatable, but Chu has found a way to make her more acceptable by being a fugitive from her own organization.
On a purely visual level, the series is beginnign to feel a bit like a sexy James Bond sort of a story. There’s an unflappable poise and dominance about Emma even as she’s being attacked by an army of thugs. She’s walking straiight throguh the danger and looking fantastic while she’s doing it. The clean-lined poise of Di Vito’s artwork amplifies the perfectionist style of the story. There’s a brilliant use of very crisp linear perspective that dominates the architectural renderings of the background. It all feels so perfect...like it’s all standing at a stylish attention in the presence of the White Queen.
And there’s another beuatiful cover by David Nakayama. It’s a really good team that they’ve brought to gether for a series featuring one of Claremont and Byrne’s most appealing creations. With this specific team there’s no rason why the series would be anything other than deeply enjoyable for as long as they have the good fortune to gbe worknig together on it. Everything seems so perfectly balanced on the page by the time of the third issue. ANd there’s so much history that they could coer over the course of the 1980s. It would be fun to watch CHu and company cover everything that happened between issues of The Uncanny X-Men and The New Mutants. In the course of a series like this. Very cool stuff.
