ADRIENNE FROST

Publication Date: 5th Nov 2020
Written By: Daytripper.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY

The eldest daughter of the prestigious Frost family, Adrienne grew up in Massachusetts with her brother Christian and sisters Emma and Cordelia. Their father, Winston, was an unkind man and their mother, Hazel, was kept under his thumb. Naturally beautiful, Adrienne easily lined up an appointment to become a model, but claimed she was only humoring the agency, as she planned to work for her father. [Emma Frost #1] Apparently, Adrienne did take up the opportunity with the modeling agency, as she made it quite clear to the agency that she didn't care who suffered in making the clothes for her – so long as the clothes looked perfect on her, displaying her uncaring and entitled attitude. [Emma Frost #3]

When the Frost family took a vacation to the French Riviera, Adrienne made her feelings about her siblings Cordelia and Christian known to Emma – she didn't particularly care for either of them. It's unknown whether Adrienne was aware of Emma's emerging mutant power, but somehow she managed to remain a mystery to Emma, who had to rely on what Adrienne told her, unable to read her mind. Adrienne herself had developed her own mutant powers, which presumably kept Emma out of her thoughts. Adrienne’s psychic ability was known as psychometry, which enabled her to learn information by touching objects - an ability that would greatly benefit her over the years to come.

The already fragile Frost family found their vacation turned upside down when Adrienne exposed Christian for being gay, which outraged their father. However, Emma, who was close with Christian, was able to get some revenge on Adrienne when she showed her father the magazine which Adrienne had modeled for, which did not amuse Adrienne. [Emma Frost #4]

With Adrienne's modeling career derailed thanks to Emma exposing her to their father, Adrienne wanted revenge on Emma and, to do that, began to meddle in Christian's life, as she knew this would hurt Emma the most. So, when Christian left the Frost family home to live with his boyfriend Dante, Adrienne knew that their father would not stand for this and told Winston where Dante lived. Winston arranged for a police raid on Dante's house, which resulted in Dante being deported back to Cuba, breaking he and Christian up. Adrienne mocked Emma for standing beside their brother during this time, and revealed to Emma that it was she who orchestrated the events that led to Dante's deportation, despite thinking how hot Dante was. Adrienne was brazenly proud of herself at this, but Emma began to wonder how Adrienne knew any of this. As far as she knew, Adrienne had never met Dante, nor knew where he lived, which led Emma to wonder if Adrienne could read minds, too. [Emma Frost #5]

Afterwards, Adrienne suggested to Emma that she stop fighting their father all the time, then she might actually get somewhere. Then, when Winston Frost announced that he was going to leave his company in Emma's hands, Adrienne appeared less than impressed. [Emma Frost #6]

With Emma out of the picture after running away from the family, Adrienne became involved in Frost Technologies, where it is possible she embezzled money from the company. Her father warner her that he would find out. One day, Adrienne was with her father when they received a package with a video tape marked “Dil-Emma.” They watched the video and learned that Emma was being held hostage, with her kidnapper demanding money from Winston.

Winston immediately accused Adrienne of setting this up, but she assured him it was not her, and that this was real. Winston queried Adrienne as to how she knew this, to which she told him it was a hunch. While Winston responded to the kidnappers' demands by telling them that Emma was worth nothing to him, so he refused to pay them any money, Adrienne took the “Dil-Emma” video to a local news broadcasting station, claiming it was much juicier than the last publicity stunt she gave them. Further, Adrienne was certain it would be a ratings hit for them and stated that she wanted a cut of the money they would make from it, seemingly unconcerned with the threat of death that now faced her sister now that the situation had been exposed.

Later, the news station aired the hostage video during its primetime news hour. Winston saw the news report and was furious at Adrienne and struck her across the face, blaming her for the fact he would now have to pay off the kidnappers – because if he didn't, the publicity would be terrible for him. The police were called and Adrienne remained silent when Winston was questioned as to why he never contacted them in the first place. He told them that would have meant a death sentence for Emma, and that the video tape was stolen and leaked to the media, rather than reveal that Adrienne freely gave the tape to the media. When a package containing a lock of hair was delivered to the Frost Mansion, Adrienne touched the hair and assured the police that it was Emma's. Despite Adrienne’s meddling, Emma was able to escape from her captors. [Emma Frost #10-12]

In the years that passed, Adrienne became a very successful businesswoman – even more so than Emma, but her ties to her father's company apparently cut. At some point, Adrienne married a man named Steven. It is unknown how they met, or how long they were together, but Adrienne eventually killed Steven with a samurai sword that was later taken from her and ended up in Madripoor. [Generation X (1st series) #54] While Emma became successful with the Hellfire Club, and eventually headmistress at the Massachusetts Academy, overseeing the care of several young mutants dubbed Generation X, Adrienne ran Meridian Enterprises.

More than eight years went by before Adrienne, now a brunette, was reunited with Emma, who stormed into her office at Meridian Enterprises, needing her help – Frost Technologies had taken a huge hit on the stock market, and now Emma needed financial assistance to keep running Massachusetts Academy. Adrienne wasn't interested and, after Emma left her office, Adrienne discovered Emma forgot to take her purse with her. Adrienne embraced her psychometric powers and touched Emma's purse, discovering that Emma's special school was home to several young mutants. This immediately made Adrienne change her mind and, shortly, she arrived at the Massachusetts Academy with Emma, who informed her co-headmaster, Banshee, and several of the students that Adrienne was now their headmistress. [Generation X (1st series) #48-49]

A shrewed businesswoman, one of Adrienne's plans to assist Emma financially was to open the Massachusetts Academy back up to non-mutant students from wealthy families. As Adrienne discussed the school's future with Emma, she made it clear she wasn't interested in the two of them becoming close. [Generation X (1st series) #50] It wasn't long before Adrienne started busying herself with the affairs of Generation X by siding with them when they disagreed with a decision Emma made, and providing them with new team uniforms with masks to help disguise their identities from the human students. [Generation X (1st series) #51]

Adrienne's past reared its head when the mercenary Paladin, quite injured, arrived at the Academy seeking Adrienne. While Paladin recovered in a private room, Adrienne flirted with him and revealed to Jubilee, who found Paladin on the Academy grounds, that she has hired Paladin on occasion over the years, and that she sent him to Madripoor to retrieve a samurai sword that belonged to her. Jubilee, who had some experience with Madripoor, queried what Adrienne's connection to the island nation was – but Adrienne warned Jubilee not to interfere. Jubilee and most of her teammates soon accompanied Paladin back to Madripoor to retrieve the sword for Adrienne.

Adrienne found herself having to contend with an irate Emma, who wanted to know where her students were – Adrienne just gloated that Emma must hate that her telepathic powers didn’t work on her, so Emma used physical force, shoving Adrienne up against a wall and warning her that she would kill her if any harm comes to her students. Annoyed, Adrienne admitted to sending Generation X to Madripoor. Adrienne and Emma waited at the local airport for the students to return, and Adrienne was delighted when the sword was given back to her. Emma, who by now knew of Adrienne's psychometric power, explained that the sword was used to kill Adrienne's husband, and she wanted to use it to be with him for the last moments of his life. In truth, a grinning Adrienne touched the sword and wondered if her dead husband knew that it was she who arranged for his death – and all because he crossed her. [Generation X (1st series) #53-54]

Shortly after, Adrienne allegedly became involved with the Hellfire Club, and set her true plan for agreeing to help Emma out of financial difficulty into motion by trapping Generation X in a psychic reconstruction of the last moments of the Hellions' lives. Adrienne knew that the Hellions were Emma's most beloved students, and wanted to force Emma watch her current students die the way that the Hellions did. Adrienne was unsuccessful, as Emma broke through the psychic prison and exposed Adrienne, who was now wearing a white costume and, to Emma's horror, was calling herself the new White Queen. Adrienne stood her ground when Emma confronted her, comfortable in the fact that Emma's powers wouldn't work on her thanks to their sibling immunity. Generation X prepared to confront their diabolical headmistress, but Adrienne was in possession of a strange necklace that enabled her to teleport away, vowing that she would visit again soon. [Generation X (1st series) #55-56]

Adrienne retreated to London, where she spent her time seducing and killing attractive men, and plotting her next move against Emma – while also causing some trouble for the London chapter of the Hellfire Club, stealing millions of dollars from them. Adrienne returned to Snow Valley at a time of tension at the Massachusetts Academy, which she was more than happy to add to when she showed up in Emma's office. Banshee was less than happy at seeing Adrienne after what she did last time she was at the Academy, and wanted to take her out. Unfortunately, Adrienne claimed to have associates sitting on documentation that would reveal the existence of the Generation X mutants at the Academy, and she would release that information to the media should anything happy to her. Adrienne was pleased with herself and, even though Emma and Banshee didn't trust her at all, they also weren't prepared to have Adrienne make good on her threat and endanger their students.

In the days that followed, Adrienne continued to promote anti-mutant fear at the Massachusetts Academy, instigating fear in the human students – and even sleeping with at least one of them. During this time, Generation X were forced to lay low, keeping away from the human student population. Chaos soon erupted when parents arrived at the Academy and began to riot as they pulled their children out of the school. Adrienne delighted in the danger transpiring, revealed that she had placed bombs around the Academy. While Banshee raced off to find the bombs, Adrienne knocked Emma out before setting out to find Generation X. Emma found Adrienne first and they fought each other, with Adrienne finally revealing her reason for doing this – she hated Emma for becoming so successful by stealing and taking from people all her life, while she had to work hard to get to the top. Adrienne was pleased when bombs started going off – one of them even killed one of the Generation X members. Alone with Emma, Adrienne boasted that she has made her sister hurt. However, Adrienne’s boasts ended when Emma pulled out a gun, shot Adrienne in the chest and told her that she never gets hurt. Slumped against a wall, Adrienne was unable to do anything to save herself before Emma put another bullet in her – point blank in her head, killing her. [Generation X (1st series) #67-70, 75]

In the aftermath, Emma wiped the minds of the human students, their parents and the investigating police of the recent chaos.

Shortly after, Emma began having dreams about killing Adrienne, and in one dream was confronted by her sister, dressed as the White Queen and forced to relive the final moments before she killed her. During this dream encounter, Emma alluded to Adrienne being responsible for the deaths of her first students, the Hellions, alluding to a possible connection with Trevor Fitzroy, the man who actually oversaw the slaughter of the Hellions. Emma told Adrienne that she only wished she killed her sooner, before throwing away the gun she used to kill Adrienne, ending the nightmares. [X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #34]