Emma Frost (Earth-616)

Emma Grace Frost was born to a Boston mercantile family, which arrived from England in the 1600's. The second of three daughters, Emma also had an older brother, named Christian Frost, who had turned to substance abuse as an escape from the drudgery of his life and the abuse of his father. Unknown to their family or themselves, the three Frost sisters were mutants, whose telepathic abilities matured upon reaching their puberty. Deemed unfit in her father's eyes, Emma produced low grade point averages and was a social outcast while attending the Snow Valley School for Girls. As a result of her emerging powers, Emma also began to experience severe migraines. [12]

After the emergence of her powers, Emma used them to excel in all aspects of her life. Due to a crush that Emma had on a teacher of hers, Ian Kendall, Emma decided on a future in teaching, much to her father's disapproval, but, after being seen kissing Mr. Kendall in front of the Frost estate, Emma's father blackmailed her to give up her idea of teaching. After her brother's homosexuality was revealed to the family, her father Winston Frost began to alienate Christian, resulting in his drug abuse and attempted suicide. When it came time for their father to choose a worthy heir to the family fortune, Christian was automatically dismissed due to his drug problem and because he was gay. While the older sister, Adrienne Frost, seemed the most obvious choice, their father chose Emma. At the same time, Christian was sent to a mental institution, and Emma refused to be her father's heir, choosing to make her own way through life instead.[13]

Emma began to work minimum wage jobs and stayed at a hotel. After attempting to use her telepathy to pay for the meal with a newspaper instead of money, Emma was eventually caught and made to wash dishes, where she met Troy Killkelly, with whom she developed a relationship and eventually moved in with. Unfortunately, Troy owed money and Emma used her telepathy at a casino to erase their financial problems, but the loan shark insisted that they owed more, for interest. Troy suggested that they pretend to kidnap Emma and have Winston pay a ransom, but Winston refused, stating that his daughter was already dead to him. After Troy was killed, Emma absorbed all of the shark's knowledge of business through her telepathy. After her sister Adrienne took Emma's kidnapping video to the news, Winston was forced to pay the ransom. However, Emma freed herself using her abilities, took the money and moved to New York.[14]

Later, Emma found herself in a mental institution, the Essex Clinic, where she was drugged and kidnapped by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Magneto took her to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, to use Cerebro and kill all humans, while bringing together all mutants. Beast created a device that shut-off access to the cosmic rays of the Evolutionaries and accidentally killed two of them. When Cyclops vowed to protect mutantkind, the remaining Evolutionary reluctantly left, but not before erasing the memory of their presence from the minds of the X-Men and Brotherhood and vowing to return one day. After the Evolutionaries returned Emma to the clinic, her head was clear and the drugs were out of her system.[15]

Emma dyed her hair blonde and enrolled into Empire State University, where she was reunited with Mr. Kendall. While attending class, Emma met her first fellow telepath, Astrid Bloom, and Astrid began to train Emma in the use of her abilities. After learning that Mr. Kendall was dating her roommate, Christine McDermott, Emma confessed her love for him and he pursued a relationship with Emma. Christine threatened to expose Mr. Kendall's relationship with students if he did not leave Emma, but Astrid influenced him to choke her. Upon learning the truth, Emma telepathically fought and defeated Astrid, absorbing her knowledge of telepathy, and saved Mr. Kendall's job, revealing her mutant powers to him. Despite having saved his job, Mr. Kendall left Emma in disgust upon learning that she was a mutant. [16]

These events led Emma to view humans as being beneath mutants and she began believing that there was no reason to practice restraint in using her powers. Emma inherited a good deal of wealth, but most of her large fortune was the result of her business successes. Emma rose rapidly through the world of business, thanks to her intelligence, drive, personal charm, and her secret use of her psionic abilities. Also, at some point, the Dark Beast met Emma and helped her rise to wealth and power.[17]