Madame Masque | |
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Madame Masque. Art by Jim Cheung. |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | (as Whitney Frost) Tales of Suspense #98 (February 1968) (as Madame Masque) Iron Man #17 (September 1969) |
Created by | Stan Lee Gene Colan |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Originally Giulietta Nefaria, legally changed to Whitney Frost |
Team affiliations | Maggia Inner Guard |
Notable aliases | Big M, the Director, Kristine "Krissy" Longfellow, |
Abilities | Skilled combatant Proficiency with robotics |
Madame Masque (Whitney Frost) is a fictional character that has appeared in various comic book series published by Marvel Comics. As the occasional love interest, and sometimes enemy of Iron Man, she exists in Marvel's main shared universe, known as the Marvel Universe.
Contents |
Fictional character biography
Madame Masque was born as Giulietta Nefaria, the daughter of the master criminal Count Luchino Nefaria, in Rome, Italy. Her mother died when giving birth and Luchino wanted his daughter to lead a respectable life, so he gave the child to Byron Frost, a wealthy financier and an employee of Nefaria, and his wife Loretta to be raised. He called the child Whitney and raised her as his own.
As a young adult, Whitney was a debutante and socialite, and became engaged to politician Roger Vane. The Frosts died and Count Nefaria approached Whitney and revealed her true parentage. He told Whitney that he wanted her to take his place as leader of the Maggia, a Mafia-like organization running the East Coast of the United States. Whitney at first refused, but when she told Roger about her father, he left her, afraid that her connections to a known criminal would hamper his political career.
Whitney accepted her father's offer to become a professional criminal mastermind and was trained by him in strategy, criminal activities, and combat. She turned out to be a brilliant student and when her father was imprisoned, she became the new Big M, the leader of the Nefaria family of the Maggia. Her role as Big M brought her into conflict with Iron Man.[1] Whitney was forced to flee after a raid on his company, Stark Industries. The plane she escaped in crashed and Whitney's face was scarred, but she was saved by the criminal Mordecai Midas and started to work for him as his agent. Midas was obsessed with gold and Whitney hid her face behind a golden mask and used the alias "Madame Masque".[2]
Madame Masque met Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego) and he showed concern for her despite her scarred face. She turned on Midas to save Stark, but left Stark because of her criminal past. Unable to forget him, she returned as Krissy Longfellow, Stark's personal secretary. Both came to know each other's secret identity and started a romantic relationship. Their happiness was short-lived as Count Nefaria, her father, was dying as the result of an attempt to gain superhuman powers. Whitney hired the Ani-Men to bring her father to her and then asked Stark to find a cure for him. Nefaria tried to use violence to force Stark, and a battle started between the Ani-Men and Iron Man. During the battle Whitney was unable to choose between her father and her lover and when Nefaria's life-support was damaged in the fight, she went insane with guilt and grief.[3] Whitney returned to the Nefaria Maggia and as "The Director" became its leader. She often fought Iron Man and his friends.[volume & issue needed]
Masque and the Inner Guard
At one point, Whitney became paranoid and started to create copies of herself, known as bio-duplicates. One of her bio-duplicates known as Masque, was an ally of the Avengers. She also created robotic servants known as the Inner Guard and named individually after notable historical traitors (including Benedict Arnold, Brutus, Guy Fawkes and Vidkun Quisling).[4]
One member of the Inner Guard, Benedict, eventually recaptured Masque for Whitney. Masque then tried to convince her the Avengers were benevolent and that she should reach out to Stark again, but Whitney was still too fearful to do so. She continued to be a criminal figure of importance, until her father returned from the dead once again and destroyed her base. She reluctantly assisted the Avengers and the Thunderbolts against Nefaria, but she secretly planned to betray and destroy both sides, her increased paranoia causing her to believe that both sides wanted only to kill her. Masque again tried unsuccessfully to convince her to side with the heroes, then joined the battle in Whitney's place and was promptly slain by Nefaria, who showed only glee at her apparent demise while Iron Man was clearly genuinely horrified at the loss of the woman he'd once loved. Madame Masque was shocked by her duplicate's nobility and sacrifice, with Iron Man's reaction forcing her to recognise that her duplicate had been right about the Avengers. Whitney joined the battle and played a key role in her father's defeat, causing him to begin leaking ionic energy until he finally collapsed. She then decided to renounce her criminal past, and MACH-II of the Thunderbolts offered her membership, but she politely declined, departing to parts unknown to consider her future. Before leaving, she asked MACH-II to thank everyone for her, especially Iron Man. Afterward, Jasper Sitwell, an old ally of Iron Man's and Whitney's who had been in contact with him over the course of the conflict asks if that was the real Whitney. Iron Man says that it was, but that she slipped away in the confusion. He says that she really came through when it mattered. He says that she is gone, but that if you look at it- she is really back.[5]
New Avengers
Madame Masque has been hired by the Hood to take advantage of the split in the superhero community caused by the Superhuman Registration Act.[6] She is the Hood's second in command and helped them fight the New Avengers but was taken down by Doctor Strange and taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.[7]
Secret Invasion
Madame Masque is one among many supervillains who rejoined the Hood's crime syndicate and attacked an invading Skrull force.[8]
In a flashback, it is revealed that when Madame Masque was taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, a group of Skrulls disguised as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were trying to learn her true face so they could switch her out. The Hood frees her and kills all the Skrulls except one. In an unknown location attended by most of the Hood's army, they learn from the Skrull agent that the Skrulls plan on taking over Earth, believing it to be rightfully theirs. The Skrull agent dies from the injuries received under torture. Another infiltrator, in the guise of the criminal Slug is found moments later and killed.[9]
Madame Masque is seen amongst the rest of the Hood's crime syndicate as they assist the heroes in their final battle against the Skrulls.[10]
Dark Reign
Madame Masque is part of a surprise attack on the New Avengers, a trap set up by Norman Osborn.[11] Later, when The Hood attacks Doctor Strange in order to become the Sorcerer Supreme, she tries to help him deal with his possession by Dormammu, taking off her mask and confessing her feelings for him.[12]
Osborn had also put a bounty on Tony Stark's head and offered mountains of gold to the first person in the Hood's gang to get him. He personally called Madame Masque over to Stark Tower, offering the locations of multiple Iron Man armories to help her find Stark. She tracks Stark to Russia, which Pepper Potts had also done.[13] While Stark is away collecting firewood, Masque captures Pepper, torturing her, before demanding that Stark tell her his true feelings to her real face. Weakly, Tony admits that, though they have been fighting, he always loved her, to which Masque reciprocates.[14] However, in reality, he actually chose Pepper. As he escapes to Afghanistan, Masque and Pepper go hand-to-hand with each other.[15]
After her fights, Masque later reports to Osborn that she killed Pepper in combat, and returns to the United States with the Rescue armor, which is placed in storage with other Stark armors that Osborn has acquired.[16] Later, it revealed the Madame Masque is Pepper in disguise, with the real Madame Masque imprisoned in Stark's discarded Crimson Dynamo suit.[17]
Powers and abilities
Madame Masque has no superhuman powers, but is an athletic woman and a skilled hand-to-hand combatant in various martial arts and an expert markswoman. She is a master strategist and organizer, although she suffers from mental instability and is believed to be criminally insane. She has access to advanced technology like her bio-duplicates.
Madame Masque wears body armor of an unknown composition with a gold metal faceplate, underneath which her face was chemically scarred. The faceplate is hard enough to deflect bullets without causing her any permanent injury. She carries a .475 Wildey Magnum revolver or any various types of handguns, including guns firing concussive blasts of energy and guns firing sleeping-gas cartridges.
As leader of the Maggia family, Madame Masque commands unspecified numbers of Dreadnought robots modified from the original designs stolen from HYDRA.
In Iron Man: Armored Adventures her mask has the ability to scan another person's appearance and voice and projects them around her. The likeness being so real, even Tony's computer believed there were two Blizzards in the room.
In other media
Television
- Madame Masque has appeared in the 1994 Iron Man episode "Beauty Knows No Pain" voiced by Lisa Zane. Like the comics, Whitney Frost was a former love of Tony’s obsessed with her own beauty. She became bitter when she lost her beloved looks and Tony. She then became involved with the Maggia and took on the identity of Madame Masque. Upon her discovery of the Golden Sepulcher of Isis which could return her beauty to her, she and her Maggia henchmen kidnapped many workers and Julia Carpenter. Tony Stark arrived at the scene and fought some of the Maggia henchmen until they overwhelmed him upon Madame Masque's arrival. Madame Masque then threatened to kill Julia unless Iron Man retrieved the gem for her. After surviving the deadliest of traps, Iron Man gave Madame Masque the Golden Sepulcher of Isis, and restored her beauty. After becoming Isis due to the artifact's effects, she learned that all she really wanted was Tony. After Madame Masque/Isis' fight with Iron Man, War Machine, and Spider-Woman, the Golden Sepulcher of Isis is destroyed by Iron Man, regressing Isis back to a disfigured Madame Masque. Iron Man then told her the love he once felt for her was inside, and it died years ago.
- Madame Masque appears in Iron Man: Armored Adventures voiced by Kristie Marsden. She is renamed Whitney Stane since this version is depicted as the daughter of Obadiah Stane and has a vendetta against her father for neglecting her and throwing Tony out of his own home. Her mask is equipment from Stark Industries, which gives her the ability to scan and copy anyone's appearance (including the Iron Man armor, but not the person inside it) making her some kind of shapeshifter. She uses an arsenal of powerful weapons, and is quite a good hand-to-hand fighter (stated by her in "Ready, A.I.M., Fire" she "took the best kick boxing lessons her father's money could buy"). It may be noticed that, though she's ordinarily blond, her mask make her hair turn black as Madame Masque. Whitney Stane first appears in "Field Trip", where she visits her father. She helps Tony get out to Stark Tower without too much problems when he get surprised in it by Obadiah. She then makes an appearance in "Ready, A.I.M., Fire", where it's revealed Pepper has a dislike for her. She saves Tony's life when the Controller takes over Gene, Happy, Rhodey and Pepper and uses them to try to kill Tony. She also reveals that her father sent her to spy on Tony, yet took the position just so she could be close to Tony. Her feelings for Tony appear to be yandere, becoming violent if there is a possible threat to Tony's life, even going so far as to try to kill her own father as she believed he was trying to harm Tony. In "Masquerade", she first appears as Madame Masque, and begins impersonating her father in order to cause him trouble. When Iron Man discovers her (though both of them are unaware of each other's identity) and threatens to call the police, she copies his appearance and impersonates him as a thief, causing him to be wanted by the police. However, when she attempted to kill Iron Man, she accidentally changed faces in front of the police, forcing her to run. She barely catches onto the ledge of a building and as Iron Man approached her, her mask fell off. Not wanting his friend go to jail, Tony/Iron Man let her go with a warning. In "Chasing Ghosts," Madame Masque resurfaces and poses as Tony Stark to go on a rampage. When Iron Man catches her, Madame Masque states that she was doing it because an assassin called Ghost has been hired to assassinate Tony Stark. Madame Masque suspects that her father hired Ghost (this is later proved to be false). When Whitney ends up captured, James Rhodes (posing as Tony Stark) managed to free her while Iron Man fought Ghost. Whitney managed to use some of Obadiah's account to pay Ghost off to leave Tony alone. Whitney briefly became Madame Masque in "Don't Worry, Be Happy" to slow the police to help Iron Man. However in "Best Served Cold", the use of the mask caused damage to her brain, leaving her ill, and later, dangerously insane. After nearly killing her father, further brain damage resulted in her losing her memories after becoming a student of the Tomorrow Academy as well as her identity as Madame Masque and Tony as Iron Man.
Video games
- In the Iron Man video game, Whitney Nefaria (voiced by Courtenay Taylor) speaks to Tony Stark through one of the levels as he reclaims his weapons from the Maggia. Rhodes asks Tony how he knows her, he replies "old friends." She apparently is killed by fallen debris when Stark destroys the generator powering the complex, but reappears when Stark tries to take down the Maggia's airship. Whitney is then killed when Stark takes down the airship and it crashes, depending on whether the player made the time limit, into the ocean or, if the player misses the time limit, into a nearby city.
References
- ^ Tales of Suspense #98
- ^ Iron Man vol 1 #17
- ^ Iron Man vol. 1 #116-117
- ^ Avengers, volume 3 #32
- ^ Avengers, volume 3 #34
- ^ New Avengers #35
- ^ New Avengers Annual #2
- ^ Secret Invasion #6
- ^ New Avengers #46
- ^ Secret Invasion #7
- ^ New Avengers #50
- ^ New Avengers #52
- ^ The Invincible Iron Man #12-14
- ^ The Invincible Iron Man #15 (July 2009)
- ^ The Invincible Iron Man #16 (August 2009)
- ^ The Invincible Iron Man #17 (September 2009)
- ^ The Invincible Iron Man #18 (September 2009)
External links
- Madame Masque's Inner Guard at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
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