Madame Masque

Madame Masque (birth name Giulietta Nefaria but legally renamed Whitney Frost) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, the character first appeared in Tales of Suspense #97 (October 1967). An occasional love interest and enemy of Iron Man and the daughter of Count Nefaria, she originally wore a golden mask to cover up her disfigured face and continues to do so after her face was healed.

Over the years, Madame Masque has appeared in various forms of media, including

.

Publication history

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2020)

Whitney Frost first appeared in Tales of Suspense #97 (October 1967) using the code name Big M and was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan.^[2][3] She started appearing as Madame Masque in Iron Man #17 (September 1969).^[4]

Fictional character biography

Madame Masque was born as Giulietta Nefaria, the daughter of the master criminal

Frost 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. Following the Frosts' deaths, Count Nefaria approached Whitney and revealed her true parentage, as he wishes for her to inherit his position as head of the Maggia, a Mafia-like organization based on the East Coast of the United States. Whitney at first refused, but when she tells Roger about her father, Roger ends their relationship out of fear that her connections to a known criminal would hamper his political prospects. Heartbroken, Whitney accepted her father's offer to join the Maggia and was trained by the Count in strategy, criminal activities, and combat. She turned out to be a brilliant student and when her father is imprisoned, she becomes 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, an old enemy of Count Nefaria.^[6]

Whitney was forced to flee after a raid on Stark Industries. The plane she escaped in crashed and Whitney's face was badly scarred, but she was saved by the criminal Mordecai Midas and started to work for him. Midas is obsessed with gold and gave Whitney a golden mask to conceal her disfigured face. She also starts using the alias of "Madame Masque."^[7]

Madame Masque meets Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego) and the latter shows concern for her despite her scarred face. She turns on Midas to save Stark, but leaves him because of her criminal past. Unable to forget her feelings, she assumes the identity of Krissy Longfellow, Stark's personal secretary. Both come to know each other's true identity and start a romantic relationship. Their happiness is short-lived as Count Nefaria is dying due to a failed attempt to gain superhuman powers. Whitney hires the Ani-Men to bring her father to her and then asks Stark to find a cure for her father. Count Nefaria threatens Stark, and he is forced to fight the Ani-Men as Iron Man. Whitney is unable to choose between her father and her lover, and when Nefaria's life-support system is damaged in the fight, she goes insane with guilt and grief.^[8] Whitney returns to the Nefaria family and regains her former position as leader. She resumes her vendetta against Iron Man and his friends.^[9]

At one point, Frost becomes paranoid and starts to create physical copies of herself, known as bio-duplicates. One of her bio-duplicates, who is simply referred to as "Masque", turns on her creator and becomes an ally of the Avengers.^[10] She also creates robotic servants known as the Inner Guard and names them individually after notable historical traitors: Benedict, Brutus, Fawkes, Quisling, Monmouth (based on Benedict Arnold, Marcus Junius Brutus, Guy Fawkes, Vidkun Quisling, and the Duke of Monmouth) and two other, unnamed members.^[11][12]

Benedict successfully recaptures Masque for Whitney. Masque tries to convince her the Avengers are benevolent and that she should reach out to Stark again, but Whitney is still too fearful to do so. She continues to be a criminal figure of importance, until her father returns from the dead, now with superhuman abilities, and destroys her base. She reluctantly assists the Avengers and the Thunderbolts against the Count, but she secretly plans to betray and destroy both sides, her increased paranoia causing her to believe that she can trust no one but herself, despite moments of doubt such as when Stark unmasks in her presence but lowers his face-plate back when preparing to talk to the rest of the Avengers.^{[volume & issue needed]} Masque again tries unsuccessfully to convince her to side with the heroes, then joins the battle in Whitney's place. Masque obtains a weapon designed to disrupt Nefaria's powers that Whitney had prepared for her father, but is slain by Nefaria before she can use it. Madame Masque is shocked by her duplicate's nobility and sacrifice, with Iron Man's dismayed reaction at what appears to be her death compared to Nefaria's glee forcing her to recognize that Masque was right about the Avengers. Whitney joins the battle and plays a key role in her father's defeat, her weapon causing him to begin leaking ionic energy until he finally collapses. She renounces her criminal past, and MACH-II of the Thunderbolts offers her membership, but she declines, departing to parts unknown to consider her future. Before leaving, she asked MACH-II to thank everyone for her, especially Iron Man.^[13]

Madame Masque is hired by the

During the "Dark Reign" storyline, Norman Osborn puts a bounty on Tony Stark's head, and personally calls Madame Masque over to Stark Tower, offering the locations of Iron Man's multiple armories to help her find Stark. She tracks Stark to Russia, which Pepper Potts had also done.^[19] Masque captures and tortures Pepper before demanding that Stark tell her his true feelings to her real face. Stark admits that even after years of fighting, he still loves her, to which Masque reciprocates.^[20] However, when faced with a direct choice between Pepper or Masque, Stark chooses to save Pepper first. As Stark escapes to Afghanistan, Masque and Pepper fight hand-to-hand.^[21] Masque is defeated and imprisoned in a discarded Crimson Dynamo suit^[22] while Pepper disguises herself in her mask and costume to falsely report her own death to Osborn and turn over the Rescue armor, which is added to his personal collection of Iron Man suits.^[23]

Madame Masque escapes, and later participates in a surprise attack on the New Avengers, a trap set up by Osborn.

During the "Heroic Age" storyline, Hood escapes from prison and makes a play to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet, for which he recruits Masque. Hood is able to use the Reality Gem to heal Masque's disfigurement, but she continues to wear her golden mask.^[30]

She appears in Madripoor for the auction of a videotape showing Hawkeye assassinating the dictator of an unnamed Asian nation. However, the real Madame Masque is shown to be tied up and gagged in her hotel room; the "Masque" attending the auction is actually Hawkeye's partner Kate Bishop disguised in her costume.^[31] After the tape is destroyed, Masque vows vengeance on Hawkeye and Bishop.^[32] She attempts to capture Bishop by luring the girl to her home in California, where she drugs her. The teen manages to escape, and Masque swears to take revenge once again.^[33]

In the pages of "

As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" Madame Masque starts a quest to retrieve different magical objects in order to empower herself. During her journey, she is pursued by a mysterious group of ninjas.^[35] Iron Man catches onto her motives when she tries to steal a duplicate Wand of Watoomb from Castle Doom. Upon discovering the artifact she had stolen is fake, she kills her informant in a hotel in Montreal. Iron Man later confronts Madame Masque in the hotel room and tries to reason with her. Startled by his presence, Madame Masque unleashes a surprising display of enormous magical power.^[36] Upon traveling to Mary Jane Watson's nightclub, Jackpot, in Chicago, Madame Masque confronts her former business partner Belhilio and kills him. She then faces off against Iron Man and Doctor Doom,^[37] which results in the nightclub being completely trashed. A furious Watson hits her in the face with a microphone, knocking her mask off, and Doctor Doom discovers that Madame Masque has been demonically possessed. Iron Man is able to hold her down while Doctor Doom successfully performs an exorcism. By the time Iron Man regains consciousness, Doctor Strange arrives and informs him that he will take Madame Masque away to metaphysically fix her and will later hand her over to the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D.^[38]

To combat the West Coast Avengers, Madame Masque formed a West Coast version of the Masters of Evil consisting of

As Iron Man hovers over New York figuring out what people want from him, one of the flashbacks to his recent fights shows Iron Man being shot point-blank in the faceplate by Madame Masque.[40]

Madame Masque is among the crime lords competing with Mister Negative in obtaining the Tablet of Life and Destiny in order to win the favor of Mayor

Madame Masque has no superhuman powers. She is an athletic woman and a skilled hand-to-hand combatant in various martial arts and an expert markswoman. She is also a master strategist and organizer. Madame Masque displayed some form of telepathic resistance.[49] She has access to advanced technology like her bio-duplicates.

As leader of the Maggia family, Madame Masque commands unspecified numbers of Dreadnought robots modified from the original designs stolen from HYDRA.

Madame Masque would later gain mastery over magic.^[46]

Equipment

Madame Masque wears body armor of an unknown composition with a gold metal faceplate, underneath which her face was chemically scarred.^[50] The faceplate is hard enough to deflect bullets without causing her any permanent injury. She carries a .475 Wildey Magnum revolver and other handguns, in addition to weapons that fire concussive blasts of energy or sleeping-gas cartridges.

Reception

Accolades

• In 2009, IGN included Madame Masque in their "Marvel's Femme Fatales" list.^[51]
• In 2018,
  CBR.com ranked Madame Masque 5th in their "Iron Man: His 20 Deadliest Villains" list.^[52]
• In 2019,
  CBR.com ranked Madame Masque's relationship with Iron Man 4th in their "Marvel: 10 Best Romances Between Heroes And Villains" list.^[53]
• In 2019, Screen Rant ranked Madame Masque 10th in their "10 Strongest Female Marvel Villains" list.^[54]
• In 2020,
  CBR.com ranked Madame Masque 5th in their "10 Most Powerful Crime Bosses In Marvel Comics" list.^[55]
• In 2022, Newsarama ranked Madame Masque 3rd in their "Best Iron Man villains" list.^[56]
• In 2022, Screen Rant included Madame Masque in their "10 Most Powerful Wonder Man Villains In Marvel Comics" list.^[57]

Other versions

House of M: Masters of Evil

In the House of M universe, Madame Masque fulfills a similar role as her mainstream counterpart. She serves as the second in command of the Hood's criminal syndicate, as well as being his mistress. She is with him during the uprising, and during the syndicate's invasion of a foreign country. She is one of the few criminals who decides to stay with Hood when the others decide that the heat from Magneto is too much and abandon him. She is killed in the final battle and it is mentioned that Hood and Masque had a very powerful love, which is what motivated him to keep fighting.^[58]

JLA/Avengers

Madame Masque is seen among the enthralled villains defending Krona's stronghold. She is shown to already be unconscious.^[59]

Marvel Noir

In the Marvel Noir Universe, a version of Madame Masque appears as an Italian explorer working with Tony Stark, with whom she once shared a relationship.^[60] Dr. Gialetta Nefaria, along with Tony, Virgil Munsey, the editor of Marvels magazine, and Tony's friend and companion Rhodey are on a trip in British Honduras. After acquiring a rare mask carved from jade in a temple, she is later seen betraying Tony and his friends to Baron Zemo and Von Strucker. Though Rhodey and Tony escape, their makeshift bomb leaves Gialetta permanently scarred.^[60] Forced to wear the mask to hide her face, she joins the Nazis on Von Strucker's airship with a captive Pepper Potts, and Orichalcum, Atlantis' power source.^[61] When Tony attacks wearing a suit of power armor, Gialetta tries to stop him, but Pepper, having been tortured by the spy, kills her.^[62]

In other media

Television

• Madame Masque appears in the Iron Man (1994) episode "Beauty Knows No Pain", voiced by Lisa Zane.^[63] She uses her Maggia connections to search for the Golden Sepulcher of Isis. While she obtains the object, she loses herself to its power and is defeated by Iron Man, further cementing her insanity.
• Madame Masque appears in
  Obadiah Stane and love interest of Tony Stark, who uses a golden prototype disguise mask made by Howard Stark that lets her take on the appearance of anyone, but also emits unchecked radiation that eventually drives her insane. As Madame Masque, Whitney is a skilled acrobat and fighter, and uses other Stark International weapons and equipment in battle. After several fights with Iron Man, she is apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D.
  , but switches places with one of their agents and escapes.
• A 1940s incarnation of Whitney Frost appears in the
  Strategic Scientific Reserve despite her friendship with mob boss Joseph Manfredi.^[70] Whitney is ultimately deprived of her Zero Matter abilities and committed to an asylum.^[71]
• Whitney Frost / Madame Masque appears in
  Shadow Council to learn more about Wakandan technology. Though the Council is defeated in the episode "Atlantis Attacks", Frost escapes to pursue world domination. In the series finale, "House of M", she attains greater mental powers and lures the Avengers and Hydra into a trap using Arnim Zola before overwhelming them with her power and capturing Iron Man and the Red Skull
  to siphon both groups' technological knowledge so she can rule the world through its technology. Hawkeye tries to talk her down, but he and Black Panther ultimately destroy her ship, which Frost tries to fix in vain as she falls to her death.
• Madame Masque appears in the M.O.D.O.K. episode "If Saturday Be... For the Boys!",^[73] voiced by Meredith Salenger.^{[citation needed]}