Warning: Spoilers for X-Men #26!
Summary
- The Iron Man and Emma Frost wedding is not going as expected, with Emma’s anger and Tony’s improvisation taking center stage.
- Because of an accidental twist — and Emma’s new alter ego — the wedding is likely to be a normal affair rather than the extravagant event Marvel has been promoting.
- This unexpected twist opens up new possibilities for Emma and the story, potentially allowing her to regain her position in the Hellfire Club as a public figure.
The eagerly anticipated wedding between Iron Man and Emma Frost is already shaping up quite differently from how fans expected. All summer long, Marvel has teased, hinted, foreshadowed, and built toward a wedding that is four years in the making.
Their unholy alliance is about to become a holy union following X-Men #26 by Gerry Duggan, Jim Towe, Javier Pina, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles. While mutants are being hunted, former White Queen Emma Frost is masquerading as Hazel Kendal, an assistant to the Hellfire Club’s new Black King, Tony Stark. During a Hellfire Club party event, the two run into a common enemy. As Hazel Kendal, Emma Frost sees Feilong, a member of Orchis, the same mutant hate group that orchestrated mutant-wide genocide at this year’s Hellfire Gala. Emma is instantly furious, ready to throw away all of their waiting and planning to take out Feilong when she sees an opening. More specifically, she’s ready to remove her ring, which temporarily suppresses her mutant powers while she’s in her disguise. But Tony pulls her aside, reminding her that they have to play things smart rather than make themselves targets.
Even more enraged, she knees Tony in the gut, causing him to fall to one knee. When Feilong coincidentally walks in, Tony’s forced to improvise — with a proposal.
Iron Man Is Now Technically Marrying Emma Frost’s Alter Ego
It’s most certainly a different scenario than what Marvel has been advertising. The pomp and circumstance that the released preview art has promoted for the wedding of Emma Frost and Iron Man is likely null and void. This is because, as far as the public is concerned, this event is likely going to be a normal wedding between a billionaire and his homely assistant. While some readers may be disappointed that they could be missing out on a truly extravagant affair, a huge amount of potential just opened up for the story — and for the duo of Stark and Frost.
Emma, of course, is presumed dead by most of the world following the Mutant Massacre, though she now has moles on the inside of the Hellfire Club in the form of White King Wilson Fisk and Black King Tony Stark. Although this proposal twist could interfere with her current plans, it also opens the door for entirely new plans for Marvel’s latest “it” couple, and especially for Emma. The painfully average Hazel Kendal is already the perfect cover for the normally lavish mutant. An average nobody marrying a famous man like Tony Stark opens doors for Hazel that Emma otherwise wouldn’t be allowed to walk through.
It’s possible this marriage could allow Emma to find her way back into the Hellfire Club, at least as a public figure. Her reign as the White Queen may be over, and Emma Frost may be dead as far as the public is concerned, but there is an opening for a Red Queen. Granted, that moniker may be a doomed one — considering Destiny’s ominous warning that there will be “kings clashing in white, black after the death of the Red Queen.” Then again, maybe that’s the real secret behind this new event. Much like how the festive Hellfire Gala ended in tragedy, the wedding of Iron Man and Emma Frost could result in the death of the latter, the possible next Red Queen.
Check out X-Men #26, available now from Marvel Comics!
