‘Creature Comforts’ — “X‑Men: To Serve and Protect” #1

Its a bat­tle of the mind con­trollers: in one cor­ner, Emma Frost, the White Queen, one of the strongest telepaths on the plan­et; in the oth­er cor­ner, the Man­drill, whose enhanced pheromone pow­er turns any female into his ador­ing ser­vant. But in any such con­test, the odds favor the smartest, and the Man­drill was nev­er known for being very bright.

Descrip­tion: Emma Frost was pam­per­ing her­self at a pres­ti­gious day spa in San Fran­cis­co when a ruckus out­side draws her atten­tion and her ire at being inter­rupt­ed. It seems the Man­drill was using his mind con­trol pheromones to com­mand all of the women cus­tomers at the spa to hand over all of their cash and valu­ables. Not that Emma has any con­cern for her fel­low women, but she was annoyed at hav­ing her time inter­rupt­ed and at the pos­tur­ing pompous­ness of the Man­drill. Since her sec­ondary muta­tion allows her to trans­form into a dia­mond-hard form that does­n’t need to breathe, the Man­drill’s pheromones have no effect on her. But his mind is like an open book to her, albeit she likens read­ing it to “bathing in excre­ment”, and that, for the poor Man­drill is just how she pun­ish­es him, by manip­u­lat­ing his mind. And then goes back to her spa session.

Com­men­tary: Emma Frost nev­er real­ly got over being the impe­ri­ous White Queen from back in the days of the Hell­fire Club: she’s still haughty, bitchy, con­temp­tu­ous and smug­ly supe­ri­or, although she does reserve her worst for those who she thinks deserve it, in this case, the Mandrill.

Legalisms: The White Queen, Emma Frost, the Man­drill and their rep­re­sen­ta­tions are copy­rights, trade­marks and reg­is­tered trade­marks of Mar­vel Char­ac­ters, Inc.