Who Is Madame Masque? The Marvel Supervillain Explained
She has so many names.
With characters like Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine and Agatha Harkness making their entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, female villains are all the rage. It wasn’t too long ago that Rebecca Hall’s villainous role in Iron Man 3 was cut, and now the glass ceiling in the rogue’s gallery is starting to crack. Care to brush up on some iconic Marvel villains? Here’s what you need to know about Madame Masque.
Madame Masque was originally an Iron Man villain
The character first appeared in the late 1960s, in Tales of Suspense and The Invincible Iron Man as a foe for Tony Stark. She was born Giuletta Kristina Nefaria — which should be a red flag in and of itself. I mean, Nefaria? Come on! Giuletta was adopted at a young age and changed her name to the conveniently-less-suspicious “Whitney Frost.”
Frost became the leader of an organized crime ring and after her face was scarred in an accident, she started wearing a gold mask and going by Madame Masque. She has also gone by Kristine “Krissy” Longfellow and Big M, among other aliases. My girl has a lot of names.
She was a love interest for Jasper Sitwell, and later Tony Stark himself. She doesn’t really have supernatural powers. Masque is more of a career criminal and femme fatale than a super supervillain, and she’s always glamorous. In a redesign for Invincible Iron Man circa 2015, artist David Marquez based her look on Alexander McQueen’s designs, according to an interview with Marvel.com.
Madame Masque *could* have been in Hawkeye
There were rumors that Madame Masque was going to show up in Hawkeye, and for good reason. The character makes a memorable appearance in the Matt Fraction and David Aja comic book run that the Disney+ series more or less adapted. She appears at an auction to purchase seemingly incriminating evidence against Clint Barton — not unlike the auction we saw in Episode 1 of the series — and finds herself facing off against Kate Bishop a couple of times. Where does that auction take place, you ask? Just Madripoor, the city-state that made its live-action appearance in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The cards are lined up for Big M to appear in the MCU, however…
Madame Masque has technically appeared in the MCU before
Played by actress Wynn Everett, Whitney Frost (a.k.a. Agnes Cully in this version) was the Big Bad in Season 2 of Agent Carter, the ABC series that *nudge nudge* is available to stream on Disney+ right now. The season served as her origin story. In this version, Agnes was a math and science genius moonlighting as a bored Hollywood starlet under the stage name Whitney Frost with ties to the mob.
Will we ever see Madame Masque again on the big or small screen in the MCU? Agent Carter takes place in 1947, not to mention the fact that Frost is defeated at the end of the series. I personally hope that the powers that be find a way to bring Everett back. Her take on the character was fascinating and so fun to watch. She has reprised her role vocally in Season 4 and Season 5 of the animated series Avengers Assemble.
But still, since the character has had so many names in Marvel comics, it would be pretty easy for the folks at Disney to reboot the character and bring in someone new as Madame Masque. The incredibly suss “Giuletta Nefaria” is still available for the claiming, after all.
(images: Marvel Studios)
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