Let’s dreamcast the X-Men before they appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 21: Tricia Helfer attends the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 19, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

17. Tricia Helfer as Emma Frost

Emma Frost is an intriguing character in the X-Men pantheon. Like Mystique, she’s spent time as both a villain and ally of Professor Xavier’s team of mutants. She first came on the scene in the comics around the time of the Dark Phoenix saga, where she was the leader of a shadowy group called the Hellfire Club. During her tenure, she opened a mutant school to rival Xavier’s, and captured and tortured several key X-Men like Storm, Wolverine and Jean Grey…who by that time had become the Phoenix and nearly killed Emma Frost.

Frost has two main powers. First, she is an extremely powerful telepath able to compete with the likes of Xavier and Jean Grey. Second, she can assume a pure diamond form that makes her all but invulnerable, with the catch that she can’t use her telepathy while in that state. But more dangerous than either of those things is her extreme intelligence and biting retorts. Emma Frost is a powerful, dangerous woman who goes after what she wants, whether that’s Scott Summers or toppling Xavier’s legacy.

When it comes to playing complex characters who slide back and forth between terrifyingly evil and heart-wrenchingly flawed and endearing, it’s hard to find a better actress than Tricia Helfer. Whether it’s her recent role on Lucifer as the titular character’s hellish mother, her voice-acting masterclass as the Queen of Blades in Starcraft II, or her most famous role as Cylon Number Six in Battlestar Galactica, Helfer is always at her best when playing characters who convince themselves they’re doing the right thing, but go about it in awful, vicious ways, which is often what Emma Frost is doing.