Giulietta Nefaria, legally renamed Whitney Frost, was one of the leaders of the Maggia. She was the daughter of Luchino Nefaria.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Giulietta was born in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Maggia leader Count Nefaria. Her mother Renata died giving birth to her, leading to Luchino wanting his daughter to lead a respectable life, so he gave the child to Byron Frost, a wealthy financier and his wife Loretta to be raised.
Having adopted her, Frost gave her the name 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 mysterious deaths of the Frosts, Count Luchino Nefaria approached Whitney and revealed her true parentage, telling her that he wants her to take his place as leader of the Maggia, a Mafia-like organization.
Whitney at first refused, horrified about her true father. She tells her Roger about her father, wanting to expose him to the authorities. This is when Roger threatened to expose her along with her real father, believing her relation to the Maggia leader would ruin his political career.
Whitney accepted her father's offer to become a professional criminal mastermind and was trained by him in strategy, criminal activities, and combat.
She turned out to be a brilliant student and when her father is imprisoned, she became the new leader of the Maggia and head of the Nefaria family. She accomplished much for the Maggia, until a ship she used on one of her missions caught fire and sank. She was doing business with millionaire Mordecai Midas when the ship they were on was sabotaged and caught fire. Midas got her off safely, but her face was left permanently scarred. A golden mask recovered from the ship was given to her to hide her face and she became known as Madame Masque. Masque is soon forcibly thrown out of the Maggia, and creates the Inner Guard; a team of enhanced and super powered individuals loyal to the Maggia.
She soon hears that her father is dying as the result of an attempt to gain superhuman powers. She spends a few years
She continues to be a criminal figure of importance, until her father returns, having cured himself, and retakes leadership of the Maggia.
To sort through[]
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.
Madame Masque is hired by the Hood to take advantage of the split in the superhero community caused by the Superhuman Registration Act.
She becomes the Hood's second in command (and his lover) and helps them fight the New Avengers.
She is taken down by Doctor Strange and taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
A group of Skrulls disguised as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents try to learn her true face so they can switch her out.
The Hood frees her and kills all the Skrulls except one.
In an unknown location attended by most of the Hood's army, they learn from the Skrull agent that the Skrulls plan on taking over Earth, believing it to be rightfully theirs.
Madame Masque rejoins the Hood's crime syndicate and attacks an invading Skrull force.
She is among the Hood's crime syndicate as they assist the heroes in their final battle against the Skrulls.
During the Dark Reign storyline, Norman Osborn puts a bounty on Tony Stark's head.
He personally calls Madame Masque over to Stark Tower, offering the locations of multiple Iron Man armories to help her find Stark. She tracks Stark to Russia, which Pepper Potts had also done.
Masque captures Pepper, torturing her, before demanding that Stark tell her his true feelings to her real face. Stark admits that, though they have been fighting, he always loved her, to which Masque reciprocates.
However, when faced with a direct choice between Pepper or Masque, he chooses Pepper.
As he escapes to Afghanistan, Masque and Pepper go hand-to-hand with each other.
Madame Masque is imprisoned in Stark's discarded Crimson Dynamo suit while Pepper, disguised as Masque, reports to Osborn that she killed Pepper in combat, and returns to the United States with the Rescue armor, which is placed in storage with other Stark armors that Osborn has acquired.
Madame Masque is part of a surprise attack on the New Avengers, a trap set up by Norman Osborn.
Later, when The Hood attacks Doctor Strange in order to become the Sorcerer Supreme, she tries to help him deal with his possession by Dormammu, taking off her mask and confessing her feelings for him.
When Osborn calls off the hunt for Stark, due to his being in a persistent vegetative state, Masque decides to take matters into her own hands, and hires the Ghost to eliminate Stark, a task at which he fails.
Masque, along with the rest of the Hood's gang, joins in helping Osborn with the Siege of Asgard.
However, Loki retakes the Norn stones from the Hood to help the Avengers and Asgardians battle the Void.
Masque helps the Hood slip away. The Hood is pessimistic, knowing that his gang would simply sell him out.
Therefore, she seeks out her father Count Nefaria for help. The New Avengers track her and the Hood using John King.
After a battle with Nefaria, the New Avengers capture all four and bring them to Maria Hill to place them under arrest.
During the Heroic Age storyline, Hood escapes from prison and makes a play to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet and meets up with Madame Masque.
Using his reality gem, he heals her face.
She appears in Madripoor for the auction of a videotape showing Hawkeye assassinating an Asian dictator.
However, the real Madame Masque is later revealed bound and gagged in her hotel room, with her costume and identity having been stolen by Kate Bishop.
After the tape is destroyed, Masque vows vengeance on Hawkeye and Bishop.
Masque later attempts to capture Bishop by luring the girl to her home in California, where she drugs her.
The teen manages to escape and wrecks the house in the process, causing Masque to once again swear vengeance.
In the pages of Avengers Undercover, Madame Masque appears as a member of the Shadow Council's Masters of Evil in Bagalia.
She works as Baron Helmut Zemo's right-hand woman.
As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event, Madame Masque started a quest to retrieve different magical objects in order to empower herself.
During her journey, she was pursued by a mysterious group of ninjas.
Iron Man caught onto her motives when she tried to steal a duplicate Wand of Watoomb from Castle Doom.
As soon as she discovered the artifact she had stolen was fake, she confronted and killed her informant in a hotel in Montreal.
Iron Man soon confronted Madame Masque in the hotel room and tried to reason with her.
Madame Masque was startled by his presence unleashed a surprising display of enormous magic power at him.
Upon traveling to Mary Jane Watson's nightclub Jackpot in Chicago, Madame Masque confronted her former business partner Belhilio and killed him.
She was then confronted by Iron Man and Doctor Doom.
Iron Man and Doctor Doom's fight with Madame Masque caused damages to nightclub.
When Mary Jane Watson distracted Madame Masque by knocking off her mask with a microphone, Doctor Doom discovered that Madame Masque has a demonic possession in her. Iron Man was able to hold her down while Doctor Doom successfully performed an exorcism.
By the time Iron Man regained consciousness, Doctor Strange arrived upon being contacted by Friday.
Doctor Strange tells Iron Man that he will take Madame Masque away to metaphysically fix her and then he will hand her over to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Maggia vs HYDRA[]
Personality[]
Abilities[]
Whitney Frost was the best spy working for the Maggia
- Master Spy
- Master Martial Artist
- Master Assassin
- Expert Marksman
- Multilingualism
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Luchino Nefaria/Count Nefaria - Father †
- Renata Gnucci - Mother †
- Byron Frost - Adoptive Father
- Agnes Cully - Paternal half-aunt
- Richard Cully - Paternal Grandfather
- Antonina Nefaria - Maternal Grandmother
Allies[]
- Maggia
- Inner Guard
Enemies[]
- S.H.I.E.L.D
- HYDRA
- Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier - killer
- Howard Stark - Former Lover turned enemy