Marvel Legends: Madame Masque!

05.24.2014 – Madame Masque is another relatively unknown Marvel character first appearing in Tales of Suspense #98 (February 1968) as one of Iron Man’s super villains. She was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan who also happens to be an occasional love interest to Iron Man’s Tony Stark. She can be branded as an anti-hero who has her own agenda wearing a golden mask to cover up her disfigured face, continue to do so after her face was completely healed.

Madame Masque was released under the Arnim Zola Series bringing back Marvel Legends to Hasbro as part of the ‘new’ second series of action figures. The character wasn’t entirely known as Whitney Frost. She originally goes by her birth name Giulietta Nefaria, the daughter of the master criminal Count Luchino Nefaria, in Rome, Italy.

There’s a history behind Madame Masque that’s both tragic and at the same time quite the interesting character. She was a recurring love interest in the Iron Man comic books playing the femme fatale and the anti-hero with a secret.









Madame Masque/Madame Hydra

Packaged as Marvel’s Madame its either you get Masque or Hydra, but if you’re trying to complete the series its Madame Masque you seek. She has the Arnim Zola torso while Madame Hydra has the same torso with a Red Skull variation.

Due to cost cutting Marvel uses the same body template for both figures, but more of that as quickly examined. What’s interesting is Hasbro started putting together variations, which are a challenging to get. But if you have one focus in mind Arnim Zola is your BAF to complete as the ‘new’ series of Marvel Legends is named after him.

Besides the BAF torso Madame Masque have a generic pistol and machine gun with grenade launcher, which is similar to Madame Hydra with a different colors that is tailor-made to the character.





Whitney Frost up close and Personal

Madame Masque appears unique even though sharing the same body type with Madame Hydra. She captures all aspect of element what her comic book counterpart have. Just like any Marvel Legends figure articulation has improved.

Her gold mask doesn’t look shiny but good enough instead of having a metalized face protector, which would have its paint chip off. Masque could have been more different from Madame Hydra if she had a different hairstyle close to her comic book counterpart.

But as Madame Masque she definitely looks every bit of the character which appeared in Iron Man #17 Vol. 1 that became known as one of Tony Stark’s recurring enemies aside from his love interest. From the golden mask down to her weapon’s holster Madame Masque looks like she came out of a comic book page and for the reason she’s way better than Madame Hydra.







Overall Madame Masque is a fascinating character created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan who happens to be a complete unknown to casual reading comic book fans. But the action figure appears to be popular with the collectors due to her sexy appearance.

The figure is now on clearance being sold at PhP 700.00 pesos ($15.75 US) along with 'Heroic Age' Captain America, Drax and Fantomex, while the rest to complete an Arnim Zola BAF is available at specialty stores still in its original retail price.