Whitney Frost, known as Madame Masque or just Masque, is a supervillain created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan. She first appeared in Tales of Suspense #98 (February 1968) as Whitney Frost, then in Iron Man #17 (September 1969) as Madame Masque.

Before being a criminal mastermind who wore a golden mask to hide her disfigured face, she was a debutante. Frost is the daughter of criminal master Count Luchino Nefaria. Her mother died while giving birth and her father wanted her to live a respectable life so he gave her to Byron Frost, one of his employee, and his wife Loretta. She was raised as a socialite and when the Frosts died, Nefaria revealed that she was his daughter. He asked her to become the leader of the Maggia, a Mafia-type organization on the East Coast.

She started working for her father after he trained her in criminal strategies and activities as well as combat. Frost became a great student and after her father was imprisoned she took on the mantel as head of the Nefaria family Maggia. She quickly got on Iron Man’s radar after raiding Stark Industries. While fleeing the scene she escaped in a plane, but it crashed and the accident led to injuries that scarred her face. Frost started working for Mordecai Midas and with his obsession with gold she decided to hide her face behind a gold mask and took on the mantel of Madame Masque.

Masque actually met Tony Stark and he was sympathetic to her. During a conflict, she turned on Midas to save Stark, but left him because of her criminal past. Because she could not forget Stark, she came back, posing as a personal assistant, named Krissy Longfellow. Once they discovered each other’s secret identities, they began a romantic relationship.

But, the relationship would not last. Masque learned that her father was dying after he tried to gain superhuman powers. She hired Ani-Men to bring her father to her and asked Stark to cure him. Nefaria tried to use violence to force Stark to help, which starts a battle between Iron Man and Ani-Men. Masque struggled to choose between her father and her boyfriend, and during the hesitation Nefaria’s life support system was damaged. She went insane with guilt and grief then returned to being the leader of the Nefaria Maggia, often fighting Iron Man.