The Forest Family Tree

A quick but tangentially relevant family tree, given the season.

 Betty Forest aka Bitter Frost made her first and to-date only appearance in Amazing Spider-Girl #3 (which incidentally has one of my favourite covers of all time) where we also learn her tragic origins. Betty came to the attention of social worker Caitlan Leiber after being abused by her boyfriend, Wayne. At the time new to the job, Caitlan learned that not only was Betty in an abusive relationship, her home life was no better. Betty's father, Mr Forest (first name unknown) was a widowed alcoholic with a temper. After repeated attempts to convince Betty to make a new start by leaving 'Mr Wonderful' aka Wayne, Caitlan turned her attention to those who were accepting of her help.

Sometime later, Wayne severely beat Betty, causing her to run away and seek refuge in a deserted factory. The leaky old chemical containers stored within gave Betty ice abilities. Betty, considering her herself dead and now transformed into 'Bitter Frost' sought revenge. Beginning by killing her abusive father, Frost then confronted Caitlan Leiber for letting her slip through the cracks in the system. The arrival of Mayday stopped Frost from killing Caitlan, after which Frost turned her attention toward killing Wayne. Due to the intervention of Caitlan, Spider-Girl and Detective Drasco, Wayne is spared and flees and Bitter Frost reverts back into Betty Forest after exposure to the intense heat of a fire.

I would assume 'Betty' is short for Elizabeth but as there is nothing to confirm this, I've stuck with what's on the page. I find Betty's story both tragic and far to real and would love to see her make a return someday. Not only would it be interesting to see these real world themes explored more, her power-set and victimhood despite her murder of her father also makes for an interesting dramatic foil.


Until I run out of family trees in the MC2 to explore, I remain

frogoat