Alternate Favorite Marvel Character #8 - Rogue

Character: Rogue (Anna-Marie)

Creators: Chris Claremont and Michael Golden

First Appearance: Avengers Annual #10 (1981). It's unlikely Marvel will ever let the numbers for Annuals get that high again, but just in case, might as well specify the year.

First encounter: Uncanny X-Men #202. Secret Wars II tie-in. Rachel Summers tries to kill the Beyonder, he gives her enough power to do it, but drags her teammates into the mix and throws Sentinels at them, so she has to decide whether to use the power on him, or the genocidal tin cans.

It's a good intro to Rogue's overall deal. She tries using her speed to sneak up on a Sentinel, it blasts her into a crowd and damages her clothes enough she starts getting overwhelmed by all the different memories she's absorbing. With a little help from Rachel she gets it together enough to shatter a Sentinel Magneto has managed to freeze by using his powers to draw super-cold air from the upper atmosphere(?).

Definitive writer: Chris Claremont. Yeah, accent and all. Most of the stories I associate with Rogue were written by Claremont. Mike Carey's version was mostly good, but lacking a few parts. It's Claremont.

Definitive artist: I'm partial to Paul Smith or John Romita Jr.'s '80s work (and Alan Davis can draw just about anyone and I'd be fine with it), but due to the X-Men cartoon, I usually think of Rogue in that green and yellow costume with the short leather jacket, which means it's probably Jim Lee. Or one of the Kubert brothers, but hell if I could tell you which one.

Favorite moment or story: There's a few moments for Rogue I thought were pretty cool, trying to pick one is a bit tricky. Let's go with Uncanny X-Men #194, when the X-Men get caught in the middle of a fight between the Juggernaut and the futuristic adapting Sentinel, Nimrod. The robot takes care of the Juggernaut and most of the X-Men in a couple of pages. Rogue's one of the last ones still on her feet, and so Kitty, mostly paralyzed but still thinking, hits on the idea of letting Rogue absorb her powers and mind, and then getting Rogue to do the same with Nightcrawler and Colossus.

That's more commonplace these days, as shorthand for "things are desperate", but this was the first occurrence I know of. It was still new to her, and she was uneasy about adding so many personalities to the mix. Two issues earlier, she'd made contact with a Dire Wraith and been overwhelmed. Prior to that, she'd run into an old friend of Carol Danvers, and had acted like he was her old friend, before realizing he had no idea who she was.

Kitty initiating the contact voluntarily helped, but it was still disconcerting, especially throwing two more minds into the mix. Plus, she was still up against an enemy dangerous enough to hand the Juggernaut his butt. But she kept it together and got to work. She didn't end up destroying Nimrod, but she did damage him badly enough to make him retreat.

What I like about her: Rogue's Marvel Universe Series 3 trading card described her as 'the original Steel Magnolia: Stronger than iron and the prettiest southern flower you ever did see!' I didn't know a thing about Steel Magnolias, still don't, but they made it sound cool. For my initial impressions, that was enough. She could fly (always cool), she was super-strong and tough, and she was very pretty. I've been playing a lot of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 lately, and Rogue's combination of speed and power has made her one of the most effective characters for me to use. The fact she had a power which meant touching anyone was a risk gave her a bit of tragedy - can't be an X-Man without that - but made her sympathetic. The "cool" powers were a result of a bad decision she made with that power, and it was continuing to be a problem for her.

The key is, like Nightcrawler, Rogue doesn't spend all her time bemoaning her fate. Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes it's harder to deal with than others. Like when she's unable to distinguish Carol Danvers' memories from her own, or when Carol Danvers hijacks her body. Or when things in general are just going badly, it's one more thing. Maybe she wants to give someone a hug to comfort them, or be comforted, but oops, gotta be careful not to make any skin contact. She can't entirely relax, or focus on the problems at hand, because a part of her had to stay aware of the risk her own powers represented to her and others.

But other times, it's fine. She can play baseball with her friends, rob Colossus of a home run, and blow a kiss at Air Force One. Or cook a romantic dinner for Gambit. Or offer guidance to a teammate or student who is questioning their control over their powers, or whether they belong at Xavier's at all. She generally seems like someone it would be easy to be friends with. Once they get past the initial stage of not being sure of her, most of the X-Men get along fine with her. She can do those things and her power doesn't interfere. For me, there are times where I enjoy hanging out with other people, or will help a coworker or friend out gladly. And there are times where I'm stressed, or want to be left alone, and interaction with people is just one more thing I don't want to be dealing with. It's not a constant thing, but when it is a problem, it's something I'm actively having to fight against at the same time I'm doing whatever it is I'm trying to do. Don't get irritated, don't snap at anyone, it's not them. Not the same thing, but that barrier in herself Rogue has to be aware of is familiar to me.

Like I said, though, she has a lot of fun. She's powerful and knows it, so she's confident, teetering into cockiness, a bit of a showboat. She'll stop in the middle of a fight with the Juggernaut to comment on how impressed she is with her own punch. The team-up between her and Logan in Japan, Rogue barely appears to be taking seriously. Logan is waving his claws in peoples' faces, Rogue is leaned against the bar, offering commentary. Wolverine is skulking through the shadows, alert to threats, Rogue is strutting down the hallway, oblivious to any traps. She shoves Logan and Mariko to safety, but overdoes it and sends them flying down the hall. Some of that is inexperience, but some of it is her figuring nothing can hurt her, so it's no big deal. I could see it being irritating to deal with when you're trying to get things done, but it's fun to watch someone having a great time. Although the part where she acts like she's going to give Logan a kiss for saving her, that was in very poor taste.

As it is, Rogue was serious about saving Mariko, who had welcomed her, even when Logan was ready to kill Rogue on sight (though Mariko must be used to Logan having that reaction to people. Probably 25% of the people who come to visit her have some past beef with Logan). Rogue might have been outwardly flippant, but she takes saving people seriously. Not a trait exclusive to her, but still one I appreciate.

I was buying some of Mike Carey's X-Men Legacy earlier this year, when he turned it into a Rogue book for about 50 issues. She's missing most of the attitude in his stories, acts more weary than anything else. I don't love that, even if her being tired of the relentless crap storm that follows the X-Men is understandable. You still see a lot of Rogue trying to protect the students, even though she isn't the "flying brick" any longer. They have powers, they're more familiar with them than she is, but if she can borrow them and go into danger herself, she'll do that. She at least has more experience with dangerous situations than they do. She borrows a sort of ghost ability from a girl named Trance to run into another dimension to rescue Bling! from Monet's crazy brother. Even though she needs a while to figure out how the powers work, and even though there are a lot of things that can still hurt her (including Monet's crazy brother), she pulls it off. If the other X-Men can't get to her, she'll get the weird mansion to the X-Men.

When she still had Carol in her mind, along with all those other personalities, it was hard for telepaths to read her mind, or even communicate with her. In a world littered with telepaths and mind-controllers, having any sort of defense would be attractive. The tradeoff being those personalities aren't always happy to be there, and sometimes they seize control, like Danvers did repeatedly during the Australia years. The security system turns against her sometimes.

But it taught her some things. Near the end of X-Men Legacy, when Christos Gage is writing the book, Rogue winds up in another dimension and helps end a war between two species. In part because, even after one side tries bringing her into their hive mind and wiping her individuality, it won't take because Rogue's used to having lots of voices in her mind, but has figured out how to maintain a sense of who she is.

She also has a lot of experience with people manipulating her, or trying to control and use her. I'm undecided about her years being raised by Mystique and Destiny. I fall pretty squarely into the camp of Mystique being an awful person, which doesn't mean she wasn't trying to be a good mom, theoretically. I'm sure she believed she was doing right by Rogue, and it was just coincidence those things benefited Mystique as well. There are stories where they look like a happy family, Rogue and her two moms having birthday parties and good times. Rogue has warm feelings for both of them, although her relationship with Mystique is a lot messier. In at least some versions of Rogue's past, she's alone and on the run when Mystique finds her, an outcast after that incident with Cody, so having a relatively stable home had to be a plus. (Mike Carey had it Rogue was already living with Mystique when she kissed Cody and her powers manifested, so I'm not sure what the official line is these days.)

Mystique also turned Rogue into a weapon and used her on a variety of criminal missions. But she actively tried to keep her away from Carol Danvers because Destiny said something bad was gonna happen. It did end badly for Rogue (and worse for Carol), at which point Mystique can't do anything for Rogue. But then she's angry when Rogue decides to see if Xavier can help. It's something Mystique seems to constantly bring up and complain about, although she usually blames Xavier. Anything to deflect blame from herself. Mystique likes to try and control Rogue's life, but rarely will just come out and talk to her directly. She's got to interfere in decisions Rogue tries to make about her own life, or try to frame those decisions as somehow being about her. She'll throw in with Mr. Sinister to abduct a baby that might save Rogue's life, or assume another identity to try and expose Gambit as a sleazy womanizer. Even when Mystique will approach her directly, it's hard to know how much to trust her.

Irene seems the better parent. More reasonable, patient, trying to temper Mystique's harsher attitude. She doesn't have much success - Mystique didn't stop sending Rogue into danger, and didn't stop bearing a grudge towards Xavier for Rogue going to him - but she tried. She's also precognitive, seeing things far down the line, so how long of a game she is playing? Did she warn Mystique about Danvers as a threat to Rogue, knowing how it would all end? That Rogue needed to be driven to the X-Men, because the X-Men would need her to help save the world every other month for the next however many years? It's hard to know whether Destiny is back there, trying to pull strings, and if she is, how much. Was she acting in Rogue's best interests, or the world's, and even if it was for Rogue, was what Rogue wanted? How does one define what's "best" for another person?

I don't know how aware of all this Rogue is. Mystique's attempts at manipulation, trying to make Rogue feel guilty for doing what she thinks is in her best interest, I'm sure Rogue's become more adept at spotting and fending off as she gets older. With Destiny, I'm not sure she could ever know for certain, and since Destiny has mostly been dead for a while now, Rogue's mostly made her peace with it. I do think it's given Rogue a decent sense of when someone's feeding her a line. She hadn't necessarily spent as much time in espionage or crime as Logan or Gambit, but she knows when someone's trying to play her. Even when it's Cyclops, who she describes at one point as being very good at giving someone a choice in such a way it's no choice at all.

You see it in her romantic relationships as well. The two characters she's mostly frequently been involved with were Gambit and Magneto. They're different kinds of people; Magneto is overwhelming, projecting power and confidence, while Gambit has that schmoozy charm (and sometimes an actual power to influence people? I think I remember that. Maybe from when he was blind for some reason). Rogue's attracted to them, but ends up keeping them at arm's length. Most of that is her power. What happened with Cody is a lesson she doesn't want to repeat.

But even when her powers are under control, she still keeps a distance. She's trained herself to be careful, and I doubt that goes away just because she can in theory control the power. During Carey's run, when the powers are under control, both of guys are around, and it doesn't go anywhere with either of them. She interested in them, but also wants to maintain distance. Maybe she sees something that says that it would on their terms, and that concerns her. Magneto in particular strikes me as someone who would want to "wear the pants in the relationship." Gambit less so, but even when he tries to be better for Rogue, there are aspects of his personality that would be frustrating to deal with. Also, Magneto regularly lapses back into villainy, and Gambit isn't well acquainted with concepts like "monogamy" or "honesty". That factors in, I imagine.

She did having something forming with Joseph, the Magneto clone, at least far enough for an actual kiss. Joseph was a less forceful personality than Magneto from what I remember, due to the uncertainty he had about himself. Maybe he didn't set off the same warning bells in her head. Of course, he also died before it could go much further.

Given how traumatic the experience with Cody was, it's odd she 'll kiss someone to absorb their powers. I know removing a glove isn't always possible, a kiss might surprise them so they won't realize they need to break contact until it's too late. But it seems like there'd be too much bad history there. Necessities of battle, I guess, albeit one that may leave a lasting impact she'll have to cope with. Claremont described her using that move against Ben Grimm in Fantastic Four vs. X-Men as a 'desperate yearning for true affection,' so she takes it as the closest she can get? That seems. . . not entirely healthy.

(I can't forget it exists apparently, but I am going to ignore - as Marvel thankfully seems to be doing - Paul Jenkins retconning in that Rogue and the Sentry were intimate at some point in her past as part of his, "Everyone is sad the Sentry is dead! Really they are!" story back in 2010. Talk about someone Rogue should have been keeping at arm's length. Hi, I might get depressed and think you out of existence at any moment! Let's make out! Moving on.)

I don't have many comics from Rogue's early days as villain. Her run-in with ROM, the battle with Carol Danvers that changed both their lives, a story from her ongoing series where she forgot all her years with the X-Men and briefly went bad again. By the time I encountered Rogue, she'd been an X-Man long enough they'd accepted her. Magneto was the new teammate everyone was wary of. So it was vague backstory I might not even have been aware of, the same deal I had with Hawkeye. It adds a certain element of redemption to her backstory, but it's not typically something I associate with the character. It's almost more like "wild teenage years". Got some questionable guidance, fell in with a bad element, made some mistakes, and now she's trying to do better. Maybe because the X-Men welcome in so many of their past foes, most of whom have much longer track records of bad behavior than her, that it doesn't feel like something unique to her. Which is fine. Even though I do enjoy a redemptive arc, I don't need one as the focal point for every character I like.

Visually, I like the white stripe in the hair. I don't know why it would exist, but it's an interesting identifier, and kind of unique. I feel like artists are beginning to minimize it, but that might simply be because Rogue is past the "big hair" phase she was during the Jim Lee/X-Men cartoon days. She has less hair overall, which includes the white part. But it does seem to be getting relegated to just a patch in the bangs. Costume-wise, she typically has green involved, and then one of white, black, or yellow. Which are not your typical hero colors, but work for her. Makes her distinct. And she's had a variety of looks, most of which seemed to fit, depending on the artist. She rocks jackets a lot, going back to her earliest appearances. Green a lot of the time, brown leather in the '90s and early 2000s. Sometimes with a hood, sometimes not (the jackets Silvestri drew had no hood, for example). She doesn't use the hood much anyway.

For a little while, after she'd absorbed Sunfire's powers, she had a long cape. That didn't quite seem right for Rogue, but it worked with that particular outfit (at least it did the one story I saw it in, which Mike Wieringo drew). When she had control over her powers, she went with a variant of her green-and-white look. Short sleeves and long gloves, no jacket, a little more skin showing than her other looks. Not much - really just the bit on the arms between the sleeves and gloves, plus however much a given artist had the neckline plunge - but a little more. The gloves didn't make much sense, they'd be more of a pain to remove in a tense spot, but logistics aside, the look wasn't bad. There was usually a scarf involved, which was a nice accessory.

Even when she goes with the spandex look - the Silvestri years, or most of the '90s - there's usually something additional to the look. The jackets, frequently, and probably knee-high boots. The Jim Lee look had a belt, which hung loose so that it didn't have an apparent function, but it adds another layer. Around the Mutant Massacre, she'd sometimes have black spandex from the neck down, but add a loose green tank top or sometimes a much baggier green t-shirt, a belt, some variety of boots. It breaks things up a bit, makes it seem more like an actual outfit, less a superhero costume. Probably a strange outfit - I'm not a good judge of that stuff, as the guy who rarely sweats complaints about artists putting everyone in t-shirts and jeans since that's 96% of what I wear - but an outfit.

When she finds herself in the middle of a fight with a Master Mold/Nimrod fusion that started when Carol Danvers was running things, she's stuck in Carol's old costume, because that was what Carol had to throw on for it. The one-piece black swimsuit with the red sash, and Rogue hates it. Calls it a "rag". Maybe because it's Carol's, or Rogue hates the colors, or something else. But it's definitely not the style she favors.

I like Rogue because despite a rough childhood and adolescence, under at least one questionable parent (more if you count her birth family), and a condition that makes interacting with people actively dangerous for everyone involved, she mostly doesn't let it get her down. She learned some good things from Raven and Irene, and also some stuff she had to unlearn. The difficulty in having physical contact with others hasn't stopped her from forming strong emotional attachments. She still lives her life on her terms as best she's able, given the demands of being on the X-Men, and she doesn't seem willing to compromise who she is.

Credits! It's Sentinel-fightin' time on the cover of Uncanny X-Men #202, by John Romita Jr. (pencilers), Al Williamson (inker), and probably Glynis Oliver (colorist for the interior). The skunk stripe remains even as the rest of her hair changes color, in Uncanny X-Men #194, by Chris Claremont (writer), John Romita Jr. (penciler), Dan Green and Steve Leialoha (finishers), Glynis Oliver (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer). Longshot should remember that, but he does get amnesia a lot, in Uncanny X-Men #218, by Claremont (writer), Mark Silvestri & Dan Green (artists), Glynis Oliver (colorist), and Orzechowski (letterer). Rogue's not takin' guff from any punk. in Uncanny X-Men #173, by Claremont (writer), Paul Smith (penciler), Bob Wiacek (inker), Glynis Wein (colorist), and Orzechowski (letterer). Rogue learns self-driving houses aren't all they're cracked up to be, in X-Men Legacy #229, by Mike Carey (writer), Daniel Acuna (artist), and Cory Petit (letterer). Having her mother's voice in her head is a more literal problem for Rogue than most, in X-Men Legacy #220, by Carey (writer), Scot Eaton (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), lettered by Cory Petit (maybe?), and I can't find the colorist. There are worse things than a second chance to say good-bye, in X-Men Legacy #233, by Carey (writer), Clay Mann (penciler), Danny Miki, Jay Leisten, Allen Martinez (inkers), Brian Reber (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer). This is not the Jim Lee costume I was referring to, in Uncanny X-Men #269, by Claremont (writer), Jim Lee (penciler), Art Thibert (inker), Steve Buccellato (colorist), and Task Force "X" (letterers). Rogue's not into cats, I guess, in X-Men Legacy #271, by Christos Gage (writer), Rafa Sandoval (penciler), Jordi Tarragona (inker), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer).