Rogue is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and a member of the X-Men. She was created by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden in The Avengers Annual #10 (August 1981).
| Rogue | |
|---|---|
| File:Rogue7.jpg Rogue. Art by Scot Eaton | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Avengers Annual #10 (August, 1981) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont Michael Golden |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Unconfirmed; see "Rogue's name" below |
| Team affiliations | X-Men, Mystique's first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants |
| Notable aliases | Anna Raven, Carol Danvers, Mutate #9602 |
| Abilities | Involuntary absorption of powers and memories through skin-to-skin contact. |
Character biography
Early life
Rogue does not know her biological parents , although this has recently been explored in the comics. She was a "new kid" in the area of the fictional county of Caldecott in Mississippi when her childhood friend, Cody Robbins, impulsively kissed her and, at that moment, Rogue's powers first emerged. Upon skin-to-skin contact, Rogue fully absorbed Cody's consciousness, memories, strengths and weaknesses. Cody fell into a coma from which he never awoke. Rogue was so confused and overwhelmed by the experience that she, too, collapsed. She even believed she was Cody for a while. The two were found days later by a group of locals looking for them. Rogue was revealed to be a mutant and was exiled by her community.
Some time later, Rogue, still a child, was found living alone in a remote, wooded area. She was found by another mutant, Mystique, who had come looking for Rogue because Mystique's partner, Destiny, a psychic, had foreseen that she would be important. Rogue was wielding a shotgun, apparently having been chased and/or threatened by at least a few people because of her mutant status. She had, by then, also been given the name of "Rogue" by the nearby villagers who now considered her a threat. Mystique managed to approach Rogue, explained that they were both mutants, and gained Rogue's trust. Mystique soon became Rogue's unofficial foster mother.
Mystique and Destiny, professional criminals, raised Rogue for "close to a decade" and trained her to be a member of their villainous team, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Rogue fought with that team for a while, fighting many superheroes including the X-Men, Rom, Dazzler, and the Avengers, and was a devastating enemy to them all. During this time she encountered the superhero Ms. Marvel (a.k.a. Carol Danvers). Rogue and Ms Marvel fought and, through prolonged contact throughout which Carol fought valiantly to retain her consciousness, Rogue absorbed Carol's alien-based powers and memories permanently. As a result, Rogue gained incredible strength, near-invulnerability, the power of flight, and a rarely-used "seventh sense" power that worked as a very mild sense of ESP, although this last ability has been largely forgotten.
Rogue has never been able to control her absorption power. Any skin-to-skin contact activates her mutant power, whether she wants it to or not. She found she had residual memories of some of the people she had absorbed. After having absorbed Ms. Marvel and gaining her personality and powers permanently, she began to go through a life-changing period. While she was now "remembering" the more normal childhood Carol Danvers had lived and seeing the wrong-doings of Mystique and her team for what they were, she was also feeling as though she was losing her own personality in the mix of residual memories, among which Carol's would sometimes take over. She began to more and more dislike the life she was leading, yet feared losing herself forever in the memories of others she had absorbed.
X-Men
Desperate, she turned to Professor Charles Xavier and the X-Men (X-Men #171). Xavier's charity towards all mutants led him to welcome her into his home, regardless of his team having previously fought Rogue and in spite of the X-Men's own strong disagreements. He psychically examined her and immediately invited her to join the X-Men and live there at the mansion.
Her initial months with the team were rough and some of the team even threatened to leave if she was allowed to stay, but Professor Xavier reminded them of their ideals as X-Men and they gave her a chance. She first earned Wolverine's trust by saving the life of his fiancé and, over time, eventually earned the respect of all the X-Men and became a valued and trusted member of the team.
As an X-woman, Rogue's life improved, but she continued to struggle with Carol Danvers' residual personality and this continued until Rogue was pulled through a device called the "Siege Perilous," where she was stripped of her powers for a time and the device helped her to strip the remaining portions of Carol's personality that haunted her. Rogue ended up powerless in the Savage Land, where she was taken in by Magneto. The two briefly toyed with romantic implications, but nothing came of the relationship. When Rogue regained her powers, she returned to the X-Men.
While she was gone, a new member had joined the X-Men. Rogue and Gambit were immediately attracted to each other and quickly fell in love.
Cody Robbins, the first person to fall victim to Rogue's powers, was later killed by Gambit's ex-wife Belladonna.
Rogue and Gambit's relationship has been strained, much thanks to her inability to control her absorption power, and his dishonesty, but they have regardless remained one of the great romantic couples of the X-books.
It was eventually revealed that Mystique had two sons, the now-deceased anti-mutant politician Graydon Creed, and Rogue's long-time teammate, Nightcrawler. Rogue and Nightcrawler consider themselves to be siblings, although the revelation has not particularly altered their friendship.
Powers and abilities
Rogue is a mutant with the ability to temporarily absorb the memories, thoughts and abilities of others, including superhuman abilities, via skin-to-skin contact. This transference usually causes the victim to fall unconscious and become weakened. The duration of this drain varies according to the length of time that the contact is maintained, but it can kill if it is prolonged for too long.
Early in her career, Rogue permanently absorbed the powers of Ms. Marvel, gaining the powers of considerable superhuman strength (in the 50-ton range), flight, near-invulnerability, and a "seventh sense". When she was recently depowered, she lost these, and while her natural absorption power eventually returned, these powers did not.
She has also occasionally used many others' powers and abilities.
Most recently she absorbed the powers of the Japanese mutant superhero Sunfire, who was dying at the time; it appears that these powers may be staying with her.
Rogue's name
Rogue is one the few comic book characters whose real name has never been revealed. This has been an increasingly controversial topic, especially in recent months. In the film X-Men, Rogue claims to Wolverine that her name is Marie. She appears to be living a typical teenager's lifestyle with a couple that are credited with the last name of D'Ancanto and call her Marie, but the last name is not confirmed as Rogue's in the film itself and no history of the couple is provided, so no information is known for sure as to what relationship they are to Rogue or what her "real" name is in that history. Rogue is simply called "Rogue" throughout the movie, even by Wolverine, as she had always been in the comic books. In recent Comics such as "Going Rogue" 1-6 it was revealed that Rogue's real name is Ann-Marie. In that series, other than her name, it also tell of her origins.
After the movies, X-Men writer Chris Claremont introduced a non-super-powered human character named Marie D'Ancanto in the series X-Treme X-Men, in which Rogue also appears. In this series, Rogue and Gambit had both lost their powers for a while after a battle in which Rogue saved Gambit's life. They had left the X-Men and Rogue was found by some fellow team members living a "normal" life and having taken up the alias of "Anna Raven". A movie poster of Anna Paquin's Oscar-winning film, "The Piano", filled an entire wall of Rogue's home and she tells her friends she is "going by" the name of "Anna". Later, a solo Rogue series provided a story where, in a kind of dream state, Rogue sees a ghost image of her mother from a different reality who calls her "Anna Marie". In yet another alternate reality, the comic Ultimate X-Men has Rogue giving her real name as "Marianne" in issue #53. While various comics, cartoon series, and movies she has been referred to as Anna, Anna-Marie, and Marie. For now, Marvel still officially lists Rogue's real name as "Unrevealed".
Appearances in other media
She was voiced by Lenore Zann in the original animated series X-Men and the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
In the animated series X-Men Evolution, Rogue has been heavily reimagined as a rebellious, yet deeply insecure teenage Goth. Her powers made her cynical and reclusive, but deep inside, she is consumed by the desire to touch the people she loves. She was raised by Mystique and Destiny, but left them when she found out that they only nurtured her as a potential tool for power. In this continuity, she has a heavy crush on Cyclops, although later episodes showed an interest in Gambit. Rogue's power-draining abilities were very strong in this series, nearly killing her at one point, but proving vital in the final episode. She was voiced by Meghan Black.
Rogue was depicted by Anna Paquin in the 2000 film X-Men, the sequel X2: X-Men United 2003, and the third installment X-Men 3 2006.
In TV and film, because of the unique nature of her powers, Rogue was key to both the plans and the downfall of Magneto (in the X-Men movie) and Apocalypse (in X-Men: Evolution).
Rogue has also appeared in many video-game spinoffs. She has appeared in some of the Marvel Vs. Capcom games, as well as X-Men: Mutant Academy 2, X-Men: Next Dimension, and most recent of all, X-Men Legends.