Rogue (Marvel Comics)
| Rogue | |
|---|---|
| File:RogueXMen192.jpg Rogue, on the cover of X-Men #192 Art by Chris Bachalo | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Avengers Annual #10 (August, 1981) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont Michael Golden |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Anna Marie |
| Team affiliations | X-Men, X-Treme Sanctions Executive Brotherhood of Evil Mutants IV |
| Notable aliases | Anna Raven, Dr. Kellogg, Miss Smith, Marian (Ultimate Marvel continuity), Marie D'Ancanto (X-Men films continuity) |
| Abilities | *Involuntary absorption of powers and memories through skin-to-skin contact. *Absorbed permanately the powers of Sunfire: plasma blasts flight ability to view infra-red immunity to radiation |
Rogue (Anna Marie) is a Marvel Comics superhero, a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Michael Golden, she first appeared in Avengers Annual #10 (August 1981).
More than most mutants, Rogue considers her powers a curse. She involuntarily absorbs the memories, physical strength, and, in the case of super-powered persons, abilities of anyone she touches. This prevents her from making physical contact with others, including her longtime love interest Gambit.
Hailing from Mississippi, she is the X-Men's self-described southern belle. A runaway, she was adopted by Mystique of the Brotherhood of Mutants but turned to the X-Men after Mystique ordered her to permanently absorb the super strength and ability to fly from the superhero Ms. Marvel.
Rogue has been a popular and consistent member of the X-Men since the 1980s. She has been featured in most X-Men animated series and video games. In the X-Men film series she is portrayed by Anna Paquin.
Character biography
Early life
Rogue has no memory of her biological parents (though the backstory is examined in "Rogue" #1-6). Instead, she grew up with her extended family in the vicinity of Caldecott County, a fictional county in Mississippi. During that time, she befriended Cody Robbins. When Cody impulsively kissed her, Rogue's mutant powers emerged for the first time. Upon skin-to-skin contact, Rogue fully absorbed Cody's consciousness, memories, strengths, and weaknesses. Cody fell into a coma which lasted for years. In a later issue, Cody emerges from the coma thanks to aliens who wanted to use him in a plot to abduct Rogue. Rogue was so confused and overwhelmed by the experience that she too collapsed. The two were found days later by a search group composed of locals. Rogue, now revealed as a mutant, fled her home community, having earned the name "Rogue" because of the threat the community believed her to represent. The shape-shifting mutant Mystique discovered Rogue living in a remote, wooded area wielding a shotgun. Mystique sought Rogue on the recommendation of Destiny, a clairvoyant psychic who foresaw Rogue as important. Mystique soon became Rogue's unofficial foster mother.
Mystique and Destiny, both professional criminals, raised Rogue for close to a decade and trained her to be a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Rogue fought alongside the Brotherhood against 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 during which Ms. Marvel fought valiantly to retain her consciousness, Rogue absorbed Ms. Marvel's alien-based powers and memories permanently. Rogue gained Ms. Marvel's incredible strength, near-invulnerability, the power of flight, and a rarely-used mild form of ESP referred to as a "seventh sense" (though this last ability has been largely forgotten).
Rogue has never been able to control her absorption power; any skin-to-skin contact activates it. Rogue sometimes retains residual memories of the people she touches. After having absorbed Ms. Marvel's life force and gaining her personality and powers permanently, she began to go through a life-changing period. She was now "remembering" the comparatively more-normal childhood that 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, sometimes entirely succumbing to the Carol Danvers personality. She began to dislike the life she was leading more and more, but feared losing herself forever in the absorbed memories of others.
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 invited her to join the X-Men and live 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 fiancée, and over time earned the respect of all the X-Men and eventually became a valued, trusted member of the team.
Among the X-men, Rogue's life improved, but she continued to struggle with Carol Danvers' residual personality until Rogue was pulled through the mystical gateway known as the Siege Perilous, where she was judged by otherdimensional forces with the promise of a "new life." Returned to Earth, Rogue was purged of the remaining portions of Carol's personality, truly becoming her own woman again, but was also temporarily stripped of her powers for a time. Rogue ended up powerless in the Savage Land, where she was confronted by the remnants of Carol's personality that had taken on physical form as a result of being seperated from her by the Siege Perilous. The two battled fiercely, but Rogue, being powerless, was no match for the Ms. Marvel Persona's superior power. It was also shown during the fight that there was not enough lifeforce between the two to sustain both of them as a result of the seperation. Just as Rogue was on the verge of being drained completely, Magneto suddenly intervened and destroyed the Ms. Marvel Persona, saving Rogue's life. The two briefly toyed with a romance. Rogue ultimately saw through Magneto's noble facade when he killed the high priestess Zaladane, who had amassed an army of Savage Land natives. Rogue's perception of her potential lover shaken, she returned to the X-Mansion. When Rogue regained her powers, she fully returned to the X-Men.
While she was gone, a new member had joined the X-Men, Gambit. Rogue and Gambit were immediately attracted to each other and quickly fell in love. Rogue and Gambit's relationship has been strained, much thanks to her inability to control her absorption power and his dishonesty but they have stayed together, regardless. Incidentally, Cody Robbins, the first person to fall victim to Rogue's powers, was later killed by Gambit's ex-wife Belladonna.
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.
When the Galactic Council transformed Earth into a maximus-security penal colony for hundreds of extraterrestrial criminals, Rogue absorbed the attributes of Z'Cann -- a telepathic alien shapeshifter who had joined Cadre K, Xavier's Skrull equivalent to the X-Men. Z'Cann purposely touched Rogue to activate the mutant's abilities as the two evaded bounty hunters. Z'Cann used her telepathy to amplify Rogue's capacity to assimilate memories, causing her powers to mutate.
X-Treme X-Men team
During an invasion of aliens from another dimension, Rogue begged Sage to use her jump-starting powers to evolve Rogue to a point where she could control all of the various powers inside of her. Sage agreed, and Rogue became a one-woman army, able to use the powers of anyone she had absorbed in the past, and exhibited multiple powers at once.
In that same invasion, Rogue was confronted by Vargas who was said to be "a new species altogether". Vargas wanted to kill her to preserve his own life; he showed her a page from one of Destiny's diaries that indicated Rogue would kill him. Rogue fought Vargas off and sped to rescue Gambit from the machine that was using him to power a trans-dimensional gate. The power beam trapped her with him and they were both stabbed by Vargas. Wounded but still alive, Rogue pursued Vargas, ambushing him by replacing his statue of Psylocke and eventually using all her abilities to defeat him (and perhaps kill him, though the exact outcome of their fight is still uncertain). Both Gambit and Rogue survived by a near margin, though Rogue had to enter the astral plane to force Gambit to live.
Following the repulsion of the invasion, Rogue realized that the Destiny Prophecies were only possibilities and that trying to follow them was more dangerous than ignoring them. She also learned that she had inherited a mansion in New Orleans from Destiny, as well as a sizeable fortune, and the X-Men retired there to recuperate. Rogue soon left the team with Gambit, since they both emerged powerless from their ordeals and wanted to further explore their relationship.
While on the road, Rogue and Gambit met some mutants who hated normal humans. Rogue asked them to leave, but they provoked a fight, and Gambit and Rogue (both powerless) fought them. They lost, and their opponents destroyed Rogue's bike. Shortly thereafter, Rogue and Gambit met a young mutant going by the name of Paint, who possessed the power to "paint" tattoos by touch alone. Rogue complimented Paint on her tattoos and in return, Paint gave Rogue some tattoos of her own.
Rogue ended up staying at a beach house in Valle Soleada, a town wherein mutants and humans coexisted peacefully. She subsequently received a visit from Bishop and Sage and, after a series of events involving an investigation into the murder of a human girl's family, Rogue and Gambit sign up with Bishop and Sage to help stop Sage's enemy and former boss Elias Bogan. After the battle Rogue asked Sage to restore Gambit's abilities, which she did.
Return to Mainstream
Rogue and Gambit returned to the X-Men. Over time, Rogue's own abilities returned naturally. However, she no longer possessed the abilities she had absorbed from Ms. Marvel. Rogue and Gambit were both put on Havok's team. On their first mission back, the X-Men battled against a Chinese mutant team to rescue Xorn. They succeeded and brought Xorn back to the X-Mansion with them.
The X-Men then faced a new Brotherhood in Philadelphia. The Brotherhood followed them back to the Mansion and attacked them at home. Rogue notably fought Black Tom Cassidy, while the other X-Men fought off the rest of the Brotherhood. Black Tom almost killed Rogue, but she was saved by Northstar.
Rogue then traveled down south to save a young mutant girl from her powers. While there, she met Campbell St. Ange, a young man who was immune to Rogue's lethal touch. Also while there, Rogue forcibly absorbed knowledge from her Aunt Carrie that explained that Rogue's mother had traveled to the Far Banks, a dream-realm, to stop her father from getting there himself. Rogue encountered the incorporeal spirit of her mother therein, and absorbed her memories. After the reunion, her mother's trapped spirit could finally move on. Rogue subsequently went back to her Aunt Carrie and made amends with her.
Rogue then returned to the X-Men and had to fight against the monstrous Golgotha, large creatures with limited telepathic abilities. During this ordeal, Rogue and Gambit got into a fight, and he left. Wolverine then revealed he has always had feelings for Rogue, and kissed her. While recovering from Logan's mind, Rogue received a call from Emma Frost, who was trying to kill Havok, mistakenly thinking Havok to be Cyclops. Rogue absorbed both Havok and Polaris' powers when the X-Men fought a herd of Golgotha in space.
She later gained Sunfire's powers after absorbing them when he was dying, subsequent to his battle with Lady Deathstrike, who amputated both his legs. (Rogue #9-12).
Rogue returned to the Mansion and found that Gambit was being seduced by the latest X-Kid, Foxx. Foxx was actually Mystique in disguise, who sought to break up Gambit and Rogue. She believed she had found someone better for Rogue, her associate Pulse, since she was not particularly fond of Gambit. After being discovered, Mystique asked to stay at the Mansion. The X-Men voted and Mystique was allowed to be a probationary member of the X-Men, a decision neither Rogue nor Gambit liked. Gambit later was transformed by Apocalypse into the new Death and twice tried to kill Rogue. When Havok left to join Professor X out in space, Rogue became the leader of the remaining X-Men on his squad. At this point, the roster consists of Iceman, Cannonball, Cable, Sabretooth, and Mystique.
Powers and abilities
Rogue is a mutant with the ability to temporarily absorb the memories, thoughts, and abilities (including superhuman abilities) of others via skin-to-skin contact. She cannot absorb the traits of energy beings (like Wonder Man, who is made of ionic energy), machines (like the Vision, a synthezoid), or cyborgs (such as Lady Deathstrike and the Prime Sentinels), and certain aliens (such as the Impossible Man, Magus of the Technarchy, Mojo, and the Silver Surfer) and powerful mystical entites (like Loki and Mephisto) have proved partially or wholly immune. This transference usually causes the victim to fall unconscious and/or become weakened, but it can kill if contact is prolonged. The duration of this drain varies according to the length of time that the contact is maintained; the generally accepted ratio is 60 seconds of absorbed abilities for every one second of skin-to-skin contact. Prolonged contact also can result in a permanent impression of the template she absorbed. She has also on occasion used the powers and abilities of many beings simultaneously--when fighting Nimrod in Uncanny X-Men #194, she temporarily absorbed and used the powers of Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat.
Early in her career, Rogue permanently absorbed the powers of Ms. Marvel, gaining superhuman strength, flight, near-invulnerability, and a "seventh sense". When she was recently depowered, she lost these, and while her natural absorption power returned, her Ms. Marvel-spawned powers did not.
It is also hinted that she has/had mind probing immunity; however, it must be noted that this could've been due to the presence of Carol Danvers' personality in her mind at the time, which made both personas immune to telepathy. Yet, now that Rogue is free of that persona, this immunity may no longer apply. Another way that she has been able to block out a telepath is by using all the memories of people she has absorbed to confuse the telepath.
In her travels with the X-Treme X-Men, Rogue was effectively a one-woman army. During the event called Maximum Security, Rogue was touched by a dying Skrull girl named Z'Cann who needed to pass on vital information to Professor Xavier; in addition to touching Rogue, Z'Cann also used telepathy to boost Rogue's absorption powers. The result was Rogue's new ability to recall any template she had ever absorbed, in addition to the Ms. Marvel powers which always stayed "on." When she first developed this power, Rogue would sometimes randomly sprout claws, steel skin, or even optic blasts. Through meditation she was able to gain a limited amount of control over the templates and kept them from haphazardly manifesting. Prior to a fight with Vargas, Rogue had Sage accelerate the development of her mutant powers, which led to Rogue being able to willingly choose which of the many powers she had absorbed in the past she would like to use. Later on in X-Treme X-Men, Rogue lost all of her powers, including this one.
Most recently, she permanently absorbed a large portion of the powers of the Japanese mutant superhero Sunfire as he was dying. She now has his power to absorb solar energy and convert it into ionized plasma. She can channel her solar powers through her hands as streams of fiery thermal energy, which can burn through almost anything. She can focus her energies inward to boost her strength to superhuman levels (though not to the level she possessed when she had Ms. Marvel's powers), or project it outward to surround herself in a protective force field aura. She can fly once more, now by directing her burning aura downwards in a focused jet of flame to propel herself through the air like a missile.
In the Age of Apocalypse reality, her powers are based on magnetism due to the fact she absorbed half the powers of the AoA Polaris. AoA Rogue can control magnetic fields to move, lift, and manipulate ferrous metals. She can surround herself with a magnetic field that is the same polarity as the Earth's own magnetic field, causing the Earth to push her into the air (by magnetic levitation) thereby letting her fly at high speeds. She can use her magnetic powers to increase the energy of her movements, thus giving her super strength.
Rogue's name
Rogue was one of the few comic book characters whose real name had never been revealed, until very recently. This was a controversial topic for years. In the films X-Men and X-Men: The Last Stand, Rogue claims in conversation with Wolverine that her name is Marie. She appears to be living a typical teenager's lifestyle with a couple with the last name D'Ancanto, who also call her Marie. However, their last name is not confirmed as Rogue's in the film, and no history of the couple is provided, so no definite information either as to what relationship they have to Rogue, or what her "real" name is, is known in that history. She is simply called "Rogue" throughout the movie, even by Wolverine, as she had always been in the comic books.
The readers got close to knowing her name in X-Men #24 (when she was about to reveal it to Gambit on a date), but the Cajun stopped her before she could finish her sentence.
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 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, having taken up the alias "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 "Anna".
A recent solo series established Rogue's name as Anna-Marie, having the astral form of her mother refer to her as so, and Rogue acknowledging it. Rogue's profile in the most recent edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe lists this as her real name.
Alternate versions
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Rogue was one of Magneto's X-Men, his wife, and the mother of his son: Charles Lensherr. Rogue was taken to Wundagore by Mystique, following a fight with Lorna Dane, in which Rogue permanently absorbed half of her magnetism powers. Honoring the dying wish of the Scarlet Witch, Rogue became a close friend for Magneto, but eventually the two became lovers when Magneto learned a way to touch Rogue (Covering himself in a skintight magnetic aura that prevented Rogue's powers from affecting him), which caused Gambit, also in love with Rogue in this timeline, to leave the X-Men. Sometime later Rogue and Magneto had a son which they named Charles in honor of Magneto's old friend Charles Xavier.
By the time the X-Men met Bishop and hatched a plan to undo Xavier's death, Rogue, alongside Morph, Sabretooth, Sunfire and Blink fought against Holocaust and his Infinites and stop the Chicago Cullings.
Ultimate Rogue
- Main article: Ultimate Rogue
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Rogue was introduced as a 14 year-old prisoner of Weapon X. After she was liberated, she at first joined the Brotherhood of Mutants of Magneto, but defected to the X-Men when he caused a horrific nuclear explosion. She was the long-time girlfriend of Iceman, but then saw him kissing Shadowcat and left the X-Man for Gambit. Prior to her abduction, Rogue was shown to be a troubled girl who had a bad homelife and was a fan of Marilyn Manson.
In this timeline, she has stated that her first name is "Marian," just like Robin Hood's girl, and her last name is unknown. This is actually a major plot hole: in the last part of the Return of the King arc, the X-Men met her parents, and it is highly doubtful that they refused to give her their last name.
Rogue helped Gambit with his criminal activities, and stole the Gem of Cytorrak. She ran into Juggernaut, who had fallen in love with her during their Weapon X stint. Gambit and Juggernaut fought and when Gambit seemingly died, she kissed him one last time. Since then, she seems to have permanently absorbed his personality, mutant power, and even his red-on-black eyes.
Rogue recently rejoined the X-Men. She now has the ability to touch, though whether Gambit's powers have completely overwritten her own is unknown. Rogue rekindled her romance with Iceman (who had never gotten over her) and the two quickly began a physical relationship.
Appearances in other media
Television
- Rogue appeared in X-Men: The Animated Series (1992-1997), where she was one of the most important members of the X-Men. In this animated series, she had all her comic powers, and was voiced by Lenore Zann.
- In the animated series X-Men Evolution, Rogue is heavily re-imagined as a rebellious, yet deeply insecure teenage Goth. Her powers make 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 are very strong in this series, nearly killing her at one point, but prove vital in the final episode. She was voiced by Meghan Black.
Films
- Rogue was portrayed by Oscar-winner Anna Paquin in the 2000 film X-Men, the sequel X2: X-Men United (2003) and the third installment X-Men: The Last Stand (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 first X-Men movie, and Apocalypse in X-Men: Evolution.
- In the first film, Rogue, whose real name is Marie D'Ancanto, is an innocent young girl who runs away from home after her power manifests, and bonds with Wolverine in a manner similar to his relationship with Jubilee in the comic books. Magneto uses her powers to absorb his own and power his machine to mutate the world leaders. The X-Men stop it from killing her and them, leaving her with the white streak in her hair.
- In X2, she begins dating Iceman. It is also shown that the status quo has changed for Wolverine and that he now finds Rogue attractive, an emotion he has been said to conceal, for fear of losing his best friend, even though their inability to have a physical relationship puts a strain on their romance. Towards the end of the film she and Iceman become members of the X-Men and are seen in uniform with the others at the White House.
- In X-Men: The Last Stand, Iceman begins to develop an interest in Kitty Pryde. In an attempt to save her relationship with Iceman, Rogue gives up her powers by taking the mutant "cure" that is a main plot point in the film, but as we see at the end there is some indication that this cure may not be permanent. In the novelization of the film, Rogue did not take the cure, saying she could not bring herself to do it.
Video games
- Rogue appears in many X-Men video games. She has appeared in some of the Marvel Vs. Capcom games, as well as X-Men: Mutant Academy 2, X-Men: Next Dimension and X-Men vs. Street Fighter; in this video game, her ability to steal life force was translated to a special move that allows her to steal a move from her opponents, much like Kirby in the Super Smash Bros. series. This makes her the only Marvel character to ever use the Shun Goku Satsu taken by draining Akuma. In Marvel vs. Capcom 2, she instead stole powerups from the characters she drained, and the colors in her outfit were changed.
- Most recently, Rogue appears in X-Men Legends and its sequel, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, where she was voiced by Erin Matthews in X-Men Legends and by Cat Taber in its sequel.
Trivia
- Rogue is known as Malicia in French, Titania in American Spanish, Pícara in European Spanish, Vampira in Portuguese and Parasit in Danish.
- The issue in which Rogue joins the X-Men (Uncanny X-Men #171) was voted 49th greatest Marvel Comic of all time. [reference needed]
- Rogue was #5 on IGN's Top Twenty-Five X-Men list[1], and #4 on their Top Ten X-Babes list[2].
External links
- MDP: Rogue - Marvel Database Project
- UncannyXmen.net, Spotlight feature on Rogue
- Brotherhood of Evil Mutants members
- Femmes fatales
- Fictional feminists
- Fictional heroines
- Fictional people from Mississippi
- Marvel Comics mutants
- Marvel Comics titles
- Marvel vs. Series characters
- The 198 Files
- X-Men members
- X-Men villains
- Marvel Legends
- 1981 introductions
- Avengers villains
- Marvel Comics characters with super strength